Ron DeSantis’ ultraconservative policies add unexpected controversy and detractors. Especially in liberal and progressive environments. This time, it was the famous Chilean writer Isabel Allende who directly crossed the Republican governor of Florida.
Allende expressed his “absolute” opposition to the banning of books in the Sunshine State. It was after the inclusion of two of his novels on a list of 673 books removed from schools this year, in a county in Florida. “It is shameful and dangerous in a democracy,” the author warned EFE.
The schools in Florida’s Orange County removed a total of 673 titles from the classrooms in 2023. Among other works, the Chilean’s most popular novel: “The House of the Spirits.” Allende’s book “Beyond Winter” was also removed from the classrooms. In both cases they address issues related to sexuality.
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“Censoring LGBT characters or authors linked to that movement is not going to prevent kids from being from that community,” the Co-Founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, Jen Cousins, told this medium. The titles challenged in Florida are listed in detail on the Florida Freedom to Read website. Brevard County school board member Jennifer Jenkins added that DeSantis’ politics are not simply conservative, but part of a far-right movement.
The withdrawal of the works is due to state law HB 1467, promoted and signed into law by Governor DeSantis, who is still running for president. “This measure will have the opposite effect to that desired by the governor, since it is enough for something to be prohibited to young people for them to want to read it,” said the writer, who lives in California.
The Chilean emphasized in her statement that she is not the only author censored in the southern United States, nor the first time she has been banned in schools. “It already happened to me a few years ago in North Carolina, where The House of the Spirits was banned, but a group of teachers defended the book before the state Board of Education and they reinstated it,” she said.
The laws promoted by DeSantis do not prohibit specific titles, but they opened the door for challenges to be filed throughout the state of Florida. And the motions of censure in the events did not take long to arrive. DeSantis, however, boasts that “we have empowered parents to ensure they have a say in their children’s education, and we will continue to do so.”
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Under the law, school districts must report to the state Commissioner of Education each material for which it received an objection, the material that was removed because of the complaint, and the grade for which the material was used.
The official argument led to a debate about the distinction between guiding students and restricting their access to books. Several titles were relocated and restricted to high school students. For example, “The Hill We Climb” which was pulled from the elementary school shelves. Other titles were relocated, such as “The ABC of Black History”, “Love to Langston” and “Cuban Kids”.
To avoid unsavory accusations of censorship, school administrators, government officials, and groups like Moms for Liberty began calling the results of their efforts “curating.” “This is not freedom. It is vague legislation that generates fear and persecution, and limits critical thinking. Every week there is one more censored book,” complained Nikki Fried, president of the Florida Democratic Party.
Among the titles withdrawn by school authorities in Orange County, in the city of Orlando, are works by other celebrated Latin American authors. For example, the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, whose novels Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are no longer in the classrooms.
The novel ‘The Brief Marvelous Life of Óscar Wao’ (2007), by Dominican author Junot DÃaz and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is also on the list, along with The House of Bernarda Alba, by Federico García Lorca.
A recent report from the organization PEN America reflected that in the academic year 2022-2023, there were a total of 3,362 cases of book bans in the country’s public schools, a figure that represents an increase of 33% compared to the previous period. . Of that total, 1,406 cases, that is, 40%, corresponded to school districts in Florida, which thus leads the list of states with the highest number of book censorships in educational centers.
2023-12-29 18:38:06
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