Latinos cant be greeks without selling out?
 

OK its a bit long, but quite interesting. Read and post your thoughts. I got this in an email today./ Those of us on the fraternalnews list serve all got this. I thought it to be very inflamitory, to say the least.


Latino L.A.
http://www.lationla.com

Chanting Down Athens
MEChA. Latino-Greeks on opposing sides of the resistance

By Ollinkoatl | Web Published 11.19.2002

"Joining with other community-based Chicano nationalist
organizations, M.E.Ch.A. is committed to ending the cultural tyranny
suffered at the hands of institutional and systematic discrimination
that holds our Gente captive. We seek an end to oppression and
exploitation of the Chicana/Chicano community"

-- Philosophy of MEChA

As an alumnus of MEChA de UCLA class of 2000, I have seen many
changes among Raza college students. Having been active in external
MEChA in northern and southern California gave me an opportunity to
meet Chicanas and Chicanos from all over Aztlan. As the right-wing
has stepped up its attack on our communidad with racist laws (i.e.
Props. 187, 184, 209, 227, 21 in California) and the roll back on
civil liberties- many people would expect that Raza college students,
the largest working class segment of any college population, would be
the first to recognize and protest injustice.

However, this is not the case. On many campuses the only progressive
student voice is MEChA, or on a few other campus there are groups and
coalitions that respond on a local level. But with the declining
enrollments of communities of color and other working class folk in
states like California, this situation pulls thin the amount of work
a particular student group or a MEChA chapter can take on.

One may ask, "There are a lot of brown faces on my campus, what do
they do all day? There must be certainly more Raza on this campus
than the 60's. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Raza who do not want
to become "political" some may have had bad experiences. Others do
not recognize the sacrifice made by the veterana/os of 60's & 70's to
grant them access to the University - this is a whole other subject.

For some, we must have compassion, as many of our Raza, especially
those from Guatemala and El Salvador, are refugees of the U.S. backed
state-terrorism in Central America of the late 70's and 80's. They
have seen first-hand what the Yanqui imperialist will does when you
become a significant threat to the status quo. Unfortunately, these
lessons come at the expense of the loss of loved ones and forced
immigration.

Others however are apolitical for another reason. They have taken an
oath to be apolitical and to be loyal to something "greater" then
themselves --their Greek letters.

While, the White-Greek letter system is even recognized by "Greeks"
of color for theirperpetuation of racism, sexism, and homophobia,
thus, Greeks of color, Latino Greeks in particular, try to separate
themselves from this crowd. But is there a difference? While they
certainly have a different history, they are no less susceptible to
the reactionary tendencies of the Greek system-- no matter what
community they come from.

As Mechistas, we must look at the Latino Greeks for what they
represent. They represent a system and a group of people who quite
possibly can derail the movimiento estudiantil. Thus, we must look at
this situation at its most fundamental levels. Its hidden
presuppositions, therefore, we must analyze not if they, as
individuals, are bad (I for one believe that they are not bad people.
I believe that their abuelitas and abulitos look just like mine, as I
am sure they have has similar experience in the education system as I
have.) but, we must interrogate the existence and function of Raza
Greek-letter originations on a systemic level.

Let's begin with the names, they go by many `RZA', `NAK,' lo que sea.
As Raza we are told we are Hispanics, then we are Latinos, it isn't
until college many of us become Chicana and Chicanos-- then these
elitist organizations want our Raza to become Greek? As the ones who
leave our community for "education" it is important that we do not
return to exploit and confuse our people more.

I do not see how us becoming "Greek" helps.

The great revolutionary of Cuba, José Martí, once said, "The European
University must bow to the American university. The history of
America, from the Incas to the present, must be taught in clear
detail and to the letter, even if the archons of Greece are
overlooked. Our Greece must take priority over the Greece which is
not ours."

My Latino Greek-letter brothersand sisters (chihuahua, can't you just
see it in their name - IDENTITY CRISIS) The Greek system is not ours,
we have a victorious and proud student movement that goes by many
names on many different campuses i,e, MEChA, La Familia, El
Congresso, etc.)- but it is not Greek.

