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A letter I wrote just yesterday to a local community college, Phoenix College, whose campus I happened to have reason to visit: Subject: M.E.Ch.A mural outside the Phoenix College book store. From: "Adam" Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2003 12:28 am To: christy.skeen@pcmail.maricopa.edu Christy, I'm writing to you, since you are listed as the Public Relations contact for Phoenix College on the PC website. I happened to be on your camps today, and wanted to write about something I saw which bothered me very much, the M.E.Ch.A mural outside the Phoenix College book store. The description I found at http://www.pc.maricopa.edu/studLife/clublist.htm seems very inocuous: "M.E.Ch.A serves as a recruitment, retention and support group for Latino students. M.E.Ch.A's goal is to promote an awareness and understanding of the Latino culture in relationship to the total school and community." In reality, M.E.Ch.A. is a racist organization dedicated to overthrowing the rule of the US government in the American Southwest that has about as much place on a publicly funded campus as a KKK or Neo-Nazi club. Typically, as a supremacist organization, they refer to themselves as "la raza," or "the race." This organization is dedicated to reclaiming "Aztlan," the mythical home of the Aztecs. According to their founding documents, such as "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán," their homeland was stolen by the US during the Mexican-American War. This is of course silly, since it was already inhabited by many tribes of indigenous Indians before the Spanish and then the Mexicans claimed it. This document is located on nearly every M.E.Ch.A. student group website. see: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=El+Plan+Espiritual+de+Aztl%C3%A1n&btnG=Google+Search One such location is: http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~urrutia/chicano/PlanEspiritualAztlanComm.html I quote: "In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlán from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny." "We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent" They do not recognize the sovereign borders of the US. In other words, they are a group that advocated violating federal law. "Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan." What do they mean by a "Nation?" A cultural nation? No, they mean an actual sovereign nation, as this document explains later. "Action" " 3) Self-defense against the occupying forces of the oppressors at every school, every available man, woman, and child." Occupying forces? "5) Economic programs to drive the exploiter out of our community and a welding together of our people's combined resources to control their own production through cooperative effort. " And finally - Secession from the US and the formation of an independent nation. "A nation autonomous and free - culturally, socially, economically, and politically - will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the determination of justice (reward and punishment), and the profit of our sweat. El Plan de Aztlán is the plan of liberation!" Liberation from the US "Occupation" of New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado - to form a new nation of Aztlan. I'm saddened that a group that preaches sedition, seccession, and racism is funded by student money and tax dollars, and that they, singly among all student groups, are honored by having a giant mural outside the Phoenix College book store. I am hoping that Phoenix College will address this serious issue. Thank you, Adam xxxxxxxx

Could you please kill this one?

Something bad happened to the formatting!

Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans.

Last time I looked, Spain was part of Europe, and wasn't it the Spanish that wiped out the Mayans and Aztecs in their search for plunder and women?

If you do a Google or Yahoo search for MECHA on the web you will find almost EVERY COLLEGE has a chapter and a website. Visit those at your own peril though.