Mecha in Action!

This month of May, we are hosting our very own version of Latino Heritage month! We will be hosting an event each week in commemoration to our culture and mission! Make sure to stay tuned to all our updates! Facebook events link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1384908765126365/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

M.E.Ch.A. de UChicago

Most recent news:

M.E.Ch.A. de UChicago just hosted their annual event EduCon! Highschool students from the Chicago area visited the University of Chicago on Satuday, February 15, 2014. They participated in workshops that dealt with financial aid, the admissions process and campus life. They enjoyed their time touring campus and had a great introductory experience of college life!

Extra! Extra!

Most recent news:

M.E.Ch.A. de UChicago just hosted their annual event EduCon! Highschool students from the Chicago area visited the University of Chicago on Satuday, February 15, 2014. They participated in workshops that dealt with financial aid, the admissions process and campus life. They enjoyed their time touring campus and had a great introductory experience of college life!

Join M.E.Ch.A. de UChicago!

M.E.Ch.A. or Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán is a student organization that promotes social justice, higher education, culture, and history by hosting various events and campaigns.

Chican@?
There is a misconception that to be a Chican@ one must be Mexican-American. A Chican@ is an identity shared by many Latin@s in the US. Yet one does not have to be Chican@ or Latin@ to be a member of M.E.Ch.A. but must have the passion for social justice or have interest in the Chican@ culture!

 Meetings are every Tuesday at 7 PM, at OMSA (5710 Woodlawn) in the shared meeting room.

Latino Heritage Week 2012

Join M.E.Ch.A. for our annual Latino Heritage Week! 

"The Americas Today: Socio-Political Mobilization"

April 9th-13th, 2012

Monday, April 9th: Community Mobilization

Tuesday, April 10th: Politics & Latino Mobilization

Wednesday, April 11th: The Mobilization of Education

Thursday, April 12th: Arte Popular

Friday, April 13th: Immigrant Rights Concert

All events will be held on the University of Chicago campus.

 FREE and open to the public! 

Free parking after 4pm on weekdays in the parking garage on 55th/Ellis Ave.

Please forward any questions to Juan Guevera joguevara1@gmail.com 

Regional Conference

M.E.Ch.A. de UChicago hosted its third Tierra Mid-Atl regional conference on February 25th, 2012

Join M.E.Ch.A. for an evening of fun, great food, alter exhibits, live music & dancing!

Sunday, October 30th

6:30-8:30 PM

Reynold's Club

5706 S. University Ave. 

Chicago, IL 60637

FREE and open to the public!

Please send any questions to mechadeuchicago@gmail.com

Hope to see you there!

Warm M.E.Ch.A. Welcome

Join us for an informational study break!

Learn more about our RSO, meet new people & enjoy FREE raspados! 

October 7th

7-8pm

OMSA Community Lounge

5710 S. Woodlawn 

Hope to see you there!

Officers 2011-2012

Meet our Board Members! 

Co-Chair
Lupe Leon
4th Year
Political Science 
Phoenix, AZ
gleon@uchicago.edu

Co-Chair
Juan Guevara 
3rd Year 
Public Policy 
Santa Ana, CA
juanog1@uchicago.edu

Community Engagement Chair
Lynda Lopez 
2nd Year
Geographical Studies 
Chicago, IL
llopez1@uchicago.edu 

Publicity Chair
Victoria Vásquez 
2nd Year 
Undeclared 
Maywood, CA
victoriav@uchicago.edu

Secretary 
Nancy Pantoja 
3rd Year
Psychology and Comparative Human Development
with a minor in Human Rights
Chicago, IL 
pantoja531@gmail.com

Treasurer
Eric Bejarano
3rd Year
Economics
Los Angeles, CA 
ericbejarano@uchicago.edu 

Historian 
Melissa Chaidez 
4th Year
Comparative Human Development
Chicago, IL
mchaidez@uchicago.edu 

Looking for More Information?

M.E.Ch.A.'s Annual Cesar Chavez Dolores Huerta Commemoration Week entitled "Youth in Action" will be taking place April 11th-15th at the University of Chicago Campus.

All events are FREE and open to the public! 

Free parking after 4pm on weekdays in the parking garage on 55th/Ellis Ave.

Please forward any questions to Lupe Leon or Cindy Agustin:

                           guadalupel103@uchicago.edu or cagustin@uchicago.edu

Join us this Saturday for a free presentation on THE DREAM WALKERS!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our annual Dia De Los Muertos event, it was a great success!

Join Us for DREAM NIGHT!

Learn more about our RSO!

