Abstract

In Spring 2012, Tucson Unified School District suspended its Mexican American Studies program in compliance with the Arizona Supreme Court ruling The Court found that the program was in violation of Arizona HB 2281, popularly known as the “ban on ethnic studies programs” in K-12 schools. In order to comply with the ruling, the district immediately canceled all classes, reassigned faculty, and removed the curriculum and supplemental materials from classrooms. Suffer Smoke by Elena Diaz Bjorkquist was on the list of banned curriculum materials. Suffer Smoke is a collection of short stories rooted in Morenci, Arizona, the mining town where Bjorkquist grew up. This interview, conducted in the historia format, seeks to understand Bjorkquist’s thoughts and perspectives about the events in order to position her personal experience as a writer within the current socio-political context.

Keywords: ethnic studies, historia, culturally and historically relevant, healing process, writing

How to Cite:

Holm, A. H., (2013) “Writing from the Heart: Historia of a Banned Book”, Arizona Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 2, 112-127.