Friday, March 29, 2024

Picnic to feed students interest in MEXA

August 29, 2001

MSU’s oldest Chicano student group, Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan, or MEXA, is sponsoring its first annual Brown Pride Picnic to reach out to students interested in the organization.

The event, which will include performances and a disc jockey, will be held at noon Sept. 1 at the field next to Cowles House. MEXA, the Xicano Development Center and Omega Delta Phi are sponsoring the event.

MEXA, which has 400 chapters across the United States, prides itself on helping Latino students adjust to a college atmosphere at various campuses across the country. The group has also helped to establish programs to help Mexican Americans seek the resources to get into college.

“The overall purpose is to promote pride in people of Mexican descent,” said Monica Matteo, a social relations senior and MEXA member.

Political science senior David Khilji, the organization’s finance coordinator, said he hopes students will come to the event as a way to come together as students and a community.

“I think it’s going to go well,” he said. “A lot of people are going to come out and have a good time.”

Dan Soza, who was a co-founder of MEXA in 1969, said he thinks the event will make people on campus more aware of the group and its purpose.

Soza, who is now an academic guidance counselor for the Office of Supportive Services, said he would like MEXA to continue to give the campus a social consciousness.

And the group has other plans in progress already.

On Nov. 2, the group will be sponsoring a statewide amnesty march to push for a stronger coalition of undocumented immigrants.

“I expect a good camaraderie to be built, and that more people will be aware of the objectives of MEXA on this campus,” Soza said.

“I think throughout the years, they have been at the core (of the community). They are the backbone and spirit of the Chicano movement on campus.”

For more information, call (517) 346-7777.

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