Guide to the MEChA collection
CEMA 36
Finding aid prepared by Alexander Hauschild, 2002, additional processing done by Michelle Wilder, April 2, 2004.
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Collections
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California, 93106-9010
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu; URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections
3/12/2014
Title: MEChA collection
Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 36
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.75 linear feet
(4 boxes and 1 oversize box)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1968-1970
Date (inclusive): 1968-1979
Abstract: The "MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) Collection" was compiled by students who were members of the MEChA organization.
Six of these students were appointed by UC President Hitch to an advisory committee on the operations of a newly established
Center for Chicano Studies. Ernesto Perez was one such student and a number of these files were addressed to him. The materials
are associated with the creation and inception of MEChA, through the JUNTA directiva.
Physical Location: Del Norte.
Language of Materials: The collection is in English.
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of Item], MECha collection, CEMA 36. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library,
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Donated by UCSB Center for Chicano Studies via Coleccion Tloque Nahuaque.
Biographical/Historical Note
The civil rights and student movements of the 1960's resulted in the birth of numerous activist and militant organizations.
Within the Chicana/o Movement, groups such as the Brown Berets, La Junta and ALMA were organizing in communities and barrios,
and by the late 1960's student groups such as MASA (Mexican American Student Association), UMAS (United Mexican American Students)
and MASC (Mexican American Student Conference) in California and MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization) in Texas were
working to organize students, faculty and staff in colleges and universities.
In September 1967, Sal Castro, a Mexican American teacher at Lincoln High School began meeting with students at the Piranya
Coffee House in Los Angeles and making them aware of the disparities and neglect involving the current educational system.
As more students became aware of the bleak conditions the need for an immediate change became apparent. In March 1968 almost
ten thousand Chicano students walked out of five Los Angeles high schools: Lincoln, Roosevelt, Garfield, Belmont and Wilson.
The next ten days became referred to as the East Los Angeles Blow-Outs that eventually involved over ten thousand students.
After the Blow-Outs, a group of student activists, faculty and administrators formed the Chicano Coordinating Committee on
Higher Education (CCCHE) with the goal of forming a statewide network of community and campus activists, in order to put pressure
on campus administrators for further expansion of equal opportunity programs.
Rene Nuñez was a community activist from San Diego who, after visiting many high school and college campuses in California,
saw similarities in problems relating to student recruitment and retention. Nuñez is credited with having proposed a statewide
conference under the support of CCCHE with the purpose of discussion and creation of a plan of action, which would seek to
resolve these problems. Meanwhile, in March 1969, Crusade for Justice sponsored the first National Chicano Youth Liberation
Conference in Denver, Colorado. It was at this conference that a group of youths drafted the basic premises for the Chicana/o
Movement in
El Plan de Aztlán. A synopsis of the plan states:
1) We are Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán reclaiming the land of our birth (Chicana/Chicano Nation); 2) Aztlan belongs to
indigenous people, who are sovereign and not subject to a foreign culture; 3) We are a union of free pueblos forming a bronze
Chicana/Chicano Nation; 4) Chicano nationalism, as the key to mobilization and organization, is the common denominator to
bring consensus to the Chicana/Chicano Movement; 5) Cultural values strengthen our identity as
La Familia de la Raza; 6)
El Plan de Aztlán, as a basic plan of Chicana/Chicano liberation, sought the formation of an independent national political party that would
represent the sentiments of the Chicana/Chicano community.
Approximately one month later, CCCHE held their conference; in April 1969 a group of Chicana/o students came to UCSB for a
conference to formulate a plan for higher education that would be committed to Chicano cultural nationalism, self-determination
and education of Chicano youth. The resulting plan was titled
El Plan de Santa Barbara, which stressed that every effort be taken to educate la Raza. As part of this plan, student leaders from MASA, UMAS and
MASC decided that in order to unify the efforts of Chicanas/os in academia, those student groups involved with El Plan de
Santa Barbara would need a new name, which would surpass regionalism and localism while aligning the goals and philosophy
of El Plan
Espiritual de Aztlán and
El Plan de Santa Barbara.
El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán was a group already in existence on a few college campuses and, due to the intense significance of the implications of each
word, the name was accepted and a statewide MEChA was officially born, founded on principles of self-determination for the
liberation of Chicanas/os, Latinas/os, and Mexican Americans.
