Oops! Don't know why the other msg formatted the way it did.
A message I sent to Phoenix College, a local community college whose campus I had reason to visit the other day.
Subject: M.E.Ch.A mural outside the Phoenix College book store.
From: Adam
xxxxxx@xxxx.com 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
Liberal Hispanics really believe a lot of this crap. I was in an office the other day and saw an old map on the wall that depicted Mexico with most of the Louisiana Purchase territory added. I'm not completely fluent in Spanish, but I understood enough to see that whoever printed the map thinks that the USA "brutally invaded" Mexico and "stole" all that territory.
I didn't point out that on the one hand, Texas was a Republic in 1846; in fact it was the Texas Rangers that turned the tide of the war. On the other hand, Mexico declared war on the USA in 1846, thus basically deserved the severe butt-kicking it got.
The reason I didn't point it out was that not only was I the only gringo in there, but everyone else in the office was giving me this patient "State your business and get outta here, vato" stare.
So I left, gladly.
Have you get any answer? Since you sent it to a flak, you ought to get something. If not, please contact the president--personally.