"Él Movimiento"

MECHA grew out of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, American Indian Movement, anti-war movement, and Chicano Movement of the 1960s, and the group coalesced out of several organizations formed during that turbulent decade. In wake of a call for nationhood, the 1st Chicano Youth Liberation Conference was organized by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales in Denver, CO in 1969. One of the founding documents that was created at the conference was “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán,” which reflected the frustrations and ideas of the Latino/Chicano youth during an era defined by struggle.

In 1968, the United Mexican American Students (UMAS), Sal Castro, and other student activists organized the East L.A. walkouts, AKA the L.A. Blowouts: a series of protests against unfair and racist conditions in Los Angeles schools. Following the blowouts, in March of 1969, students, teachers, and community activists gathered at UC Santa Barbara, and drafted “El Plan de Santa Barbara,” which has now become an important document guiding our organization to better serve our communities and repurpose institutions of higher learning for ourselves and our own freedoms. From this came two very important organizations to the Chicano Movement: Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.) and Chicano Studies.

MECHA de PSU

As for us specifically, we were first formed in 1992 in direct need of the growing Chicané community on campus, politically and culturally asserting ourselves. Eventually, Las Mujeres came to be its own group on campus following patriarchal structures and challenges within M.E.Ch.A. de PSU, something we look to reckon with and actively work on today. We collaborate with Las Mujeres and many other Latiné/non-Latiné student organizations on campus now for both cultural and political events, general meetings usually every week and around three major events per term.

Currently, there exists over 400 loosely affiliated chapters within the national organization. All of these groups, us included, run a variety of educational & social activities such as: academic tutoring, mentorship, folklore and poetry recitals, high school outreach, exploring the way of life through an indigenous perspective, bringing Xicané speakers to their campus, and attending Statewide, Regional, & National Conferences. 

Mecha vs. M.E.Ch.A.

You may notice a difference in name for us now, specifically the lack of it being an acronym. For that, we can look back to the 2019 M.E.Ch.A. National Conference at UCLA, in which it was voted to change the meaning of the acronym M.E.Ch.A., but there was no agreement on what it would be changed to. What was agreed to was that the acronym was exclusionary, not being reflective of our core value of solidarity amongst all groups of people (every racial and ethnic group, gender non-conforming folks, and Indigenous peoples).

During the 2020 National Conference hosted by Arizona State University, it was decided the name "Mecha" would remain the same, but would no longer include the acronym. As cited from that year's national update, "We are an organization that combats all aspects of colonization and its legacies, especially settler colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, anti-blackness, transphobia and queerphobia, imperialism, borders, and prisons." We acknowledge the decades of struggling defining the original name and instead want to center the change from something beyond visuals and turn it into action. Thus, MECHA is the word for "match" or "what will spark the change".

Somos la mecha que hara el cambio - We are the match that will spark the change