Officers 2010-2011

Co-Chair
Cindy Agustín
4th Year- Comparative Human Development
Chicago, IL
cagustin@uchicago.edu

Co-Chair
Lupe Leon
3rd Year- Political Science
Phoenix, AZ
guadalupel103@uchicago.edu







Secretary
Nancy Pantoja
2nd Year- Psychology
Chicago, IL
npantoja@uchicago.edu






Treasurer
Eric Bejarano
2nd Year
Los Angeles, CA
ericbejarano@gmail.com






Community Engagement Chair
Oscar Martinez
2nd Year- Political Science/International Studies
Chicago, IL
oscarmuc13@gmail.com






Publicity Chair
Juan Guevara
2nd Year
joguevara1@gmail.com







Historian
Melissa Chaidez
3rd Year- Comparative Human Development
Chicago, IL
mchaidez@uchicago.edu

UChicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights

MEChA at the University of Chicago has been actively working in partnership with the newly registered student organization UChicago Coaltion for Immigrant Rights, a student group serving as part of the local, state, and national movement for comprehensive immigration reform.

UChicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights (UCIRR) is a student group meant to educate various communities on the immigrant experience and its history. The group uses this as background to stress the importance for modern day immigration reform with projects carried out in conjunction with partner organizations in Chicago and across the U.S. UCCIR has also initiated local campus projects to push for university support of aid for undocumented students.

Latest events:

EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY RALLY

Chicago Students Launch Statewide Week of Action
Starting with University of Chicago Tuesday May 18th @ 12 noon on the main quads (Ellis and 58th)

Each year, 65,000 students graduate from American high schools without having the realistic possibility to attend college

2 million undocumented minors in the U.S. equals 2 million minds that will be prevented from furthering their knowledge through attending college

University of Chicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights Presents:
"Rally for Equal Access to Education For All Students"

Students around Chicago demand equal access to education for all students regardless of their legal status!

Come hear them talk!!

For further info contact Cindy, cagustin@uchicago.edu

and check out the facebook event!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=1158900583#!/event.php?eid=123356101016763&ref=ts

2010 Cesar Chavez/Dolores Huerta Commemoration Week

Cesar Chavez/Dolores Huerta Commemoration Week Presents:

"Latinos Unidos"

What is Cesar Chavez/Dolores Huerta Commemoration Week?

M.E.Ch.A de University of Chicago continues the tradition of putting forth a weeklong commemoration in honor of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who were leaders in the struggle for equality and justice. This commemoration week is constituted of five events that emphasize different aspects of Latino advancement; we take this event to heart. This year we will focus on education, labor, health, culture and community. Please join us in celebration!

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

GUEST SPEAKER: RUDY LOZANO JR.

Chicago Politician and Notable Community Activist

Wednesday, April 21st

Social Sciences 122

7:00-8:30PM

Thursday

Friday

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!

See here for a link to our facebook event!

Any questions or comments please email mecha@lists.uchicago.edu

Aramark Updates!

First, thank you so much to all those who helped and reported back on the call-in today! As proof of its success, UChicago Aramark replied at 3:30pm TODAY wanting to set up a meeting with us!

But we're not through just yet. They also gave us the same spiel about how Aramark has been working with the CIW, which we already know isn't legit so aside from setting up a meeting with our Aramark reps...we're switching gears and calling up headquarters tomorrow and Thursday! We figured this time around we could make it specific to CEO Joseph Neubauer since he's on our Board of Trustees.

So now our script is looking a little something like this:

Hello, may I speak with Joseph Neubauer? My name is ______, and I am [insert affiliation/where you're calling from ]. I’m concerned that Aramark has yet to sign an agreement with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato workers.

In response to student demands, Aramark campus managers at The University of Chicago, where Aramark CEO Joseph Neubauer sits on the Board of Trustees, will soon be meeting with students to talk about these issues. But this is not the only step.

Until Aramark signs the agreement, the campaign against Aramark labor practices will continue. Thank you for your time.

These are the general numbers we want to call to ask for Neubauer:

215-238-3000
1-800-ARAMARK

But here are some more in case those for some reason don't go through:

215-238-7795 (Associate VP of Corporate Responsibility Robert Dennill)
215-413-8529 (Bruce Alperin, Senior Director of Marketing, Facility Services, Aramark Higher Education)
215-409-7320 (Nicole Handy, Human Resource Representative, Aramark Higher Education)

Check out Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213745354985&index=1


Spread the word and on behalf of the UofC, thank you so much!

