MEChA Today
Some have suggested that MEChA is just another ethnic pride organization and that its Nazi-like founding documents (e.g El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan) are just a historical relic from the 1960s.
Well, no. Browse the multitude of MEChA chapter websites, like the one at UC Berkeley and you will find that many (if not most) claim that the founding documents are "fundamental" to the organization. Berkeley also indicates that it holds "orientations each semester to educate our membership on MEChA philosophy". What is MEChA philosophy? There is this widely posted document titled "Philosophy of MEChA" which states:
Both El Plan de Aztlan (EPA) and El Plan de Santa Barbara (EPSB) served as the historical foundation for the establishment of a viable Chicana/Chicano Movimento and are therefore fundamental to the M.E.Ch.A. Philosophy
The document confirms that this is all still living, breathing stuff:
This document was last changed or amended in whole or in part by a 2/3 vote at the 1999 National M.E.Ch.A. Conference at Phoenix Community College.
Cruz Bustamante, in defending his former participation in the group, said
The students who are in MEChA today are just like the students when I was there
Fair enough, but what are the students in MEChA like today?
I found the personal website of one recent college graduate and MEChA member. He writes poems, such as this one, called “I am that Chicano”:
(
http://students.seattleu.edu/prendej1/chicanoart.html ):
I fought for the US in Vietnam and I will fight the US for Aztlan
Chicanismo is in my veins, it pumps mi corazon, the corazon of a true Chicano
my soul is puro Raza, my past is of the Mexica
and this Chicanos future is Aztlan!
Aztlan, recall, is what the Mechistas call those parts of the southwestern United States that they plan to "liberate" from the United States.