Dylan Young

Rodgers, Yonamine, Washington

Senior Inquiry
19 September 2015

Tu eres mi otro yo (you are my other me), si te hago dao a ti (if I do harm to you), me
hago dao a mi (I do harm to myself), si te amo y te respeto (if I love and respect you), me amo y
me respeto yo (I love and respect myself). This was the poem recited everyday in one of the
classes in the Mexican American Studies program (MAS program) at Tucson High School. The
MAS program sought to teach students about Mexican American history which is often under
represented in general US history classes as well as to teach students to think critically and be
conscious of the society around them. In 2010, House Bill 2281 was signed into law and then in
January of 2012 the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) voted to abandon the MAS program
to be in accordance of the law. The laws purpose was to discontinue the advancement of the
MAS programs goal to educate the students about Mexican American history in order to keep
students as ignorant about one side of American history that is hidden.
While the MAS program was teaching Mexican American history it was also discrediting
the socially constructed knowledge. The knowledge that we have socially constructed is that
none of the prominent characters in American history did anything that was despicable. We raise
kids up with the knowledge that Christopher Columbus was a great explorer who discovered the
Americas. Which is false in itself because Columbus didnt discover the Americans, but we also
leave out how he never landed in what would become the United States, and more importantly
we leave out how poorly he treated the indigenous people that he encountered. We dont teach

about Benjamin Franklin being a slave owner and his racism towards the slaves. The government
seeks to keep these false truths in order to maintain the current beliefs and thus the current
system of power, as we see throughout precious knowledge when superintendent Huppenthal
consistently brought up the argument that the MAS programs lead called Franklin a racist.
The people who benefit from the socially constructed knowledge are those whose history
is seen as pure and free of any flaws, so in this case European Americans. They benefit because
this knowledge keeps the same system of disadvantages for anyone who isnt caucasian and
advantages for those who are caucasian. Societally, this knowledge keeps the Chicano students
ignorant of empowering Chicano literature and ideologies like I Am Joaquin and El Plan
Espiritual de Aztln. Texts like these which promote Chicano unity have been banned in the
TUSD, but so have any texts that promote any idea out of the socially constructed knowledge
such as Rethinking Columbus and The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. By not giving anything
but socially constructed knowledge to the students it allows the oppression and falsity of our so
called truth to continue unhindered. It suppresses the idea of unified Chicanos through El Plan de
Aztlan and it suppresses the idea that there is any oppression occurring at all.
With the discontinuation of the MAS program and the banning of literature that
empowers the oppressed, students in the TUSD can no longer be taught the side of American
history that is often not represented. The students no longer can be taught about the cruel
oppression that they face even without knowing it. With this discontinuation, society can keep
going on with the same oppressive structure that they have been for years and it will still
continue to benefit those whom it has always have.