Targeting Mexican Americans by Presidential Candidates

I heard last week that there was criticism against the GOP presidential candidates for not attending a hispanic-centric event. I don't know if this was a debate or a forum to discuss "issues that hispanics care about."

What issues do we care about that the rest of the country doesn't? I'm not sure I'm upset that the candidates didn't attend this event. I mean what do I care about that others don't? Socialism, the war on terror, the war in Iraq, balanced budgets, smaller government, more money in my pocket than in the government's.

I believe the issues others want me to care about because I'm Mexican- American are: illegal immigration and amnesty, "rights" for illegal immigrants, bi-lingual education, and so on... Why are these THE issues for me? I care about these issues, surely, but they are not the ONLY things I care about. And, I may not take positions on these issues that one would expect given I'm Mexican-American.

Mexican-Americans (NOT Mexican-American "Leaders") care about what the rest of the country cares about. We are not any different that others when it comes to caring about our families and our and their futures.

I wish these so-called "leaders" would stop making us "different" and I wish the media would stop listening to them.

Much to do about MECHA?

When I was in college, MECHA (for all of you that haven't heard of this group, it is a Chicano activist group that leans heavily to the left) was a group of Chicano students that were loosely organized and were "political" in some unknown way to me. I knew they existed but didn't know what they did or when they did it.

They knew I was obviously Hispanic but they did not bother me, ask me to join, or harass me in any way. I never attended any of their meetings, if they had any, saw them in any protest or activist activities on campus. I don't know about other MECHA groups in other colleges and what they did or stood for. I thought they were some sort of fraternity.

I have been somewhat amused about the media's reactions to this group and their labeling of MECHA as a racist organization. Their website (mecha.org) is nowhere to be found, although there are plenty of individual MECHA campus websites.

I just recently went to one of those websites and read the "founding" papers of MECHA. They talk about all "bronze people" being in communion with each other, that the "gringos" brutally invaded their land, and that they don't recognize any arbitrary national borders. They talk about organizing Chicanos, and making them aware of their "plight" and of being politically, culturally, and defensively organized against the "gabacho."

Wow! I never knew any of this stuff, and would be surprised if you found any run-of-the-mill MECHA members that knew and truly believed any of this stuff.

Chances are they joined MECHA to get together with other Chicanos to party, listen to music, and drink beer.