Another important development of
El Plan de Santa Barbara was in laying the foundation for Chicano Studies departments on college campuses. Today, MEChA is a California statewide
network of Chicano and Latino student organizations in the colleges, universities, high schools and junior high schools that
maintains its role fighting for the educational rights of Chicanas/os: to increase access and retention, to strengthen Chicano
Studies and to combat racism.
Series Description
Series I: Notes from the JUNTA. This series is contained in one box and includes notes, correspondence and documentation of the proposals for the creation
of the Center for Chicano Studies and the Chicano Studies Department at UCSB. The series includes documents concerning the
organization and structure, requirements and recommendations for faculty, appointment of faculty, coordinating organizations
such as EOP (Educational Opportunity Program), the creation of a special section for Chicano related materials in the UCSB
library, and a mandate for Chicano scholarship. All the materials in this series are from 1969 and are kept in the order they
were in upon their donation. This order was determined by subject matter and thus many documents appear out of chronological
order.
Series II: MEChA, Chicano Studies and Related Organizations. This series is arranged according to hierarchy and then chronologically within hierarchical groupings. Primarily Ernesto
Perez collected materials in Series II during his term as student chairman at MEChA. The files mainly cover the time period
from 1968 to 1970. They include notes from MEChA meetings and correspondence from MEChA with other organizations and documentation
on many Chicano Issues. The files have been divided into their subject groupings and arranged chronologically when possible.
Series III: Correspondence. This series includes general incoming and outgoing correspondence files maintained by MEChA as well as correspondence relating
to specific ideas, such as a Chicano Community Film Research project and correspondence with UC Communications. As Ernesto
Perez primarily collected this series, much of the correspondence is addressed directly to him. The files have been divided
into their subject groupings and arranged chronologically where possible; those correspondence files, which are not related
to a specific project, are titled General Correspondence.
Series IV: Conferences. This series includes materials gathered by MEChA from various conferences. The files have been arranged chronologically.
Series V: Subject Files. This series has been maintained separately from Series V: Miscellany because they were kept under General Research in the
original collection. They have been arranged here alphabetically and cover a variety of Chicano topics outside of the MEChA
administration.
Series VI: Miscellany. This series contains files that could be subject files however they have been maintained here separately from Series IV:
Subject Files to maintain the creators provenance and are arranged alphabetically by title. In 1998 Yolanda Marquez, while
studying for her PHD in Chicano Studies, wrote a series of detailed notes about this portion of the collection. These notes
have been preserved with the collection and provide a very detailed breakdown of the contents.
Related Material
Center for Chicano Studies, Department of Chicano Studies, José Joel García Collection (CEMA 73).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Mecha (Organization)
Mexican American youth--Political activity--California
Mexican Americans--Education (Higher)--California
Series I. Notes from la Junta Directiva
Box 1, Folder 1
Junta Notes
1969, undated
Center for Chicano Studies
Box 1, Folder 2
Correspondence between Chancellor Cheadle and JUNTA
1969
Box 1, Folder 2
Proposal for Chicano Studies Program, draft
1969
Box 1, Folder 2
Proposal for Chicano Studies Program, includes charts for table of organization
1969
Box 1, Folder 2
Proposal for Teatro MEChA
undated
Box 1, Folder 2
Proposals for Curriculum Changes in the Education Department at UCSB
1969
Box 1, Folder 3
Chicano Studies Program, Curriculum Committee Report
circa 1969
Box 1, Folder 4
Community Studies, includes Proposal for the Colonia Centro Universitario
1969, undated
Box 1, Folder 5
Appointment of faculty and staff for Junta and Center for Chicano Center
1969
Box 1, Folder 5
Budget considerations
1969
Box 1, Folder 6
Curriculum review, other institutions
ca. 1969
Series II. MEChA, Chicano Studies and Related Organizations
MEChA (El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán)
Box 1, Folder 7
MEChA Operations Office
undated
Box 1, Folder 9
Commission to Evaluate Summer MEChA Projects, Committees and Activities, Summer Program Evaluation
1970
Box 1, Folder 10
Teatro MEChA, notes and proposal for Teatro MEChA Summer Project
1970
Box 1, Folder 11
Evaluation of MEChA library unit
1970
Box 1, Folder 12
MEChA Summer objectives
1973
Box 1, Folder 13
Proposal for a Chicano Department within the Third World College at UC Berkeley
undated
Box 1, Folder 14
Curriculum Committee
1969
Box 1, Folder 15
Chicano Studies positions, recruitment correspondence
1969
Box 1, Folder 16
Graduate Recruitment
1970
Box 1, Folder 17
Report on Chicano Studies Program in California
Box 1, Folder 18
History course notes
1970
Box 1, Folder 19
La Raza National Law Student Association, contains a special issue of
The Writ with a section dedicated to the Chicano Student Convention (see Box 5 Folder 1)
1970
Box 1, Folder 20
Center for Chicano Studies, UC Berkeley's
Chicano Studies Newsletter and Santa Barbara notices (see Box 5 Folder 2)
1970
Box 1, Folder 22
Chicano History Calendar
1974
EOP (Educational Opportunity Program)
Box 2, Folder 2
Applicant statistics by school
1969
Box 2, Folder 3
Evaluation Committee
1969
Box 2, Folder 6
Mobilization Committee
1970
Box 2, Folder 7
Recruitment and support
1971
UMAS (United Mexican American Students)
Box 2, Folder 8
Voz de UMAS, pamphlets for conferences and correspondence pertaining to UMAS
n.d.