The most basic question all people I have spoken to about Frats and
Sororities ask is "Why would you want to buy your friends?" From a
materialist perspective I will respond: "To create a network to
monopolize access to resources that then could be distributed amongst
people who are GREEK"- not Raza, not Chicana/o, not "Hispanic", not
Latino, not "Brown"--- GREEK. Can you say Illuminati? All Greek-
letter organizations run on the same concept. Not for the community,
but on top of the community.

Thus, the MEChA Philosophy papers tells us that "We, as Mechistas,
must dismantle the co-optation of Raza students from becoming
"Corporate Hispanics", claiming to be leaders of our community with
no understanding of El Pueblo Chicano." This is because MEChA seeks
to train future community leaders to be
consciously committed to serve the people of Aztlan -- not Greeklandia.

Greeks will not and cannot stand with progressive students in
challenging the system, they have to look out for other Greeks
primero! Greek letter organizations are apolitical, it says so in all
of the "Latino" Greeks charters-- RZA, NAK, lo que sea, no political
orientation what so ever. They are kept in line by a pecking order.
That is why they Rush, to prove that they are loyal to their brothers
and their letters above all else.

This is why on many campuses Latino-Greeks are proliferating in terms
of campus involvement with Chicano Studies Programs. These students
serve as "yes-men and women" because they do not confront the faculty
at many Universities. They avoid confrontation and do not have
vision. Thus, they are easier to work with than MEChAs or any other
progressive group that has integrity and a philosophy for social
justice. They are a co-opted student voice that will worry more about
letters or recommendations than about the needs of the community --
behold the future gatekeeper of Aztlan!

Next, lets look at the loss of dignity inherent in all frat boys.
Frats boys rush and haze (if you believe they don't haze anymore,
then George Bush won the election of 2000) and in this process they
lose their dignity. Why? For letters, a house, and a false sense of
pride. How can you be a leader for our community when you volunteer
to give your dignity up to the Greek alphabet?

Others may say, well we only work with them on certain occasions, and
those who are in Frats/ Sororities, well they don't talk much about
it. Well, if this is so I refer you to "Historical Examples Of
Infiltration Into MEChA" in the Philosophy Papers for how to deal
with Greeks after they take over your chapter-- or you can look to
the University of Texas El Paso to see what happens when a MEChA goes
Greek.

Thus, "For this reason, we cannot believe in unity for unity's sake
since there are many opportunistic organizations, groups, and/or
individuals who care only for themselves and not for our people. Just
as we would expel FBI or CIA agent provocateurs from our
organization, such opportunistic organizations, groups, and/or
individuals! must be exposed and expelled to strengthen our Movement"
-- MEChA Philosophy Papers)

I am sorry but if someone is brown, they are not down--Linda Chavez,
Ward Connerly, Condoleezza Rice, and Warren Thomas from the GOP
proves this. We must move our movement forward with a race, gender,
and class analysis. One that challenges imperialism.

In addition, while you may think I am taking a divisive stance and
that we should unite on campus no matter what, well at the very
nature of a Fraternity is division.

Our people believed in Ome Teotl prior to the Spanish invasion -- the
great force of balance. Thus, how can we have balance with a Frat?
These are groups made up entirely of hombres. And as an hombre I can
tell you that most frats I know
of do not have any understanding of mujeres for anything other than
play toys at the Frat house. In MEChA, the mujeres are equal and in
most cases and on most campuses through out Aztlan they are running
the show --do the Greeks respect this? No, Greeks arepatriarchical--
this is why Sorority function as nothing more than dates for Frat
guys.

Most Frats by nature break Objective Two of the MEChA Philosophy
papers that state "In the spirit of our past and for the spirit of
our future, M.E.Ch.A. will not condone, tolerate, or perpetuate
sexism. Indigenismo teaches us that duality is the base for respect
and dignity among our people. As Mechistas, we have instilled this
very fundamental principle as our foundation." How can an all-male
Frat help us to fulfill this objective?

