Why is this necessary?

Since being founded in 1969, MEChA de UCLA (and the institution of MEChA broadly) has caused, perpetuated, and remained complicit in the continuation of colonial, imperialist violence.
Currently, our name is an acronym for "Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a/x de Aztlán". To understand the need for our name change, it is important to understand why our current name is so harmful.

Firstly, the Chicano identity rose to popularity in the 1960s and 1970s as primarily a Mexican-American political identity. For those early self-identified "Chicanos", the identity was meant to differentiate between strictly being "Mexican" or "American", and instead capture the unique experience of those, who while born in America, had familial roots to Mexico. As such, the identity both explicitly and implicitly, left out non-Mexican identities, including Central Americans, South Americans, and the
Black and Indigenous communities of what is today considered "Latin America".

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Secondly, the term "Aztlán" refers to an idea derived from Chicanismo. Specifically, it refers to the supposed homeland of the indigenous Aztec people prior to their migration to modern-day Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. The territory covers essentially all of Mexico and the current North & Southwest of the United States (especially the territories annexed by the U.S. in 1848). It is a severely problematic and harmful idea as it builds on centuries of Indigenous erasure and mestizaje (the erasure of Indigenous histories and genocides by Latin American countries to legitimize their nation-state and national identity). Under the idea of Aztlán, indigenous peoples are imagined as a community of the past whose histories were absorbed peacefully into the Mexican (or other national) identity. It ignores the continued existence and resistance of Indigenous peoples to settler colonialism, including Latin American nations. Likewise, it also perpetuates this false idea that all Mexicans or Chicanes, or even all Latines, are indigenous; a harmful claim that silences and ignores actual Indigenous voices and power.

Here at UCLA specifically, MEChA has been complicit in the perpetuation of these harmful ideas and narratives. MEChA de UCLA has, throughout its history, engaged in behaviors, actions, and decisions rooted in the
exclusionary ideas of Chicanismo, Mexican hegemony, mestizaje, and superficial identity politics. Moreover, MEChA de UCLA has historically been a space where community members have been excluded, ostracized, or otherwise harmed under rhetoric and actions that can be characterized as nothing less than being anti-Black, anti-Central American, anti-Indigenous, xenophobic, transphobic, and wholly contrary to the organization's espoused belief in equity, justice, and global liberation for oppressed peoples. As a result, there is a long history in MEChA of individuals and communities leaving our space in response to the interpersonal and structural violence and harm they underwent.

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Let it first be clear that the calls for MEChA to rename, address its ills, and set a new direction forward have been going on for years, if not decades. Over the past few years, recent generations of MEChA leaders have led an internal shift within our organization to recognize this history, reject these ideas, and ensure the safety and inclusion of all communities in our spaces.