STUDENTS DECRY LACK OF CHICANO STUDIES PROGRAM AT AMERICA’S BORDER COLLEGE

Photo by Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo

FORCED TO GO ELSEWHERE—Elizabeth Campos (L) and Sonia Camargo (R) say it is unthinkable that SC students like them have to take classes related to their heritage at other colleges.

By Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo and Bianca Huntley Ortega

Southwestern College, the closest American college to the Mexican border, has no Chicano Studies department.Or Mexican-American Studies.

Or Ethnic Studies.

Latino students and a young assistant professor are out to change that.

Dr. Gerado Rios is the first full-time Mexican-American Studies specialist hired at SC in more than a decade. Students are encouraging him to build up the MAS program.

If only it were that simple. There is no program.

That does not discourage Rios.

“People say that Rome was not built in a day, but I say Tenochtitlan was not built in a day,” he said. “We’re changing that culture. Now we’re going to have four classes and I hope within the next year to introduce another course on Mexican-American heritage.”

Rios has guided the creation of Mexican-American Studies courses MAS 141, 142 and 150.

A course titled “La Chicana” is in the works, he said.

In the coming years Rios said he foresees a need to hire more full-time MAS faculty. Students agree, said Dr. Guadalupe Rodriguez Corona, co-advisor of AChA and co-advisor of MEChA.

“Two and a half years ago the Mexican-American Student Organization went to the governing board and asked for more courses and for full-time faculty,” she said. “MAS courses are representative of and vital to the Southwestern College campus community.”

AChA President Elizabeth Campos, a fronteriza, (a person of the borderlands) said taking a MAS course impacted her greatly.

“It really made me connect with my background and it encouraged me to want to continue my education because I got so invested in it,” she said.

Campos said she was raised a binational Mexican-American who was always curious about her history. Taking MAS 141 changed her life, she said, because it helped her connect to others like her at SC.

Students have complained that MAS courses are not offered every semester, which can trip up transfer plans. MEChA President Sonia Camargo said she was not able to take the MAS course she wanted this semester because it was not offered. MEChA Secretary Myriam Ortiz said she had to take a MAS 150 equivalent class at Mesa College for the same reason.

“As students we have a (transfer) timeline,” she said. “What am I going to do with a semester off?”

Mesa College and City College offer Mexican-American history classes such as Chicano Film and Chicano Art not available at SC. Both colleges have Chicano Studies departments, which had Christian Sanchez, a former ASO President, scratching his head.

“Considering that we are a school literally right next to the border, we should be one of the leading schools in terms of course offerings like literature, film, Chicanism and all that,” he said. “There are people on campus who want to learn about their identities, and they want to learn about where they come from and their history.

Chicano Studies departments are in colleges and universities throughout California and the Southwestern United States, said Rios, but not at SC. MAS classes at SC are listed under History. Campos said it is important to have Chicano Studies at SC to help Latino students feel connected, supported and represented.

SC is nearly 70 percent Latino and is a pioneering Hispanic Serving Institution (a federal government designation for colleges with at least 25 Latino enrollment.)

“Since we are a Hispanic Serving Institution it would make sense to have (a Chicano Studies department),” she said.

MEChistas urged college leaders to create a Chicanx Studies Department.

It started with Ortiz, who devised “El Plan de Southwestern College.” She wrote the 10-point proposal for an assignment at Mesa College and shared it two weeks later at a MEChA meeting.  Campos said it would greatly benefit SC students.

“They might not be as prepared if they want to transfer over to a university as a Chicano Studies major,” she said.

Corona, who has a Chicano Studies degree, said her coursework taught her about her culture, border economics and international politics, but also how her fronteriza experiences contributed to the classroom through cultural capital.

“If we are truly going to be a successful thriving Hispanic Serving Institution, we have to have a strong academic component that also affirms the student experience both in and out of the classroom,” she said.

Last year the California State University system added a new Ethnic Studies requirement for all graduates. A class in Chicano, African American, Asian American or Native American studies would fulfill the requirement.

Ortiz said this makes a Chicano Studies program at SC an imperative.

“It’s the perfect time for us to create this plan because more people are going to now need to take Ethnic Studies classes,” she said. “Why not have Chicano Studies be part of them?”