To put it simple, Frats do not fit into the goals and objective of
MEChA philosophically, thus they are not part of our movement because
they are part of the colonial system of clandestine Greek letter
networks -- with no other reason to exist but to hoard wealth for
themselves and their brothers.

Thus, directly violating the section on "National Pride" in our
Philosophy Papers which stats "Recognizing that the majority of our
Raza are members of the working class, we avow an anti-imperialist
analysis that includes Chicana/Chicano self-determination. Chicano
self-determination must begin with the recognition of what is being
implied in using the term M.E.Ch.A."

Raza Greeks have appropriated a system which is used by the
bourgeoisie to not only oppress us, but also their own, in order to
construct economic monopolies, by redirecting the skills they've
learned in college and the contacts they've made, to others who
posses Greek letters. Raza Greeks have completely bought into
the imperialist paradigm of economic distribution. One that funnels
it to the few, the brothers, the Greeks.

I hope this helps you to see the bigger picture. If you look at the
situation as "My poor friend has a problem, he won't join MEChA
`cause they look at him funny." Well, at an individual level you will
not see eye to eye with my analysis. If you look at this as a problem
that plagues our campus community and soon our families off campus,
you may see the holistic picture.

We must understand much of this is a result of our Raza beginning to
think more and more like the colonizer with every generation that
enters college. When they begin to hoard the resource of our people
than we will see how detrimental the Latino Greeks are. Talk to them,
ask them why they need secretive networks? Ask them "Why can't they
network and have brotherhood AND sisterhood with all Raza on campus?"

Thanks for reading this and I hope this helps you to develop your own
opinion on why MEChA and other progressive, anti-imperialist
organizations are fundamentally different than Latino-Greeks and are
on opposing sides of the resistance to the oppression of our Raza as
the Latino-Greeks.

Ollinkoatl is not an official spokesperson for MEChA. Originally
published at aztlanunderground@yahoogroups.com


© 2002 | LatinoCities, Inc. | 548 S. Spring St., Ste. 1005, Los
Angeles, CA 900 13
Phone: 213-688-7695 | Fax: 213-688-7791 | Email: info@latinola.com

that person needs to get over it.
 

If you look long enough for a conspiracy-you'll find one. Opions are like assholes, everybody has one.:rolleyes:

Pretty much when someone uses the word "frat" because they're too ignorant to know it's fraternity, and says things like sororities are only there to date fraternities, I'm going to assume they're an idiot.

What does MEChA stand for, anyway?

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, founded in the late 1960s during the campus revolutionary movement. Since I'm not Latina, that's all I will tell you. I'm just here to provide info, not give opinions.

Estoy muy enojada. He speaks for himself, not for the whole raza.

EXACTLY!
Y me imagino que tambien es comunista.

Ay por Dios...que idiota!

This article
 

All I can say is :rolleyes:

I went to UCLA and founded a chapter of an LGLO on that campus...so I guess this person is referring to me and others like me. There are so many inaccuracies in this article that it almost makes me wonder if he really is an alumnus of my campus. He obviously knows nothing about the UCLA chapter of HIS organization, because I can tell you right now, he wouldn't be throwing stones at ANYONE if he did. :o

who IS this guy?!?!
 

Estoy un poco confundida. No entiendo porque alguien puede escribir algo sin saber de lo que esta hablando!!

I really don't understand how something could write such an article without the proper research. He is basically just using the publication as his personal soap box. I took offense to it.

He says that we are calling ourselves Greek.... and following the masses by using that title. But I don't hear him say anything about having people be a part of 'La Raza'.... or any of his latino groups.

I'm hispanic, and not part of a "latino"(i hate that word...sorry!) glo... because I chose not to be. Yes, I'm hispanic... but I also wanted to be greek. I didn't want to HAVE to be in a hispanic glo, JUST because I was hispanic. I support the hispanic cause, but that doesn't mean I'm going to isolate myself from other causes!