General information
1969-1970
Box 2, Folder 9
The Cardinal, Santa Paula High School, Vol. 39 No. 3, 1968
Box 5, Folder 3
Community Newsletter
n.d.
Box 5, Folder 4
El Gaucho, Vol. 49 No. 17, 1968
Box 2, Folder 12
Statements to Campus by UMAS/MEChA
1969-1970
Box 2, Folder 13
UC Chicano Steering Committee, meeting minutes and agendas
1970-1971
Series III. Correspondence
Chicano Community Film Project
Box 3, Folder 4
UC Communications, Ernesto Perez
1972
Box 3, Folder 5
UC Communications Committee, Ernesto Perez
1972
Box 3, Folder 6
Workshop for recruitment and admissions qssq
n.d.
Box 3, Folder 7
David Chicano symposium
1968
Box 3, Folder 9
Job description and progress reports
Box 3, Folder 11
Statewide Conference on Higher Education
1969
Box 3, Folder 12
UMAS Clairmont conference
1969
Box 3, Folder 13
Regional Conference
1969-1970
Box 3, Folder 15
Chicano Council for Higher Education
1970
Box 3, Folder 17
Washington Conference
1970
Box 3, Folder 18
Additions to bibliographies, including correspondence
1972-1974, undated
Box 3, Folder 19
Alex Mailer-leaflets
undated
Box 3, Folder 20
Bibliographies
1968-1969, undated
Box 3, Folder 22
Galarza
La mula no nacío arisca
undated
Box 3, Folder 23
General Documents
1969-1970, undated
Box 3, Folder 24
LEG council proposal #80
undated
Box 3, Folder 25
LEG council resolutions
1969
Box 3, Folder 26
Newspaper clippings of the late 1960's
Box 3, Folder 27
People's Park
1969, undated
Box 3, Folder 28
Regents corporate holdings
undated
Box 4, Folder 1
Relevancy to the Chicano Is, Santa Barbara High School/School District
1969
Box 4, Folder 2
Santa Barbara Position on Moratorium
1970
Box 4, Folder 4
Brief of Amici Curiae
1976
Box 4, Folder 5
Caucus C.O.R.O, includes
Coro Vol. 1 Nos. 1-3 (See Box 5 Folder 6)
1979
Box 4, Folder 7
Educational Planning for Santa Barbara School District and Santa Barbara High School District
1979
Box 4, Folder 8
Los Angeles Times articles
circa 1989
Box 4, Folder 9
Marquez, Yolanda, Notes for dissertation
1998
Box 4, Folder 10
Master Planning for the Future, Santa Barbara School District/High School District Final Report
1969
Box 4, Folder 11
Position papers, EOP
circa 1969
Box 4, Folder 12
UC Caucus Official delegation
undated
La Raza Unida de Ohio Newsletter
1971
Box 6, Folder 2
El Plan de M.E.C.h.A
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Donated by UCSB Center for Chicano Studies via Coleccion Tlaque Nahuaque.
Box 6, Folder 4-7
Santa Barbara Community Union Newsletters, 1-4
1971-1972