The University’s chapter of M.E.Ch.A, the Chicano student union, held a political demonstration Wednesday to bring awareness to the importance of educating people on Chicano heritage.@@http://pages.uoregon.edu/mecha/@@
Over 400 Latino students from across Oregon and from the University marched from McArthur Court to the EMU Amphitheater chanting and holding signs displaying education facts on Latino history. Students then took turns reading short excerpts on Chicano history and planted their fliers and posters in the lawn in front of the Collier House.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=22185 http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/architecture/oregon/collier.html@@
The demonstration was part of an annual conference that the University’s M.E.Ch.A. chapter hosts, which brings hundreds of young students from all over Oregon to the University for a day of workshops, guest speakers and even campus tours aimed at sparking interest in Latino communities to attend college. The theme to the conference this year was “Education: The Right to our History, the Right to Our Knowledge.”@@press release@@
M.E.Ch.A organizer Diana Salazar said that the conference has been successful in past years at drawing in more Chicano students to the University. She was proud to see so many students demonstrating proudly for their right to learn about their history.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Diana+Salazar@@
“Our attendance keeps growing; eight years ago we had about 13 students — now we have over 400,” Salazar said. “A lot of the students at this conference end up coming to the University. It’s students recruiting students.”
M.E.Ch.A. strives to educate as many people as possible that the lack of ethnic studies in public systems is a problem that needs fixing. They hope to keep expanding their group and bringing more students, Chicano and others, to the University.
“We have a place in this country and our history is rooted here too. We also have to demand an education that recognizes our needs as culturally diverse people,” sophomore Niria Garcia said. “Our education has lacked cultural competency.”@@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Niria*Garcia@@