A federal judge ordered the State of Arizona to restore Mexican American studies in the Tucson school curriculum. This is sort of a victory for those who believe that Mexican American studies enhances young Latino students and provides knowledge about their history. But why do I say that it is sort of a victory? The State of Arizona has not given up on trying to get Mexican American studies out of the school curriculum, and just as equally disconcerting is that the law that removed Mexican American studies remains on the books.

                               The state law states that no school can teach anything that “teaches hatred of the United States or any ethnic or racial group” and is “an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.” The law is quite vague on how it defines what racial and ethnic hatred are, and what constitutes the overthrow of the U.S. government. Even the U.S. government found Arizona’s law hard to define, and this is why the U.S. Department of Justice brought a suit against the law. Apparently, the law is intended to deny the truth of what happened historically to Mexican Americans, and that history is far from pleasant.

                                Even though Mexican Americans were supposed to be treated as American citizens, for well over a century they were treated like second class citizens if treated like citizens at all. Because of ethnic laws that barred Mexican Americans from being able to send their children to the same schools as non-Hispanic whites, being able to live in the same communities as non-Hispanic whites, and even being buried in the same cemeteries as non-Hispanic whites, this truth has been labeled by the Arizona state government as “inciting hatred.” If truth is inciting hatred, then Mexican American studies is indeed treasonous against the United States—according to the Arizona state legislators.

                                 But if there are those who are truly inciting treason it is the Arizona state legislators who passed this law in the first place. For they are going against the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and they are the ones who are making a mockery of it. Mexican American studies was created to help put the pieces of a long suppressed history for Latinos back into the context of the greater whole of U.S. history. Truth is the necessity for knowing what happened and trying to prevent history from repeating itself. However, the state law is still in force, and so many school staff are trying to figure out a way of being able to keep Mexican American studies in the classrooms without breaking this state law. I have a feeling that they will not be able to fulfill this obligation.