We should talk through issues. Maybe I am missing the mark but my understanding is that the reason for changing names is to make an organization or organizations more inclusive more inviting. I arrived at my political maturity at the height of Chicano nationalism and while I worked mostly with Mexican American organizations I never felt that I was not interacting with other groups.Diverse experiences are not found only through Chicana/o or Latino organizations. I guess because I liked food I was always attracted to other cultures. I found that most of the people I worked with professionally were white, Black and Asian. Few were Mexican. At the time there were only 3 million Mexican Americans in the US. But like today it was not difficult to get involved with other groups there were plenty of them as there are today. I encourage my students to get involved in Los Angeles’ trade union movement. Go to Black Lives Matter actions. I don’t know if it has changed but at the time it was hands off Cuba and the Vietnam War. I went to functions of the CDC (California Democratic Council), the Quakers and was always being recruited by a left group. Went to several study groups. Every place I would turn I would see Pierre Mandel. Quite frankly I did not want to talk to most whites only the political ones, I had gone to school with them and was always a minority. Leftist were like family you could fight with them. I have continued working with Chicanos and Central Americans because I want to and believe that our issues should be addressed. Like Dr. Ernesto Galarza used to say, the Democratic Party loves Mexicans but we are always number 9 on the list and they never get down to Number 9.Being part of a Mexican or Latino organization is to remind people of the issues that inflict No. 9. Everyone has criticisms. My criticism of Mecha today is that it is too social and not political enough. The competition from fraternities and sororities has moved it to the right. Getting old so I don’t get out much but I remember groups such as the Workman’s Circle who I did not always agree with and criticized but I enjoyed listening to the war stories. Diversity comes from participation not sitting at a student meeting. Anyway it was always a good excuse to go to Canter’s on Fairfax when I was a kid it was on Brooklyn and Soto.

I am not taking anything away from Alfonso Cuaron, his progressive credentials are impeccable and I congratulate him for opening a much neglected conversation of Mexican racism toward its indigenous people. However, Cuaron I fear had a Father Miguel Hidalgo moment. Hidalgo led a massive army made up of Indigenous followers. Rallied by Hidalgo’s grito:  “¡Viva la religión y mueran los gachupines!” the Indigenous masses flocked to his revolutionary banner. His troops numbered in the tens of thousands as they approached Mexico City, but Hidalgo fearing a massacre did not attack the Azteca capital. Instead the revolution died in midstream. Cuaron like Hidalgo arrived at a similar moment of truth last night. In accepting the Oscar he said that that Roma was a critique of servants throughout the Mexico and the world putting it into the context of a class struggle, with which I do not quarrel. However, just like Hidalgo’s initial revolution the theme of the movie was much more. It was about race and maybe it is time to kill the gachupine in all of us that keeps racism against the First People alive. It is specifically about the gachupine, it is about racism.

We have been fighting with the Cal State Northridge administration for some time over the privatization of the university. Today students pay $7000 annually for tuition, $300 for parking, $950 to rent a “bed” in a dorm that their student fees paid for, $3500 for a meal ticket, over a $1000 for books from the college bookstore. Today I tried to buy a small cup of coffee from the Freudian Sip and it cost $1.90; sushi over $8i. No wonder my students struggled through three jobs and were homeless. Then I see this sign from the school mascot, the Matador, saying that it was unpatriotic to buy off campus where 4 students can get an apartment $600 a piece, cook their own meals and get a cup of coffee for a dollar and park their car there. Down the street on Reseda at Shogun they can buy sushi for $3.85 an order. In my humble Mexican mind i think that it is the Matador who should be grateful. It is probably because I come from the Solent Green generation that paid no tuition and for a dollar bought a cuo of coffee with a huge cinnamon roll.