Banned Books Week highlights challenged texts

This week is Banned Books Week here in the U.S., an occasion which highlights when books have been officially banned or challenged in schools, libraries, and other places. Several literary classics have received scrutiny over the past year like Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn due to its use of racial slurs. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may hear the case of Vamos a Cuba- a controversial children’s book about the island that’s been challenged by the Miami-Dade School District.

Rudolfo Anaya may be one of the most prominent Chicano Lit authors yet his Bless Me, Ultima was cited by the American Library Association as one of the most frequently challenged books of 2008. “Occult/satanism, offensive language…and violence” were some of the reasons given for objecting Anaya’s book though this brief excerpt seems to contradict those claims:

Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood. She took my hand, and the silent, magic powers she possessed made beauty from the raw, sun-baked llano, the green river valley, and the blue bowl which was the white sun’s home. My bare feet felt the throbbing earth and my body trembled with excitement. Time stood still, and it shared with me all that had been, and all that was to come.

Image- latina.com
Online Sources- Cune Press, American Civil Liberties Union, csmonitor.com, Huffington Post