Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Tucson Citizen Shuts Down Three Sonorans

Photo from Tucson Citizen
Since January, my key source of on-the-ground information about the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies classes was David Abie Morales and his blog, Three Sonorans.

Morales is in Tucson. He's an advocate for the Mexican American community, the Mexican American Studies courses, and the Mexican American Studies teachers.

He covered many other stories in Tucson, but my primary interest was Mexican American Studies.

His blog was hosted by Tucson Citizen.

Earlier today, Tucson Citizen deleted Three Sonorans. This is what I saw when I went to the site:


Right away, I wrote to Mark Evans, the manager of Tucson Citizen, asking if this was an accidental or deliberate deletion. He replied with a one word answer. "Deliberate."

Tucson Sentinel posted a story about it: "Citizen pulls plug on Three Sonorans blog." In it, Dylan Smith says that Evans found Morales to have a "reckless disregard for the truth." He also said that he received complaints from:
Lori Hunnicutt (who also briefly had a Citizen blog), TUSD Board President Mark Stegeman, TUSD Assistant Superintendent Lupita Garcia, and the Senate campaign of Rodney Glassman, among others, Evans said.
Hunnicutt is a member of Tucsonons United 4 Sound Districts, an organization that was determined to get rid of the Mexican American Studies classes. Stegeman presided over the board on the night the program was shut down. Garcia said students should go to Mexico if they want to learn about Mexican American culture and history. Their complaints were a factor in Evans' decision to delete Three Sonorans. There, you could read about and see the things Stegeman and Garcia said and did. It is no surprise that they complained to Evans.

What is surprising, however, is that Evans decided to delete Three Sonorans.

Tucson.... Your public image is going from bad to worse.

Mr. Evans, I suggest you revisit your banner:



With your decision to delete Three Sonorans, I don't think you can claim to be the Voice of Tucson.





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