In reviewing the MECHA website from Uof O, it appears to be a pretty static webiste. That is there’s your typical, Home, About, and Contact types of pages but evidently there appears to be no one page that’s focused on current news or posts. The three main pages i’ll focus this post on though are the About, Programming and the Mujeres Page
Beginning with the About page, the information presented covers how MECHa came about. It was nice to revisit “los pasos” that MECHA has gone through to get to the place where it is now. It’s been since I was in college, taking an Ethnic Studies class, that I became aware of the political implications the term “Chicano” had. “…It is a symbol of Resistance as well as a symbol of Unity amongst Mexicanos, Salvadorenos, Chilenos, Puerto Ricennos, Cubanos, and all other Raza. Chicano has come to represent the strugles and fight of all Latino…” As much as I would like to see the term “Chicano” unite all the aforemention groups, it would be interesting to find out how united Salvadorenos, Chilenos, Cubanos, etc., really feel united under a term that has strong Mexicanismo origins. But I digress, within the About page there is also a link, towards the bottom of the page, that guides the user directly to the National MECHA website in case one wants to further explore MECha’s presence on a national level.
Moving on to the Programming page- what’s useful about this information is that it gives insight as to the types of activities might expect to see through the year, as a student, organizer or conscious community member. And it appears it runs the gammut from a Dia de los Muertos, to a Youth Conference and on to a Grad Appreciation Night. So therotically if one’s weighing how many extracurricular activities pertaining to Latinos, Chicanos there are at Uof O vs, OSU take note this page might aid your webfooted self in choosing the Uof O.
The last section we’ll cover is the Mujeres, which is a support group for Latina students. According to their history”…Mujeres was established in 1995 to the purpose of empowerment of Chicanas within MEChA ” The fact that they have their own section suggests that there’s strong and progressive Latina presence on campus. I almost want to see them having their own website as opposed to being tagged in last through one of the end tabs of the MECHa website. The fact that they have organized a “Take Back the Night” would lead me to believe that they would be fully qualified to be an autonomous and independent group.
In any case to find out more about MECHa or Mujeres at Uof O please click on http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~mecha/Home.html or http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~mecha/Mujeres.html.