by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - 3/6/2002 - (ACN) A group of conservative Jewish/White students have made unsubstantiated accusations against the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) at the University of California at Berkeley. A few members of the racist and ultra right wing publication called the Patriot have accused MEChA of being common "bandidos" in a case where supposedly 3,000 copies of their recent edition disappeared overnight from their offices on campus. An independent preliminary investigation into the case by La Voz de Aztlan has provided indications that the theft may have been an inside job. It appears that the purported 3,000 copies were actually never printed and that someone within the Patriot may have pocketed the money.

This is not the first time that MEChA has been the victim of false, racist and bigoted accusations as well as physical attacks by KKK and Hillel type students on campuses. On the weekend of October 25th, 2000 the MEChA office at the University of Texas at El Paso was vandalized by racist students. The bigots involved smashed computers and left racist anti-Mexican slurs written on the walls of the office. Just last month, the conservative Jewish/White Cornell Review launched an unconscionable racist diatribe against a young female student of Mexican descent that was chased around campus by 7 white baseball bat wielding thugs. It is believed that the white thugs at Cornell are members of the same group of students that run the Patriot at U.C. Berkeley. There is a definite connection between both groups and other racist groups on campuses through out the country that are increasingly acting out against students of Mexican descent, Muslim students and certain Afro-American students who believe that Jews were actively involved in the slave trade.

Robert M. Berdahl, the Chancellor at U.C. Berkeley, recently defended a racist anti-Muslim political cartoon that was published in the campus student newspaper The Daily Californian. His reasoning was "freedom of the press". He also stated that the purported theft of the 3,000 copies of the Patriot was an assault on freedom of the press. La Voz de Aztlan believes that Jewish Chancellor Berdhal is being hypocritical. There is no freedom of the press at U.C. Berkeley when the printing presses are made available only to Jewish/White students. If Chancellor Berdhal was serious about freedom of the press he would make sure that Latino, Muslim and other ethnic and racial groups had their own University funded student newspaper. The Daily Californian has an extreme anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim bias and is run by mostly Jewish/White students. There is no newspaper on campus that serves as a "voice" for minority students at the University.

The situation within the University of California and State College System is becoming critical as the state's student population of Mexican descent is increasing exponentially. The representation of faculty, students, staff and administrators of Mexican descent is extremely dismal at the state's tax supported colleges and universities. This is in a state where the population of Mexican descent is now over one third of the total. The attacks against MEChA and other Latino groups on California campuses is designed to maintain the status quo.

The Mexican-American community is fed up with educational inequality in Alta California and is ready to take action. There is presently an opportunity to replace outgoing Jewish UCR Chancellor Raymond O. Orbach with a Latino. Dr. Armando Navarro of UCR is coordinating an effort to have a Latino appointed to the position through a statewide coalition of Latino groups. There have been a number of strategy meetings that have taken place and on March 12-14, 2002, the coalition will be taking their case to the University of California Board of Regents. The Board will be meeting at the Laurel Heights campus of UC San Francisco, 3333 California Street, San Francisco. Latino students and members of the community are invited to participate in demonstrations that will take place inside and outside the Board meeting room.

The final decision on the next Chancellor for U.C. Riverside will be made by the President of the University system Richard C. Atkinson. Atkinson is also Jewish and there is a strong possibility that he will replace Orbach with another of their own. Jews make only about 2% of the state's population yet they dominate the state's academic institutions. Also, the two U.S. Senators of California are ladies of Jewish descent.

As the largest segment of the Alta California population, we are not going to stand by while our university and colleges students are unjustly attacked by Jewish/White racist students. We will hold campus administrators ultimately responsible. Our collective community consisting of countless Mexican-American educators and families have worked very hard, starting at kindergarten, to open the doors of the institutions of higher learning. We will not allow a small group of morons and bigots at our universities to deny equal educational opportunity for our students.