May 28, 1999
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE - Although it's been banned in a California school district, Rudolfo Anaya's coming-of-age Chicano classic ``Bless Me Ultima'' is used in schools throughout his home state of New Mexico.
The Laton Joint Unified School District in central California banned Anaya's book from its ninth-grade English classes for the rest of the year. District Superintendent Clifford Tyler said parents complained the novel contained vulgar words in Spanish and glorified witchcraft and death.
Rudy Aragon, director of instruction for the Penasco School District, said that won't happen in the northern New Mexico district.
``Not us, we encourage it,'' Aragon said Monday.
Aragon, who grew up in Peralta south of Albuquerque, said Anaya's book is read in Penasco schools from the upper elementary grades through junior high and high school. Penasco's student population is predominantly Hispanic.
Professor Sharon Oard Warner, director of the creative writing program within the English department at the University of New Mexico, said she saw nothing controversial about the book.
``Frankly, I find complaints like that to be rather naive because in this culture children are exposed to movies that include explicit language, to musicians who use explicit language and comedians who use explicit language,'' she said.
Anaya, an Albuquerque resident and English professor emeritus at UNM, said it's unfair for board members and parents to judge his novel by reading only a few passages they thought were offensive.
``Bless Me, Ultima,'' a novel set in rural New Mexico, was published in 1972 for a general audience.
``The book is used everywhere,'' Anaya said. ``I get letters from high schools and middle schools. Teachers and students read it, analyze it, have something to say about it. That's a good thing.''
Mike Gottlieb, director of instruction for the Roswell Independent School District, said Anaya's book was not on the district's reading list this year.
Gottlieb said he has read ``Bless Me Ultima'' and likes it, but could understand why it might create controversy.
``I'm not sure it's proper for ninth graders, but for tenth and eleventh graders, I think it's OK,'' Gottlieb said. ``It would be a community decision. You've got to go with what your community wants for their kids.''
The Laton board also banned Dean Myers' ``Fallen Angels'' for similar reasons.
Myers' ``Fallen Angels'' is set in Vietnam and has been compared to Stephen Crane's ``Red Badge of Courage.'' It is one of many novels Myers, who is black, has written for young adults.
Tyler said the board intends to create a committee of teachers to evaluate the books for ninth-grade use. The committee is expected to make a recommendation on the books before the start of the next school year.
Meanwhile, Tyler said any high school student is welcome to check out Anaya's and Myers' books from the school library.
``We don't practice censorship here,'' he said.
Anaya said it historically has been a ``constant battle to have Hispanic culture represented in the schools, especially in the arts.''
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