It was organized by the Librotraficante (book trafficker) movement, which was formed after Arizona banned Mexican American studies in 2010. Ortiz’s book and the other titles have become a catalyst for the first book-ban caravan and march in a decade on Friday in Austin. The list, compiled by a Texas Republican lawmaker, includes books on race, sexuality, abortion and other subjects. Now his award-winning book, “An African American and Latinx History of the United States” is on a list of hundreds of books that Texas Republicans and conservatives have been removing from school libraries and classrooms or challenging as potentially unsuitable for young minds.
That they were banned “is the thing that turned me on,” said Ortiz, an author and a history professor at the University of Florida.
