In response to recent criticism, members of a Chicana/o
organization and the UCLA community are standing strong and denying
what they believe to be hurtful accusations that the group is a
racist and radical organization.
In the past month, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has been fending off
criticism for his involvement in the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano
de Aztlà n ““ the Chicano Student Movement ““ when he
was a college student at Fresno State University in the 1970s.
MEChA, an organization which began in the 1960s, is perceived by
many critics as a racist organization akin to the Ku Klux Klan, and
they allege that its goal is to gain rights for Chicanos and take
away rights from everyone else.
When MEChA first began on the campus of UC Santa Barbara, one of
the goals of the organization included the liberation of a region
known as Aztlà n. Aztlà n encompassed parts of the
southwestern United States, including California. The call
for secession prompted large-scale opposition toward the
organization.
In a report by Fox News, MEChA was alleged to have staged a
protest at UCLA in 1993 that caused $500,000 dollars worth of
damage to the campus. The protest called for a Chicana/o studies
department on campus.
Administrators at UCLA vehemently deny the allegations.
“When I got wind of this report from media relations, I
almost blew a gasket,” said Berky Nelson, director for the
Center for Student Programming at UCLA. “I just saw these
enormous lies.”
Nelson said the protest in 1993 actually caused about $24,000
worth of damage and the protest was not sponsored by MEChA.Â
Students involved in the protest just happened to be members of the
organization, he said.
Furthermore, Nelson alleged that no one from Fox News contacted
UCLA about MEChA before writing the report.
Fox News could not be reached for comment in time for this
story.
A slew of reports from various media outlets have followed, in
which MEChA has been described as a racist organization.
“I found the reports offensive and intentionally
misleading,” said said Allende Palma/Saracho, internal
vice-president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council
and a member of MEChA. “It happens when you have politicians
who can’t run on the issues and who resort to
mudslinging.”
Members of the organization worry the reports will affect the
group’s perception among students.
The fear is that incoming students will have questions about
what they have seen on television, that they will associate MEChA
with terrorists, and that the work that MEChA is involved in will
be undermined, said Palma/Saracho.
“I have heard that our chapters of MEChA are having
trouble with their outreach because unfortunately people are buying
into the stereotypes, and parents are really hesitant,” said
Liz Alamio, chairwoman of MEChA de UCLA.
Today the goal and structure of MEChA has changed, and the focus
is much more student oriented, she added.
MEChA’s motto is “La unión hace la
fuerza,” which means “unity is our strength.”
MEChA de UCLA is an organization which works for greater access to
education for at-risk youth, Palma/Saracho said.
MEChA’s former motto ““ “For the race
everything, for outside the race nothing” ““ has also
generated negative sentiment toward the organization.
But, this motto is outdated, and most chapters of MEChA,
including UCLA, reject it, Palma/Saracho said.
At UCLA, MEChA’s focus is helping students, both
academically and socially, Alamio said.
MEChA is involved with running the Campus Retention Center, high
school outreach, working with the César E. Chávez Center
at UCLA, and a variety of other community service activities.
“MEChA is a constructive organization designed to uplift
and encourage students,” said Nelson. “It’s a
self-help organization.”
From its inception, MEChA has remained an organization in which
Chicano/a students can come together, Nelson added.
Nelson came to UCLA in 1969 as a professor, a year after MEChA
was formed at UCLA. Chicano/a students felt disengaged and out of
tune with the campus, and the creation of MEChA gave students a
sense of solidarity, Nelson said.
And though today the actions of MEChA in the 1960s could be
viewed as extreme, Nelson says people should juxtapose the actions
with the time period.
“You have to understand that at the time our country was
not a great place for minorities, and the things MEChA said and did
need to be placed in context,” Nelson said.
Oh, these slick protestations of innocence by the brown supremacists of MEChA are so touching. A leopard can’t change his spots. All these people have done is change the “window dressing” on their ugly, racist storefront. Inside the vicious anti-white/anti-American hatred still lives. You can find videos by “Mechistas” all over Youtube and you can find racist documents like “El Plan de Aztlan” just lying around on MEChA websites even now. Of course the racist Mexicans will try to deny and conceal their racism…until they think they have the demographic “power” to start actively promoting brown supremacy wherever Mexicans are a majority. Don’t believe their lies. They’re all about “brown power” and “brown pride” no matter how much they try to create a public facade of innocence and altruism.