Mia Ekhause
June 12 2024
ES 254
Rosa O’Connor Acevedo
Final Creative Project
Criticism of MEChA
In 1969, several of the students who participated in the Chicano Movement as well as students from the University of Oregon met in Santa Barbara, California and unified to create the student-led group MEChA. MEChA stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, and it is an organization created for and by Mexican American students who needed a way to be unified. There are other organizations created by the Chicano movement 50 years ago, they have all been directed to establish Chicanx organizations in universities and institutionalizing Chicanx studies programs. “In 1994, for example, a hunger strike organized by student activists, many who were members of El Congreso demanded and successfully achieved the formalization of the Chicano studies department” (El plan de SB). Despite its initial intent as a student-led organization providing a space for Latinx students, MEChA has faced criticism and controversy due to its name, motto, and perceived exclusivity. The organization’s name and motto have been criticized for promoting racism and sexism, while the use of ‘Chicanx’ and reference to the mythical land of Aztlan have been contentious. Additionally, MEChA’s focus on Chicano identity has led to exclusionary practices, alienating other Latino students seeking a sense of community and belonging.
The term Chicano/a/x is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans who have a non-Anglo self-image, embracing their Mexican Native ancestry. Chicano was originally a classist and racist slur used toward low-income Mexicans that was reclaimed by student activists to transition from identifying as “Mexican”, “Mexican American” and “Hispanic”. ‘“Mexican American” is understood to refer to a person of Mexican descent born in the United States, while “history” refers both to the sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of Mexico and to the nineteenth-century Anglo-American colonization and settlement of the southwestern United States.” (Sheila Marie Contreras).
The original organization of Chicanos held machista and racist ideologies. “This movement was not exempt from the biases of race, sexuality, and gender, and held within its ranks machista and homophobic sentiments.” (The importance of Mecha in Intersectionality) As a response, MEChA students felt a need to change the name Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán as Chicanx students are blinded by the history of what Chicano means. There is a lack of awareness of the unfair homophobia in the term Chicano. “At a meeting Sunday in Los Angeles, student leaders voted almost unanimously to drop the reference to “Chicano” and “Aztlán” from the name Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) over concerns the words are homophobic, anti-indigenous and anti-black.” (The associated press) The UO MEChA chapter highlights the importance of intersectionality, by providing a community of Mujeres. Mujeres was created to unify the Chicanas of MEChA and other minority women of color.
Many students took to the MEChA identity, in an attempt to unify with other Chicanx student unions along the West coast. It is said that there are about 300 MEChA Chapters in existence nationwide. The University of Oregon chapter is part of the Aztlan del Noroeste, formerly known as Mictlampa Cihuatlampa. Today, the MEChA club is still active and involved in high schools and universities across the US, including Eugene, Oregon at the University of Oregon. UO MEChA has risen to provide a space where students are encouraged to explore their identities as Chicanos. It is worth mentioning that although the mythical land provides comfort to students it does not recognize that this can create anti indigenous sentiments; specially for the indigenous communities that have lived in those areas. It perpetuates the notion of settler colonialism.
The MEChA slogan which appears in El Plan de Aztlán “Por la raza, todo fuera de la raza nada” “For the race, everything, outside the race, nothing” encapsulates the group’s confrontational, nationalist ideology. The slogan found in the Spiritual Plan de Aztlan is viewed as ethnocentric and racist. Although “The Chicano movement embraced the ideology of Mexican intellectual Jose Vasconcelos, who wrote that the joining of the indigenous people of Latin America and the Spanish conquistadors was producing ‘la raza cosmica’, the cosmic race.”
Some critics of the movement look at it as racism, “when you say ‘la raza,’ you are saying an anti-gringo thing, and our fear is that it won’t stop there. Today it’s anti-gringo, tomorrow it will be anti-Negro, and the day after it will be anti-Filipino, anti-Puerto Rican. And then it will be anti-poor-Mexican, and anti-darker-skinned Mexican.” Although many MEChA students believe “la raza ” encompasses all hispanics, minorities, chicanos and mestizos, the exclusivity implicit in “la raza” could potentially expand to other groups, leading to broader social divisions.
While the organization has provided invaluable support and a sense of belonging for many Mexican American students, the debates over terms like “la raza” and “Chicano/a/x” reflect tensions regarding race, identity, and inclusivity. As Latino students make up most of the minority community at the High School and College level in the United States, it remains crucial for the organization to uphold its inclusive mission, adapting to the diverse and evolving needs of Latinx students. There is an ongoing transformation that influences how schools run their clubs. Many schools including the University Of Oregon, have created clubs and organizations for Latinx students; spaces where they can be themselves, explore their intersectional identities. For example, the MEChA club and Mujeres use their meetings to promote hermandad. Clubs such as these are powerful for encouraging minority students to pursue higher education. It is important for MEChA chapters to continue supporting students and allowing all students regardless of gender and sexuality to feel included and have access to its community. The question remains, how can MEChA and similar organizations further evolve to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population while staying true to their roots?
Works Cited:
- Indigeneity: Maylei Blackwell. (2020). In New York University Press eBooks (pp. 100–105). https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479892532.003.0032
Anzaldúa, G. (2017). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In McGill-Queen’s University Press eBooks (pp. 381–399). https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773551886-027
CHICANO COORDINATING COUNCIL ON HIGHER EDUCATION. (1969). A CHICANO PLAN FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. https://mechadeucdavis.weebly.com/uploads/9/7/0/4/9704129/el_plan_de_santa_barbara.pdf
Cpence. (2023, December 8). The importance of Mecha in Intersectionality – Introduction to Chicanx/Latinx Studies Fall 2023 Course. https://blogs.uoregon.edu/es254fall2023/2023/12/08/the-importance-of-mecha-in-intersectionality/
Mexican American group MEChA considers name change amid controversy. (2019, April 3). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexican-american-student-group-mecha-considers-name-change-amid-controversy-n990676
Mujeres – MEChA de UO. (2013, July 26). https://blogs.uoregon.edu/mecha/programming/mujeres/
Pineda, D. (2019, June 3). From ‘Chicano blowout’ to blowup: Turmoil over MEChA name change was decades in coming – Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-mecha-chicano-controversy-20190603-story.html
Pulido, L. (2017). Geographies of race and ethnicity III. Progress in Human Geography, 42(2), 309–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132516686011
What’s in a Name? The Meaning of “La Raza.” (2015, January 7). Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved June 12, 2024, from https://cis.org/Kammer/Whats-Name-Meaning-La-Raza