Take The Tortillas Out Of Our Poetry Analysis

What we read affects us in many ways. It can be instrumental in forming our ideas about the world. This is why the content of literature is so important. See as how most of us want to live in a healthier and friendlier world, it makes sense that are literature should help to bring this about by encouraging us to be accepting of one another. In Rudolfo Anaya 's essay, “Take the Tortillas out of of our Poetry” he explore the responsibility of media to reflect the multicultural nature of our nation. First “media” should be defined. The Oxford English Dictionary defines media as, “main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively.” Alternately, Anaya speaks mostly to the paper publishing

First we should define censorship in order to discuss its effects and purposes. The Oxford English Dictionary defines censorship as, “The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” In this case we are mostly concerned with the censorship of “politically unacceptable” literature. However, Anaya states that reasons such as vulgarity can be used as excuses to ban politically challenging literature. This is not good because it provides an opportunity for people to censor works they do not like for political reasons. One student in the Socratic seminar, Maya Schulz, brought up who is doing the censoring. Her words were, “ it is those who are in power currently and wish to remain in power who use censorship of literature to suppress those who could potentially challenge the power they hold as a result of the self-serving nature of mainstream culture.” This quote is pretty self explanatory, but it shows that like many things, this issue is ultimately about money and power. One student had a good way of summarizing the way that censorship is used by those in power to keep the rest of the population out of power. This student is Charisse Armstrong, she said “I think that censorship is making sure that what you want to be said is said and that what you do not want to be said is not said.” This amount of contrail takes great power, and according to Rudolfo Anaya in his essay “Take the Tortillas out of Our Poetry,” there are powerful groups who pressure the big publishing companies to not publish work of contentious minority authors. It is lucky however, that big publishers are not the only publishers out there. There are also numerous small publishers called alternative publishers, who are less affected by the bias of mainstream culture. Maybe readers and literature