Aramark Campaign

For more information please contact Vicko Alvarez lizardkueen@gmail.com

This message is to inform you that UofC will be having a call-in for the CIW Dine with Dignity Campaign this Tues, Wed, and Thurs and we'd love to have all of your support. We have two targets right now, the president of our University (Robert Zimmer) and our Aramark Dining Service provider. They still have not replied to our request to set up a meeting with them. We figured they could ignore our letter but they can't ignore all of our calls. Below is the script we wrote up. I believe the Aramark office and Zimmer's office close by 5pm central so if you could call one or the other (or both!) before then that would be great. Our campus also has the CEO of Aramark on our Board of Trustees so the more support at UofC the better.

Thank you so much and as always let me know if you have any questions!

In solidarity,
-Victoria
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Aramark Dining Services Phone Number: 773-834-8450 Hi, this is a message for the head manager at UChicago Aramark. My name is ________, and I’m a student at the University of Chicago. I’m calling in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based farmworker organization. I’m concerned that Aramark has yet to sign an agreement with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato harvesters, especially since Aramark’s competitor, the Compass Group, signed just such an agreement in September 2009. It appears that Aramark is dragging its feet in responding to this issue and as a student of the university, I expect communication and association with the CIW workers to result in a signed agreement with the CIW as soon as possible to address the problem. I also request that you respond to students request to meet and discuss the issue at hand. Until this is carried through, the campaign against Aramark labor practices will continue. Thank you.



President Zimmer Phone Number: 773-702-8001
Hi, this a message for President Zimmer. My name is ________, and I’m a student at the University of Chicago. I’m calling in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based farmworker organization. I’m concerned that the university has not addressed the problem concerning Aramark’s failure to improve CIW wages and working conditions for Florida tomato harvesters. Aramark has yet to sign an agreement to deal with the issue. The university’s affiliation with Aramark services reflects poorly on university principles and thus we insist in taking action against such unfair practices. It appears that Aramark is dragging its feet in responding to this issue and as a student of the university, I expect communication and association with the CIW workers to result in a signed agreement with the CIW as soon as possible to address the problem. I also request that you respond to students request to meet and discuss the issue at hand. Until this is carried through, the campaign against the university’s association with Aramark labor practices will continue. Thank you.

Spring Recap

Although this might seem ridiculously late, I felt the need to recap on our accomplishments during last quarter. I want to Congratulate all MEChISTAS for a wonderful quarter, specially all the hard work put into Chavez / Huerta Week, the Gang Violence Panel, Toxic Tour, Latino commencement and the endless end of the year Tamale Fundraiser. I want to start with a recap of Chavez / Huerta Week, each event had an average of 15+ people in attendance. While some events were a lot more popular than others we had different people come to all of them. Of course, the event with the most attendance was our Keynote Speech by Dolores Huerta. It was a pleasure meeting and hearing her talk. Her humbleness and energy filled the Social Science building. She was a wonderful speaker and example of resistance and hope for all us. The event was even covered by the Chicago Maroon, although they failed to mention MEChA anywhere in the article. After Ms. Huerta's speech, we had a little reception with delicious appetizers and even cake in commemoration of her birthday. Here are some pictures ...






































































Although this last quarter we did not hold an Educational Conference, we did have other programming that kept us busy through out. A big shout- out to Vicko in coordinating a co-sponsored Gang Violence panel with Chicago Justice Initiative. Our panel had great attendance and wonderful, insightful speakers such as Professor Irving Spergel, Chicago Police Officer Rafael Yañez and Youth Oureach and Community Organizers Oscar Contreras and Xavier McElrath-Bey. Thanks to all those who attended! I also want to congratulate Sarah and Karla for coordinating the Little Village Toxic Tour with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. LVEJO youth have done magnificent work exposing the dangers of the coal factories surrounding Little Village. Thanks to all those who took the trip West to hear the youth and witness the environmental damage done by these companies.



I want to give a BIG BIG shout-out and congrats to all those who volunteered and pitched in for the Tamales Fundraiser. Apparently, they are a big hit on campus and we can make this a MEChA trademark. The Tamale Sale helped subsidy for the MEChA shirts and Regional Conference for this upcoming year. We did not make a huge profit due to the lack of time but MEChISTAS's energy and persistence showed that we can earn a lot more during the year! By the way, if you paid for a MEChA shirt and did not pick it up - please contact me. If you did not paid for a shirt but want one, contact me as well - we might have a few extra.

I want to end this recap by sending a big electronic MEChA clap to Omar "Shady" Ramirez, a fellow MEChISTAS who graduated this year from the College. Omar was involved with MEChA for his entire College career. He was Co-Chair of MEChA during 07-08 and Secretary during 06-07. On top of writing a B.A. and all the mayhem that Senior Year brings, Omar found time to coordinate a Latino Commencement event for all graduating Latinos in the College. Omar, MEChA wishes you good luck wherever you go y acuerdaté de los pobres cuando seas grande! Se te extrañara


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Also, good luck to the New Board!