In 1994 SDSU student Victor Marrero got in trouble with SDSU security. His "crime" was simply throwing a stack of Daily Aztecs into a trash can. He did this out of exasperation as a result of the discriminatory treatment he was receiving from the Daily Aztec edtors and their refusal to print his responses to right-wing editorials. The incident, though, cost him a year of academic probation by the Dean of Judiciary Affairs.
Victor Marrero's actions--which can be interpreted as a peaceful protest, even if unintended--was due, as we said, to the fact that his written views were not allowed on the Daily Aztec. He was told that his work was too "academic" and didn't fit the "8th grade English" rule for written contributions.
The true reason, though, as he was told once by opinion editor Jennifer Stone, was that Editor Josh Souchon thought his work was "too radical." Suochon, in a later discusion with Victor Marrero, denied this charge (but of course!) This meant, novertheless, that all this time Victor Marrero had been CENSORED for his views. Nothing less.
But this hasn't stopped Victor Marrero from keeping on trying. At one point he even tried to submit a column under a different name, but it was rejected by Adrian Loudermilk (then opinion editor) on the basis that he would not print a piece under "false pretenses." P.S.: Later on Loudermilk went on to write a piece describing a PORN SHOOT. This meant Loudermilk would rather print something on porn than something with a social conscience.
Victor Marrero's latest quest for a voice came last year when he tried to get a job as an opinion writer at the Daily Aztec under editor John Woods. For this Victor prepared two disks with several articles on social issues concerning social issues in the United States dealing with at-risk youths and gangs.
Woods replied that his columns were too long and needed some fixing. When Victor was in the process of fixing columns Woods told him that he (Woods) was sorry but he had already hired all of his writers, and that if he wanted the job he should have filled an application and been interviewed. Victor justly asked why was he not told this before and the only excuse Woods could come up with was that it was due to a "miscommunication."
The result? During the next several months the SDSU community had to endure loads after loads of mediocre writing with such excremental topics as end of the world profecies, sports, and girls vomiting pizza. Apparently John Woods felt this had a greater social redeeming value than academic work done for social science credit.
Because it turns out that Victor Marrero's work is based on actual class work done for independent studies for the field of social science.
To add insult to injury, John Woods decided NOT to print Victor Marrero's response to his column in which he says white heterosexual men have the right to "show their pride" using as an excuse that he didn't have time to work on Victor's article--which was not up to "publishable" quality because of its grammar according to Woods (interesting contrast considering he was first told his work was too "academic" in 1994.)
Instead, Woods decided to turn the Daily Aztec into an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show" allowing people to fight over whether or not being gay was "right" or "wrong." Those who said it was wrong based their views on the bible (but of course!) and those who said it was not wrong disagreed. Very predictable for a fight of this kind.
Victor Marrero's response to Wood's article, however, didn't focus on the issue of sexual orientation and, instead, pointed to racism and class struggle, which is, at its core, the real reason behind minority repression and discrimination. John Woods, apparently, decided this was "too much work" and decided for the typical: a nice, entertaining fight to keep the attention on anything BUT racism and class struggle.
(P.S. to John Woods: You are a LIAR. You claimed Victor Marrero's work was so bad in its grammar that it was not up to publishable quality. Aside from a few paragraph breaks (which you can easily add with your RETURN key) and a quick spellcheck there is NOTHING wrong with the work. It took me 3 minutes to edit one of his pieces for paragraph breaks. No, I didn't add paragraph breaks to all of his columns, but I did it with one just to show you how easy it is to fix it, and how feeble your excuses are.)
Now, in order to be fair, let it be known that the responsibilty for this kind of censorship does not belong entirely to Woods. He is but but one among an entire gang of culeros, who do NOTHING to stop this, or to prevent it from happenning either by agreement with Woods's actions of by sheer indifference to the issue, and which include Kate Nelson, current editor in chief of the Aztec, and all of her little sheep who, supposedly, vote to see what gets printed and what gets rejected in the opinion page.
Since Victor Marrero's work deserves to ve known, here are some of his censored articles. They are in their full version and WITHOUT CENSORSHIP. The reader will be the judge, then, on whether or not Victor Marrero deserves the treatment he has been getting from the Aztec. We feel he does NOT.
Victor Marrero, by the way, is a SDSU student applying for teaching credentials, a high school teacher assistant, and a social activist. He migrated from Cuba at age 5 and has lived in the United States ever since.