• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / GUEST BLOG 4.07.19 JUAN TEJEDA ON THE MECHA NAME CHANGE

GUEST BLOG 4.07.19 JUAN TEJEDA ON THE MECHA NAME CHANGE

April 7, 2019 by Tia Tenopia

The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies national conference is meeting this week, April 3-6, 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The theme of the conference is “Indigenous Knowledge for Resistance, Love, and Land: Lecciones for our Children, for our Future.” Will NACCS be changing their name and eliminating Chicana and Chicano from it? #VivaAztlanLibre

So apparently it is true. The national MEChA/Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan organization changed their name to MEPA/Movimiento Estudiantil of Progressives for Advocacy, or something like that, SEPA la xingada, under the misguided notion that Aztlan is a nationalist colonial concept that undermines Native American nations’ land and sovereignty, and XicanismX is not inclusive enough. From what I hear, many independent MEChA groups didn’t take too kindly to this. In effect, they have created a new organization that isn’t MEChA anymore, thus paving the way for the real MEChistas to take over the national organization. Should be interesting to see what NACCS national has to say about this. Anyway, here is a comment I wrote on a Devon Peña post before they made their final decision to change the name:

As a Chicano Movement vato from Yanawana/San Antonio, Tejas and the University of Texas in Austin during the early 70s, while initially there was a belief that the concept of the Chicano Nation of Aztlan was the Southwest U.S., because of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and that was where most Chicanas/os were located at the time, I think many of us relatively quickly evolved in our thinking that Aztlan as the Southwest territory was in conflict with our native nations brothers and sisters in this territory, and that we, as Chicanos, weren’t going to be another neo-colonial settler invader of native peoples and their land. Xicanxs have always been in solidarity with our native nations carnalxs and have worked with them in their struggle for their land and sovereignty.

As mentioned above in other comments, Aztlan became more of a spiritual concept of unity amongst the Chicano/a people, loosely defined as the Mexicano people within the U.S., and a reclaiming of our indigenous roots. We are still trying to find the “real” Aztlan, after all. Part of the problem is that Aztlan was never adequately and collectively defined and it means different things to different people.

However, if in fact MEChA does change its name to not include Chicanx and Aztlan anymore, I think it’s a dishonoring of the original founders of MEChA and to all of the people who have belonged to this organization over the last 50 years, or so, and to the very important work that this organization and people have done within our colleges/universities and communities. If some people in MEChA do not believe in the concepts of XicanismX and Aztlan, and feel that MEChA and the name doesn’t accurately represent them, they should start a new organization with a new name, and leave MEChA to those who still believe.

As alurista said in El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan 50 years ago this month: “Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos. We are Aztlan.”

Que viva Aztlan Libre and all of the free and sovereign indigenous pueblos and nations on this continent. In lak’ ech. All our relations/Nawaso’l ment yawet. Tamo’k.

________________________________________________

Copyright 2019 by Juan Tejeda. To contact Juan:  juantejeda.net

 

 

Filed Under: Blogs, LATINOPIA GUEST BLOG Tagged With: Juan Tejeda, MeCha name change controversy

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 07.03.25 BRILLIANCE OF ÁNGEL RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ

July 3, 2025 By wpengine

The Brilliance of Latino Artist Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz Among the major acquisitions by the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum in the 1990s was an Ángel Rodríguez-Diaz painting of famed Latina novelist Sandra Cisneros. Rodríguez-Díaz painted Cisneros in a black Mexican dress decorated with sequins and embroidery, and she “holds a patterned rebozo that snakes around her […]

MIS PENSAMIENTOS with ALFREDO SANTOS 07.03.25 NO KINGS DAY PROTESTS

July 3, 2025 By wpengine

THE NO KINGS PROTEST RALLY IN AUSTIN, TEXAS On a pleasant Saturday afternoon on June 14, 2025, Austin participated in a nationwide ‘NO KINGS” protest rally along with 2,100 other cities and towns and 5,000,000 others citizens across the U.S.A.. It’s estimated that the Austin rally, held on the Texas Capital grounds, drew over 20,000 […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 07.03.25 VIEQUES PARAÍSO AGRÍCOLA

July 3, 2025 By wpengine

Burundanga de Zocotroco José M. Umpierre Vieques Vieques es la Isla Nena del Archipiélago Borinkano que descansa a diez leguas al este de la Isla Grande;  cuenta con 132 kilómetros cuadrados, 33de largo por 7,2 de ancho, con una topografía de montes, colinas, pequeños valles y planicies costeras; abundan playas espectaculares, lagunas con algunos manantiales […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 07. 03.25 VIEQUES AN AGRO PARADISE (ENGLISH)

July 3, 2025 By JT

Umpierre Agro Vieques Vieques is the Nena Island of the Borinkano Archipelago that rests ten leagues east of the Isla Grande; it has 132 square kilometers, 33 long by 7.2 wide, with a topography of mountains, hills, small valleys and coastal plains; spectacular beaches abound, lagoons with some springs and ravines but insufficient to supply […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 2

By Tia Tenopia on October 20, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist,muralist and print maker. In this second profile on Sonia and her work, Latinopia explores Sonia’s public murals, in particular the “Urban Oasis” mural at the MacArthur Park Metro Station in Los Angeles, California.

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

LATINOPIA WORD JOSÉ MONTOYA “PACHUCO PORTFOLIO”

By Tia Tenopia on June 12, 2011

José Montoya is a renowned poet, artist and activist who has been in the forefront of the Chicano art movement. One of his most celebrated poems is titled “Pachuco Portfolio” which pays homage to the iconic and enduring character of El Pachuco, the 1940s  Mexican American youth who dressed in the stylish Zoot Suit.

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA WORD XOCHITL JULISA BERMEJO “OUR LADY OF THE WATER GALLONS”

By Tia Tenopia on May 26, 2013

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is a poet and teacher from Asuza, California. She volunteered with No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization providing water bottles in the Arizona desert where immigrants crossing from Mexico often die of exposure. She read her poem, “Our Lady of the Water Gallons” at a Mental Cocido (Mental Stew) gathering of Latino authors […]

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

© 2025 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin