Chicano student activism also took on other equally important issues. They challenged the oppression of cultural imperialism and called for Chicano Studies programs in institutions of higher education. In 1968, the Mexican American Youth Association “MAYA,” which included Alberto Baltazar Urista “Alurista” Heredia, Jorge Gonzalez and Gus Chavez, pressed for the creation of a Chicano Studies center at SDSU. With help from faculty members and administrators, they also formed a committee to develop El Centro de Estudios Chicanos and a course in Chicano Studies. Another SDSU student, Olivia Puentes, along with other female students, organized the Seminario de las Chicanas, and invited their mothers to the campus to celebrate women’s rights and their access to higher education.
which resulted in the establishment of the Department of Mexican American Studies in 1970. Concurrently, Mesa College offered the nation’s first associate degree in Chicano Studies. The department was cofounded in 1970 by professors Gracia Molina de Pick and César A. González Trujillo, who was the founding chair. At the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Chicano students in concert with their Black counterparts, demanded the creation of a third college to be named “Lumumba-Zapata College.” It was to be co-governed by students and “be devoted to relevant education” for non-white youth and the study of contemporary social problems of “all” people. The proposed college name was never approved, but certain facets of the ethnic studies plan were implemented at Third College.
Seminario de las Chicanas at SDSU – 1971 (Photo courtesy Felicitas Nunez Special Collections section of SDSU Library)
“ At SDSU, a Chicano Studies program was successfully submitted for approval ...”
In March 1969, hundreds of student activists traveled to Denver, Colorado, to participate in the Crusade for Justice’s inaugural Chicano Youth Liberation Conference. There, poet Alurista drew on Aztec mythology to call for a Chicano nation of “Aztlán,” electrifying his fellow activists with pride and passion. SDSU professor Rene Nuńez spearheaded calls in 1969 for the expansion of equal educational opportunity in institutions of higher education. He also called for a conference, which produced a blueprint to increase Chicanos in higher education: “El Plan de Santa Bárbara.” At the conference, held at the University of Calilfornia, Santa Barbara, Chicano student activism transformed into unified, on-campus organizations under the name Movimiento Estudantil Chicano de Aztlán, “MEChA.” At SDSU, a Chicano Studies program was successfully submitted for approval by an ad hoc committee on Chicano Studies and MAYA,
SDSU Professor Rene Núnez ( Photo courtesy Roger Cazares Family Archives)
Movimiento Estudantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) (Photo courtesy Special Collections & University Archives Dept, SDSU Library)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 4 – The Rise & Legacy of the Chicano Movement
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