FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Anita Fernndez

Tel: (928) 273-2449
Email: afernandez@prescott.edu

National Educators Converge on Tucson for the Xican@ Institute for Teaching &
Organizing 3-day Summer Institute

Tucson, AZ, July 8, 2014. On July 10-12 educators from across the country will participate in a
3-day institute offered by the Xican@ Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO), a sponsored
program of Prescott College. Carrying on the legacy of the eliminated Mexican American
Studies Program, XITOs institutes train educators, activists and organizers in the pedagogy and
philosophy of the former MAS program.

XITOs institute, In Lakech: Teaching Justice & Community Organizing includes workshops by
Prescott College Tucsons director, Anita Fernndez along with former MAS Director Sean Arce
and MAS teachers Jose Gonzalez, Norma Gonzalez and Curtis Acosta. The workshops offer a
variety of teaching strategies and methods based in the indigenous epistemology that was so
successful with Latina/o youth and is sought after by national educators as demonstrated by the
high level of interest in this gathering. A focus on activist-oriented teaching and community
organizing makes this educational institute unique and timely for the issues facing educators
today. The entire institute program is attached.

Co-founder and fomer Director of MAS in Tucson, Sean Arce, states, Chicana/o Latina/o
youth continue to be greatly underserved in this nations public schools, as evidenced through
their high push-out rates, persistent achievement gap, and their overall marginalization. The
Xican@ Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO) provides data-driven practical approaches
and methodologies for teachers to meet these challenges head on that will allow for educators to
begin the processes of transformation for and with this nations fastest growing, largest student of
color, and arguably one of the most undeserved student populations Chicana/o-Latina/o youth.

XITO Director, Dr. Anita Fernndez adds, Situating XITOs institutes in Tucson provides a
socio-political context for what is happening around the nation in our public schools. In Arizona
we are faced with the removal of the most highly acclaimed and quantifiably successful program
for Chicana/o and Latina/o youth along with a state superintendent of instruction who has written
inflammatory and degrading comments about speaking Spanish and the disposability of Mexican
workers. We are under siege in Arizona and XITO is a response to the anti-immigrant, anti-
Latin@ policies and practices our community is facing by offering critical, culturally responsive
pedagogy and activist-oriented teaching to educators across the country.

About XITO
XITO strives to support the Xican@/Latin@ community through teacher preparation, social
justice pedagogy, and community organizing. Arizona is a testing ground for anti-Latin@ laws,
policies and practices, including HB2281, an anti-Ethnic Studies law banning Mexican American
courses in public schools. Given that many such political "experiments" have been successfully
exported from Arizona to the larger nation, XITO addresses the implications of this legislation by
offering workshops in community organizing and critical teaching to counter this trend. In
addition to workshops, XITO supports the continued teaching of Xican@ Literature and Xican@
Studies in Tucson, Arizona. XITO strives to support Mexican Americans and other Latin@s, the
largest minority group in the nation, by coordinating a viable way of affecting policy on the local,
state, regional or national level.

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For more information on XITO please see our website: www.xicanoinstitute.org or contact Anita
Fernndez at the contact above.
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