More than students from 22 schools discussed California's Proposition βwhich would block illegal immigrants from receiving social services, including public education βduring the East Coast Chicano Student Forum's ECCSF annual "Pachanga" conference at Columbia during Thanksgiving weekend.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros and several open discussions about pressing issues pertinent to the Latin American community. Jacqueline Mendez, CC '96, a co-organizer of the conference, said many students at the conference viewed Proposition as a "racist measure," that unfairly blames Latinos β.
Layla Avila, CC '95, said the conference helped participants believe that they could help prevent Proposition from being enacted, while blocking similar pieces of legislation from being passed in other states. They can do something even. The student forum held its first conference during Thanksgiving vacation in as a way to increase unity among the many Chicano students who live on the West Coast, but go to school on the East Coast and are unable to afford to fly home for the holiday.
Avila said this year students decided to compile a list of students who lived in the same cities and. A lot of people said they felt as if they couldn't do anything for Latinos β they felt very powerless, and this goes beyond graduation. We must remain active while we are still in school," Avila said.
Because of the size of the core group of Latinos who attend the event every year, Mendez said the atmosphere at the conference was intimate and gave students the opportunity to renew friendships from previous years.
