‘Smuggler’ of banned books continues work to unite communities
not certain how I learned about Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say back in 1998, but I was among several dozen people who filled the quaint Chapultepec Lupita Mexican restaurant on Richmond for one of its early meetings.
Though I am not Latina, I had an intrinsic connection to this group of creatives, founded by Tony Diaz, with its vision of enriching and even changing the world through poetry and books. An amalgamation of talent took to the mic that night. They shared their thoughts about life in Houston, disparities of race and why so many of their voices had been silenced in bigger, more commercial settings.
They talked about what it means to be Latino and what it means to be human.
Diaz has never let go of that fight to be seen and heard. His Nuestra Palabra organization was Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors, and Diaz was also the first Latino to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
On Oct. 3, he celebrates the legacy of Nuestra Palabra at the Alley Theater with a free event to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month. It reunites Diaz with Nuestra Palabra veterans and arts performers.
Diaz also is marking the release of his latest book,
“The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital,” in which he’s calling on people to rise up and use their voices to defy adversity and bring change to their communities. It’s the first in a series on community organizing.
The cover of Diaz’s book shows him sitting on the steps of a pyramid at Teotihuacán, near Mexico City. The pyramid metaphor, he says, references history in which Spanish pirates descended on the land, burned books and enslaved people. It also references the greatness of the people who poured their souls into creating monuments such as the Teotihuacán pyramids, which I have climbed, too.
“The whole metaphor of the tip of the pyramid speaks to embracing metaphors 500 years old and older because those speak differently to us than the King’s Spanish,” he said. “But here we are in Houston, Texas, in an era where we’re still fighting ... We’re still fighting for ethnic studies in schools. It’s not easy to talk about, but we feel it.”
Diaz is the right champion to lead us forward in that way.
A decade ago, he and four other Nuestra Palabra members organized a caravan to smuggle banned books to Tucson, Ariz., where a Mexican-American studies proDreamers.
gram had been forbidden in schools. He was called El Librotraficante, or “book smuggler.”
In his new book, Diaz is urging more people to fight this latest wave of book bans, to use their voices to speak out against disparities. He also wants to unite people he calls cultural accelerators — folks who have the determination and fight to change things.
“Cultural accelerators are in our communities, and these are folks that have achieved self-determination,” he says. “They realize that communities are bound, and they work to bring solutions. They’ve studied the basics, which usually means they have deI’m grees, but they stay in touch with the community and use those skills to change forms.”
The book chronicles the banning of Mexican American studies in Arizona, and Diaz notes that forces are still at work attempting to erase that very recent history.
“Ten years ago, right-wing Republican senators attacked Mexican American studies, and our community ignited to overturn that. We did it on our watch. We proved we’re powerful to each other. That was supposed to debilitate us. But it is clear to me that these attacks are cyclical,” he says.
“The folks who want to silence our communities studied the success of our movement. They studied the They studied Black Lives Matter, and what they did was come up with new ways to silence our community. Because if you take a look at all these attacks, they’re not going after Mexican American studies directly again, but you will see Latino writers, and LGBTQ Latino writers, in those lists of banned books.”
So here we are, 10 years later and the cycle of banning books is back.
Diaz says he’s hoping to start Nuestra Palabra chapters across the state, as well as Librotraficante underground libraries. His volunteers recently led caravans to Austin and other cities to transport banned books.
“We’re updating our tactics,” he says. “We learned during the COVID-19 shutdown that community members feared getting other people sick, so the folks who wanted to silence us ran rampant.”
There’s no easy way to fight a battle that is trying to silence a community’s voice.
But creatives who know how to put their feelings on paper can start by writing. Just as readers can defy bans by reading the targeted books. We know that there’s no better way to get teens to read a book than to ban it.
Teachers are also part of Diaz’s vision.
“Right now, they’re beleaguered. They’re surrounded, being bullied intellectually. They need to keep inspiring youth, keep spreading books, and they need to team up with us. Even if they can’t do it in a big way, introducing books to students is huge.”
Mostly, Diaz says he wants people to stay encouraged.
“These attacks are coming because we’re powerful, and we’re here to create more culture,” he says.
That’s the irony.