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Students participate in a 120-mile run for ethnic studies

Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

New America Media

Jul 07, 2009

TUCSON -- A grueling spiritual run from Tucson to Phoenix in defense of ethnic studies—in 110-plus-degree heat—culminated in a resounding victory in front of Arizona’s state Capitol.

The victory, however, had already taken place when the 50 runners, after completing nearly 120 miles, were greeted with ceremonial copal and a drum at the Nahuacalli-Tonatierra Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples in downtown Phoenix. Led primarily by high school and college students, the runners were joined by parents, toddlers, elders, teachers, nurses, construction workers and ceremonial leaders. About 150 supporters joined them as they walked through the streets of Tucson and an equal number joined them as they walked with them to the state Capitol in Phoenix.

The victory had been secured even earlier as the run received an incredible amount of support from the barrios and communities of Tucson, Eloy, Casa Blanca, Guadalupe and Phoenix. It also involved the spiritual support from the Yoeme nation and the Akimel O’odham nation— which provided runners through their own territory.

The purpose of the June 27 to 29 run was to defeat an Arizona state bill (S.B. 1069) that emphasized the teaching of individualism at the expense of ethnic studies. Its passage would have represented the ultimate triumph of ignorance over enlightenment, politics over education and censorship over academic freedom. 

As the runners circled the Capitol on the third day, word trickled down that the author of the anti-ethnic studies bill, Arizona State Senator Jonathan Paton, declared his own bill dead. However, the following day, the person responsible for shepherding this bill, Tom Horne, the Arizona superintendent of schools, said that he would attempt to eliminate ethnic studies next year. 

While the bill targeted ethnic studies, Horne's real objective was his opposition to Raza Studies, a highly successful academic program of the Tucson Unified School District that stresses the indigenous roots of this continent. Students from this program have consistently outperformed their peers over the past five years. Thus, Horne’s opposition is not about academics, but about his insistence on the supremacy of Greco-Roman roots at the expense of the indigenous roots of the continent. All this, while asserting that ethnic studies are racist, dysfunctional and un-American. 

There is not enough room on this page to convey the actual story of this run. Everyone who participated came back with historias sagradas, profound truths. This run will one day rank as an event akin to Cesar Chavez’s fasts or the student walkouts of a generation ago: a monument of what people are capable of when they believe in something. 

As one of the young people noted, “We went to fight against an anti-ethnic studies bill, but what we really came for was to know ourselves.” 

Many thought it was a desperate act of fools, saying, “You guys must be crazy! Do you know how hot it gets in the middle of the desert?” 

Yet, the response was virtually unanimous: “Either we’re crazy or we are serious.” And everyone who participated understood the seriousness of what was at stake: If this bill passes in Arizona, it will ignite a nationwide movement to ban ethnic studies. 

While its opponents argue that ethnic studies are un-American, ethnic studies, in fact, are quintessentially American. They are about peoples that have been an integral part of this continent for hundreds, if not thousands, of years but have been historically marginalized, ostracized or disappeared by Western academics. 

Horne has attempted to remand ethnic studies to the status of "forbidden curriculums." Through his effort, he would impose upon Arizona the notion of acceptable and unacceptable academic areas of study, conjuring up the era of the Inquisition. 

It is precisely for these reasons that the mostly young students decided to put their bodies on the line. They walked and ran with their hearts and they spoke with their feet. When they could no longer run, their spirits took over. 

This triumph in the desert has now become an example as to how to defeat emissaries from the Dark Ages – no matter where they rear their ugly heads. 

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, writes Arizona Watch for New America Media. He can be reached at XColumn@gmail.com