Latinos Map Out Activism in Wake of 209

Less than a week after California voters passed Proposition 209, more than 1,200 of the state’s Chicano student activists met at Cal State Northridge, decrying the measure’s impact on affirmative action but savoring hope it will serve as a political wake-up call for Latino voters.

“In no time since the 1960s have we seen so much leadership in this organization,” Dolores Huerta, secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers Union, said Saturday at the fall statewide conference of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a student organization known as MEChA.

She applauded the student marches that marked the Republican Convention in San Diego, as well as voter registration drives on several campuses.

“We let them know that this organization and la raza were something they had to deal with,” she said.

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Students from high schools and universities throughout California attended caucuses and workshops at CSUN on Saturday, hoping to shape the path of Chicano activism in coming years.

Student leaders said the passage of Proposition 209, which will end affirmative action programs by many government agencies, including public schools and universities, accounted for a higher than usual turnout for the MEChA conference.

Proposition 209 was supported by 54% of voters statewide.

Despite increases in the influence of Latino voters in California, Chicano Studies professor Rodolfo Acun~a said much more needs to be done.

“Right now these people [conservatives] are invigorated by 209,” he said. “And they are going to go after Chicano studies next. This is the time we have to go into the streets and tell them we’re not going to take it anymore.”

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Juana Mora, associate dean of the CSUN School of Humanities, told the group that she is concerned for the future of education for minorities.

University of California officials announced Friday that race, sex, color, ethnicity and national origin will no longer be factors in undergraduate admission.

California State University officials, however, said admissions criteria will not change until legal challenges to Proposition 209 are resolved.

“I’ve heard a lot lately that we should be only admitting the better and smarter kids,” Mora said. “I’m worried that for a lot of policymakers and administrators on campuses, better and smarter is not going to mean our students. It’s going to mean the privileged and those with the most resources.”