Albuquerque–Members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA)–which translates to Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan– say their organization is being unfairly targeted by school administrations across the country. The harassment they are facing, says one student, “is like the 1960s, but with a 1990s twist.”
The types of problems MEChA has been subjected to in the past few months include: the suspension of a MEChA newspaper; threats to fire a MEChA faculty sponsor; the arrest of a student for non-protest activities; and harassment by a conservative organization. At St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, the editor of the MEChA newspaper Espiritu de Aztlan (Spirit of Aztlan), received a memo saying that the periodical was not a publication approved by the Student Publications Board.
The memo also instructed the paper to cease publication until approval is acquired. Christina Ramirez, the newspaper’s editor, says that Espiritu de Aztlan has been an approved publication since 1993 and that it has a letter from the dean which recognizes that assertion. The newspaper also has work-study positions, which show that the publication is approved and recognized, says Ramirez, who adds that community support forced the board to reconsider its position. “We felt very threatened. We felt they wanted to stifle our voices. Our first reaction was that we had been caught in a 1960s time warp and that we were dealing with people with tiny minds who were closed off to reality,” Ramirez says.
Across the country, MEChA has held rallies to demand Chicano/Latino studies departments and to protest anti-immigrant or anti-affirmative action movements, among other things. And although members have been arrested for such things as “failure to disperse” and “disturbing the peace,” the current opposition that MEChA encounters is, according to Ramirez, not always done in the confrontational way of the 1960s.
Current opposition to MECha activities comes in the form of red tape, says Ramirez, adding that students are now forced to contend with cumbersome regulations which have the same stifling effect as outright banishment, censorship, or law enforcement action against the organization.
Ruth Rodgers, vice president for student development, says that the newspaper was not banned but simply told to conform to university regulations. The situation arose as a result of the MEChA newsletter converting into a newspaper.
“It wasn’t intended to be a punitive measure,” says Rodgers, adding that the situation was resolved within a week. “We’re very pleased with the work they’re doing.” Rodgers says that the letter sent to MEChA was to clear up misunderstandings, “not an order to cease publication.” The Demand for Chicano Studies Recently, St. Mary’s MEChA and other Chicano/Latino organizations succeeded in getting a Chicano culture on campus. However, it only has room for twenty students, according to Ramirez, who notes, “And we [Chicanos] are 50 percent of the campus.”
Because of the high percentage of Chicanos on campus, MEChA is struggling to expand the Mexican American studies program. While other institutions have had Chicano studies departments for close to thirty years, St. Mary’s students are only now able to minor in Chicano studies. By next fall, according to Ramirez, they will be able to declare it as a major.
In support of St Mary’s MEChA, University of Texas at San Antonio professor, Ismael Dovalina, recently wrote in the September issue of Espiritu de Aztlan: “Course titles should reflect course content so students interested in women’s history, Mexican American history, etc. can take such courses.
“Furthermore, courses should be offered during popular class periods. An informal survey suggested that there is a minuscule [amount] of such courses at local colleges…. Students would find more courses in Chicano studies at the University of Wisconsin than at colleges with a predominantly Chicano student body.”
Part of MEChA’s work is to do recruitment at high schools–where they also encounter opposition, says Ramirez. Attempts to create MEChA chapters on high school campuses are routinely met with cumbersome procedures which make them difficult to establish. “We have to go through the school board. Many of those who are opposed to MEChA are stuck in a time warp,” she says. “They think MEChA is simply about walkouts.”
Recently, St Mary’s MEChA participated in a college fair at a barrio school near the university. The university did not show up, says Ramirez, “but we did.” MEChA also encounters hostilities from campus police. At Palo Alto College in San Antonio, student Miguel Rosales was arrested for posting campus-approved MEChA recruitment flyers, says Gabriel Rosales, a long-time MEChA member and brother of the arrested student.
According to Gabriel Rosales, the officer insulted both the student and the organization, and arrested his brother for posting “Chicano hate literature.” Gabriel Rosales says that there’s a perception of racism on campus–not simply as a result of the arrest, but because of the failure of the campus to have a Chicano studies department.
Ginger Hall Carnes, a representative for Palo Alto College, says that Miguel Rosales was not arrested, but detained as a result of a mix-up. An investigation revealed that MEChA did have permission to post the flyers and the temporary questioning of Rosales was due to a misunderstanding. “No formal charges were filed against the student,” Carnes claims.
Regarding Mexican American studies classes, she says the school is now offering interdisciplinary courses and “is moving forward.”
Philosophical Differences
At a New Mexico high school, a teacher is fighting for her job over MEChA-related activities. The teacher has been directed to cease teaching the “MEChA philosophy” in class. The teacher, who did not want her name revealed because of possible action, says the administration has not explained what it is they object to about the MEChA philosophy.
Daniel Sosa of Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan at Michigan State University says that if the organization has a philosophy, “it’s the liberation of the mind. It’s teaching people that we have a responsibility to our communities.”
MEChA is not a violent organization, says Sosa, but it does fight for its beliefs. At MSU, students in support of the United Farm Worker’s Union boycott of grapes have struggled to keep the fruit off of campus and to educate the community about the rights of farm workers and the dangers that pesticides pose to troth workers and consumers. A couple of years ago, says Sosa, MEChA held a meeting with the president of the university over the issue. During the meeting, a Chicana student jumped on top of the table and started doing the Mexican hat dance, smashing grapes in the process. Other students hurled grapes at the president, says Sosa. Eventually, the students gained a partial triumph when the student dormitories agreed not to serve grapes in the cafeteria.
One campus in which opposition to MEChA has escalated to new heights is California State University at Northridge. Rudolfo Acuna, co-founder of Chicano Studies, says an off-campus conservative group has been monitoring activities and harassing MEChA–going so far as placing a full-page ad in a major daily which attacked the student organization. The conservative group has also accused the president of that chapter of MEChA of attacking its members.
During a recent statewide MEChA conference held at Cal State-Northridge, campus police attempted to arrest the MEChA president, Filiberto Gonzalez, for allegedly throwing a journalist out of the conference. Acuna and Gonzalez maintain that the person was actually a member of the conservative organization, posing as a journalist. Gonzalez says that the incident was featured on the conservations web page the day after the: coherence. Although charges were filed against Gonzalez, the district attorney did not prosecute.
At the Universities of California at Riverside and at Berkeley, police recently arrested demonstrators — mostly Latinos and many of them MEChA members–who protested against the recently passed Proposition 209. Unless the charges of “Failure to disperse” against the students are dropped at UC-Riverside, Chicano/Latino students are contemplating a consumer boycott of a proposed university village, according to Zarina Zanipatin.
Aztlan was the original homeland of the Mexica–more commonly known as the Aztecs. It is also the name Chicano activists gave to the southwest United States–the land that formerly belonged to Mexico. MEChA was founded in California in 1969 and since its inception, has been at the forefront of virtually all of the major human rights struggles of Mexican Americans.
COPYRIGHT 1996 Cox, Matthews & Associates
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
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