Northridge Campus to Host State Chicano Conference
For the first time in more than a decade, a Chicano student group at Cal State Northridge will host the organization’s statewide conference beginning today.
Organization leaders said Cal State Northridge outbid several other schools this year for the responsibility of hosting the MEChA conference.
“Our Chicano studies department is considered one of the top in the nation and this is a way of displaying our department and our professors,” said Jesus Flores, a conference committee member for MECha, which stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.
More than 1,200 Latino students and their families from across the state will visit the campus and attend workshops and lectures on subjects ranging from Chicano studies in high school to Latinos in the arts.
The discussions, Flores said, are expected to focus on the current political climate. But the main goal of the conference is for MEChA organizations to communicate with one another, he said.
For the first time, the conference will include parents and siblings of Cal State Northridge members.
“We want to educate them about what role parents take when their children are involved in MEChA,” Flores said.
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