Sacramento
Protesting California’s anti-affirmative action
Proposition 209 and the general anti-Latino and anti-immigrant mood of
the state and the country, the twenty-fourth annual National
Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) conference kicked
off with a rally here late last month at the base of the state capitol.
Activism has long been a part of NACCS. Last year, for example,
hundreds of members took to the streets to protest comments made by the
late newspaper columnist Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune. Royko had
written that Mexico had contributed nothing of value to this country
this century except for tequila.
Additionally each year NACCS struggles to ensure that there is a
connection between scholarship and activism, according to Teresa
Cordova, professor of community and regional planning at the University
of New Mexico.
Part of the activism is reflected in the workshops or plenaries at
the conference, which range from issues such as alcoholism and its
effect on communities of color to environmental racism.
But many of the younger scholars are from a middle class
background, notes Cordova. Because they’re not working class, they
don’t know what working class struggles are, she says.
Desiree Sandoval, a doctoral student in cultural studies at the
Claremont Graduate School, agrees that many scholars can become
detached from their communities. According to her, some of the younger
scholars subscribe to new theories such as post-modernism,
post-structuralism and essentialism.
