Editorial by Álvaro Huerta, Ph.D I first learned about MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlán) during UCLA’s Freshman Summer Program (FSP) in 1985, as a 17-year-old freshman. My humorous efforts to pass myself off as younger by joking that I was “actually” a 7-year-old math prodigy at UCLA in that year aside, I eventually joined the campus chapter. Many moons later, I still stand by MEChA’s mantra: “Once a MEChista, always a MEChista.” No offense to my friends who graduated from historic Cathedral High in Los Angeles, where it seems a similar slogan had served as to stoke alumni pride long before MEChA was founded in 1969. Moreover, I’m certain being a proud, life-long Cathedral “Phantom” never precluded anyone from becoming an equally committed MEChista. Shocked to learn of the name change to MEChA proposed during the MEChA National Conference 2019 at UCLA earlier this spring, I didn’t know whether to cry or yell. Given that my youth unfolded at one of the toughest...

In 1969, over a thousand Chicano youth from across the U.S. gathered in Denver, CO for a Movimiento conference. By Abel Salas and Anthony Ortega On March 30th, the Chicano Movement Symposium Series presented its second annual installation of a program that seeks to encourage study and discussion and healthy, constructive debate on meaning and results of Chicanismo, outside of the university setting. In keeping with that goal, according to organizer Anthony Ortega, about 100 guests attended the free symposium, titled Aztlan Then And Now: 1969 Chicano Youth Liberation Conference held from 11am to 4pm at the Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights. The location was particularly well chosen in light of the fact that much of the planning and organizing in preparation for East L.A. Chicano student “Blowouts” in 1968 took place inside the very same church, more than a year before the Chicano Youth Liberation Conference was held in Denver, Colorado. Convened by the Crusade for Justi...

by Abel M. Salas For 20 years, a loose-knit, all-woman collective of artists, activists and exponents of “urban indigenism” have gathered in March and April to celebrate the transformative power of the sacred feminine. From students and family caseworkers to former Pete Wilson protestors; from immigrant rights advocates to youthful staffers at barrio non-profits; from neighborhood stakeholders to LGBT warrior womyn, they assembled each spring on LA’s Eastside to share the unique Mujeres de Maiz expression of modern day syncretism. For you milenios, let me simply say that syncretism occurs when two or more disparate belief systems, often spiritual, are combined to create a blended one that works, a prominent example of this being contemporary danza azteca, which often venerates Catholic icons such as the Virgen de Guadalupe. Many in the early Mujeres de Maiz class of cohorts had come of age under the Bush presidency and equated it with the worst aspects of warmongering patriarch...