Every Monday, a group of students gathers on the third floor of La Casa, clustering into a room filled with colorful posters and little crafts. These students have convened for their weekly meeting of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan de Yale (MEChA).

MEChA is the oldest Latino organization at Yale and the only social justice group that focuses primarily on Latino issues. The group celebrated its fortieth anniversary last spring, and its projects have varied through the years with American trends. According to Sandra Caballero, MC ’12, the group’s Committee Action Chair, Jennifer Angarita, SM ’10, its former Moderator, and Elizabeth Gonzalez, TC ’11, the current Moderator, MEChA’s current focus is immigration.

The big project this semester is lobbying for the Dream Act. This bill would initiate the path to citizenship for students who came to the United States before the age of 16, have lived in the US for at least five years, and have maintained good academic and moral standing. MEChA has been pushing this bill through raising awareness, petitioning, and engaging the Yale community. “We’re working on getting President Levin to sign the petition,” Gonzalez said.

With such an ambitious goal—tackling one of America’s most salient issues—how effective is MEChA? Gonzalez admits that they have been a bit “unfocused” in the more recent past. However, they have many ideas that they look forward to pushing this semester, which, in addition to the Dream Act, include leadership panels; letter-writing campaigns to assist illiterate deportees; and volunteer work with the New Haven public schools. MEChA also has a strong alumni base, taking advantage of its long, successful history.

“In 1969, the year of MEChA’s founding, there were very few Chicanos at Yale,” Angarita said. One student, frustrated with this sense of isolation, leaned out a window to shout “Fuck your mother,” in Spanish. To his surprise, someone responded with “Fuck yours.” From that moment of linguistic and emotional understanding, MEChA’s precursor, Los Hermanos (meaning “the brothers”), was born. Who knew the crudest of phrases could engender so much of substance?

Today, with all its social and political initiatives, MEChA stands for solidarity. Using the term “Chicano,” a once-derogatory term referring to Mexican Americans that they reclaimed in the ’60s, MEChA is, as Gonzales said, “an inclusive group for all those who understand the struggles of historically oppressed people.”