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Activist, professor and writer Tony Diaz presented the National Hispanic Heritage Month lecture “From Ban to Boom: The State of Ethnic Studies in Our State,” at the Center for for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, a part of the Division of Global Diversity, Inclusion and Intercultural Affairs at ¿ìÉ«ÊÓƵ, hosted the Oct. 3 lecture.

Diaz spoke about the ban on Mexican-American studies in Arizona, which he protested up until its appeal in August, where it was overturned. In 2012, Diaz and members of  organized the Librotraficante Caravan to Tucson to smuggle the banned books back. They opened several underground libraries along the way and joined the movement to keep Arizona’s ban from spreading to other states, including Texas.

Diaz’s participation this movement pushed him to write his own textbook, “The Mexican-American Studies Toolkit,” to provide a curriculum for ethnic studies classes in high schools meeting the Texas Education Agency standards. 

For more visit www.lamar.edu/diversity-inclusion.