In January 2012, Arizona Superintendent for Public Instruction John Huppenthal ruled that Mexican-American studies classes being held in the Tucson Unified School District violated Arizona law ARS 15-112, which forbade classes that "promote the overthrow of the United States government, foster racial and class-based resentment, favor one ethnic group over another, or advocate ethnic solidarity".[2][3][4] As a result of this ruling, the classes were "converted ... to standard grade-level courses with a general curriculum", and books used in these courses were removed from classrooms and "moved to the district storage facility".[3] These actions were met with significant protests, including school walk-outs.[5]
The Librotraficante movement was one of the protests arising from the decision. Led by author and activist Tony Diaz,[4] the movement comprised a caravan from Houston, Texas to Tucson in March 2012. The caravan included authors of books removed from classrooms as well as intellectual-freedom activists, and was intended to "smuggle [the removed books] back into the state" while raising awareness of the decision and promoting Latino literature.[1] It gathered over one thousand copies of the books to create "underground libraries".[4] The caravan made stops in El Paso, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico along its route, and established a library with some of the books at a Tucson youth center.[6]
Diaz launched the movement with a one-minute, forty-one-second video that introduced three new words to the political discussion: "Librotraficante" ("someone who smuggles banned books back into Arizona"), "wet-book" (a book smuggled into the state by the caravan for use in "underground classes to illegally conduct Latino literary studies"), and "dime book" (a paperback once valued at $10 "but now invaluable 'thanks to your fascist laws, Arizona'").[7]
The caravan was relaunched in 2017 to coincide with a hearing about ethnic-studies courses in the Arizona Supreme Court.[8]