El Plan de Aztlan —was written at the First National Chicano Liberation Conference in March, 1969 located in Denver, Colorado. The conference was organized by the Crusades for Justice and Rodolfo “Corky" Gonzalez, who was an important figure in the Chicano movement. The document calls for the liberation of Aztlan, and is very rhetorical and poetic. Therefore, it should be read for the meaning behind the words and not taken just for its literal meaning. The introduction is a poem by Alurista, who was well respected by the Chicano student community.
Selected Quotes:
- - “ Education must be relative to our people, i.e., history, culture, bilingual education, contributions,
etc. Community control of our schools, our teachers, our administrators, our counselors, and our
programs. ”
- - “ Political liberation can only come through independent action on our part, since the two-party system is the same animal with two heads that feed from the same trough. Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: La Familia de La Raza! ”
Download El Plan de AztlanEl Plan de Santa Barbara —was written at a conference at UC Santa Barbara in April of 1969, one month after the conference in Denver. This documented embodied many of the ideologies of the Chicano movement and implemented the concepts in El Plan de Aztlan. This document called for Chican@ Studies in the colleges and universities, and many other changes. It also was the primary founding document of M.E.Ch.A., which was created to unite the various Chicano organizations.
Selected Quotes:
- - “ The widespread use of the term Chicano today signals a rebirth of pride and confidence.
Chicanismo simply embodies and ancient truth: that a person is never closer to his/her true self as
when he/she is close to his/her community. ”
- - “Chicanismo is a concept that integrates self-awareness with cultural identity, a necessary step in developing political consciousness.”
Download El Plan de Santa BarbaraPhilosophy of M.E.Ch.A. —For many years, there were many MEChAs around the nation that varied drastically in ideology. In an attempt to unify all the different MEChAs, a national MEChA philosophy was drafted. All recognized MEChA Chapters are required to follow this philosophy.
Selected Quotes:
- - “ Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (M.E.Ch.A.) is a student organization that promotes
higher education, cultura, and historia. M.E.Ch.A. was founded on the principles of self-
determination for the liberation of our people. We believe that political involvement and
education is the avenue for change in our society. ”
- - “ Advocating an educational revolution, we recognize that our bullets are our books and our victories are an increase in Chicana/Chicano graduates committed to our people's progress. ”
Download Philosophy de M.E.Ch.A.