I just didn't like this article at all because ignorant people frustrate me. :mad:

The Mecha at SDSU is despised by most of the rest of the student body. They were the ones who spearheaded that campaign along with the Native American Student Association to remove our mascot Monte Montezuma, which I considered a symbol of fierce pride among all the SDSU students. "Culturally Insensitive" or not, SDSU undergrads and alum are proud to be Aztecs, and we all show that pride whenever we SEE that mascot (which exists unofficially" It's really sad that 90% of students VOTED to keep the mascot, and yet our president chose to remove him.

Mecha here basically tries to cause controversey any way they can. They led the protest against war against Iraq. Their response to President Bush's claim that "You're either with us or against us" was "You cannot speak for an entire nation of free thinking people." Well, they can't speak for a whole student body who obviously love their mascot, but they did anyway.

Their leader is Ron Gochez, a complete liberal who , in a letter to the editor, claimed that the "Jewish owned media" was messing up our image of society, or something to that effect.

I'm not going to apply this negative view of Mecha to every campus, because the Mecha at my high school was AWESOME. They did so much to promote their culture in a positive way without offending others, and did great work within the community. The one at SDSU, however, is a joke.

Anyway, to the point about Latino greeks, the two Latino fraternities and two sororities at SDSU have made some great strides in recent years, and are the most populated, with the fraternities being two of the three cultural GLOs with a chapter house. They do work within not ONLY the Latino community but throughout San Diego in general, and they do their best to promote a sense of pride amongst their GLOs and as a culture as well.

I really admire what they've accomplished, and for one of their own to bash them just because of the letters across their chests is completely ridiculous. They are proud of who they are because they promote a positive image of not only Hispanic life, but Greek life.

So, props to:

Nu Alpha Kappa
Gamma Zeta Alpha

Lambda Sigma Gamma
Alpha Pi Sigma

and every other LGLO I've heard of that promote unity and pride as Hispanics AND Greeks in a positive way.

Sorry for the vent.

Re: who IS this guy?!?!
 

OK, since we are on the subject, I am going to ask. What is the difference between the terms hispanic, latino, chicano, and the political connotations of each (if there are any)? That's something I've been wanting to know but didn't know who to ask and get a balanced answer.

Re: Re: who IS this guy?!?!
 

IMO, it's a personal preference. I also dislike the term "Latino" because it makes me think "latin" and I'm not "latin." The term actually comes from the Pope (although I don't know which one or why he used it). Some people dislike "Hispanic" because it makes them think of "Spain" and not all "hispanic/latino" people are descended from Spain. Chicano however means Mexican-American.

Re: Re: who IS this guy?!?!
 

As Leslie said it is personal preference. As a Cuban American I prefer Hispanic. To me Latino personifies someone from Latin America (Central and South America). Hispanics from the Carribean (Cuba, Domincan Rep, Puerto Rico)don't usually consider themselves Latin American.
Also, don't call a Spaniard (from Spain) Hispanic, becasue they're not. Don't call a Latino/Hispanic/Chicano Spanish, because we're not.:)

Re: Re: who IS this guy?!?!
 

I come in contact with a lot of LGLO members and this is what I was told... (Correct me if I'm wrong) The term hispanic was made up by the American government for counting spanish speaking people for the census. The word Latino was made by and for people from Latin America and Mexico (and other spanish speaking countries who have an indigeous background) as a way to claim an word for themselves.

My Spanish teacher in college told us.....
 

that Hispanic generally is used to refer to countries/people who speak Spanish or are from Spanish speaking countries originally. It's not really a racial thing. Lots of "White" people in Chili (Large German population) consider themselves Hispanic b/c they speak Spanish. Latino is the newer term and is generally prefered by the younger generations. I guess to distinguish themselves. And chicano as has been said before is Mexican America.

It's kind of the same thing with many Black people. some prefer Black, some pefer African-American, some really old people still say Negro. It kind of changes with each generation I think. My friend Sally hates to be called African American b/c she says she's not from Africa. She prefers Black. I guess it just depends on the individual:)