Northridge : CSUN Protesters Denounce Beating

About 50 students and several teachers gathered in front of Sierra Hall at Cal State Northridge on Thursday afternoon to express anger and frustration over the April 1 clubbing of two illegal immigrants by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies in south El Monte.

“It could have been anyone here,” said Luis Marquez, 23, a Chicano studies major. “It could have been our parents.”

Marquez, whose parents came from Jalisco, Mexico, in 1976 and found work in furniture factories, said that the immigrants who were beaten were coming to the United States for economic reasons: to find work.

“Is it wrong for someone to want to make things better for their family? No!” Marquez said told the crowd. “How can I say this is a great country when I see this [done] to my people?”

Although the crowd was outraged by the actions of the sheriff’s deputies, they say they were not surprised. Many said they believe that the police treat Latinos and blacks differently than they treat whites.

“There’s a pattern of violence that happens to our community,” said Chicano studies professor Jose Hernandez.

The “teach-in,” as students called it, was organized by MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), a Latino student organization. Instead of protesting, students took turns expressing their opinions about the beating, and tried to find ways they could organize to get elected officials to denounce the deputies and their actions.

Most of all, many were offended that attention was being diverted to the issue of illegal immigration rather than the beatings.

“These are human beings we’re talking about,” said Chicano studies professor Lorenzo Flores. “They feel that the only way out of their misery and poverty is to risk their lives and cross the border.”

“I just don’t know what this world is coming to. I just don’t understand,” said Salvador Reyes, 22, after the meeting. “We’re being treated like animals. Where is it going to end?”