MEChA movement was founded on historial fallacies

Leonardo Castaneda, Staff Columnist
Posted on 09 February 2011

Like half the people you know, I’m a Mexican in Southern California. I have never felt like a minority here, except within my own immigrant community. I know what I am: a student, a writer and an immigrant. I also know what I never will be: a Chicano. I don’t want to hide my Mexican heritage, I’m proud of it. I just have no desire to assimilate into a movement that was founded on historical fallacies. I would rather be an individual in a nation that promotes individualism than pigeon-hole myself with exclusivists and segregationists. Specifically, MEChA.

Through its struggle for civil rights, the Chicano movement has helped unite an often disenfranchised segment of the population. In this sense, the movement has provided a valuable service to the community. However, when you come across it today, you find a movement out of touch with its own cultural reality. Its ideology is based on fairy tales that force immigrants to accept a fabricated Mexican heritage. You’d think after the civil rights movement, any minority would stop imposing self-segregation based on skin color upon itself. Well, we all thought wrong.

At the heart of the Chicano movement stands MEChA, which stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, which translates to “Movement by Chicano Students from Aztlán.â€