Students March for Club : Protest: Demonstrators demand reinstatement of MEChA, a Chicano group at Golden West College. They make demands linked to a sit-in that led to arrests.

Carrying a makeshift coffin signifying the death of a Chicano club at Golden West College, about 100 demonstrators marched down Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue Saturday to rally community support for their banned organization.

Drivers honked horns in support of the marchers as they walked two miles to the quadrangle on the college campus where administrators are refusing to recognize MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) as an official student club.

“Because this is an assassination of MEChA, we’re taking the corpse back to the institution that killed it,” said Rodney Burge, 35, a former Golden West student and a MEChA member in the 1970s. “We will bring it back to life.”

The protesters made nine demands of Golden West President Philip Westin, including a request that he drop all charges against four students arrested during a rally on campus earlier this month. They also called on Westin and Coast Community College District Chancellor William M. Vega, who oversees Golden West, to attend a town hall meeting later this month to address the community.

The demands, drafted by the four arrested students who call themselves Los Cuatro Justice Committee, also included an order for Westin to rescind all memoranda related to the suspension and probation of MEChA and to allow the banned club to organize a Chicano/Mexicano Day on campus.

They also want Westin to observe Mexican holidays, create a student advisory board to advise the administration on Chicano issues, establish a Chicano studies department and end alleged harassment and discrimination against MEChA members and advisers.

Westin could not be reached for comment Saturday but has said he suspended the club last spring because it sponsored a fund-raiser where alcohol was allegedly used. Members said there was no alcohol at the fund-raiser. Westin has said he will not recognize MEChA as an official club on campus unless it chooses new officers and a new adviser.

Some of the demands presented Saturday were raised at the last rally held Sept. 1, when former MEChA President Lupe Lopez, 20, of Stanton; Ana Carbajal, 28, of Garden Grove; and Claudia Rochin, 20, of Westminster chained their wrists and staged a sit-in in Westin’s office. The three students were dragged away by police and taken to jail.

They were booked on suspicion of trespassing and disrupting campus business. Rochin also was booked on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer.

David Rojas, 22, of Fullerton, was also arrested Sept. 1 as he walked down a hall outside Westin’s office. He was booked on suspicion of prohibiting police activity and resisting arrest.

Saturday’s rally “was meant to let the community know about our cause,” said MEChA President Luis Guizar, 19. “We’re going to keep on fighting until our demands are met.”

The demonstration, which began at Westminster Cemetery at the corner of Bolsa Avenue and Beach Boulevard and ended at the college with speeches about injustices against Latinos throughout the country, was attended by community leaders, parents, students, high school, college and university MEChA clubs from Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties.

Throughout the 2 1/2-hour rally, demonstrators chanted “Long live MEChA!” in Spanish, and “MEChA si, Westin no!”

Maria Ortiz, 50, an activist from San Jose who fights for rights of incarcerated youths, called Westin’s actions “shameful.”

“It’s our right to have associations and organizations on college campuses so that our people are represented,” she said. “What is happening here is shameful, and the community has to denounce it.”

Added Brenda Soria, 19, a Mesa College student from San Diego: “We’re here to support our brothers and sisters at Golden West, and we’re not going to let (administrators) take MEChA away without a fight. Sometimes that’s all we have.”