Arizona Professor Criticizes Campus Chicano Group, Incurs Wrath

by Jim Brown
December 3, 2003

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(AgapePress) - A professor at an Arizona college is under fire for opposing a holiday celebrated by a radical Latino group on campus.

At Glendale Community College, the Chicano student movement of Aztlan, or MEChA, is calling on Professor Walter Kehowski to apologize for remarks he made about their group, including his characterizing them as a racist organization. The members of the group, whose acronym MEChA stands for "Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan" or "Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan," also want Kehowski barred from expressing his opinions on school web pages in the future.

The group's rancor erupted after the professor sent out an e-mail criticizing a recent Dia de la Raza campus event designed to displace Columbus Day. Kehowski believes the holiday promotes ethnic separatism and that school administrators should not have condoned it.

According to Kehowski, most people do not understand what the Latino empowerment group is all about. "They don't really know much about MEChA and haven't looked into it all that deeply, and that's one reason why it's supported," he says, "and it's also, unfortunately, that they don't want to offend anybody, and they figure if they try to say anything about it, then it would be too much controversy."

The professor feels that he is being vilified for his opinions while the group is allowed to continue spreading ideology that he considers dangerous. "In these politically correct times, certain groups can get away with things others couldn't," he says.

Kehowski's opinion is that MEChA promotes ethnic separatism, but that some of their positions are also treasonous. He says the group has stated that its goal is "ultimately to take over the Southwest and impose, in a sense, its own government, its own politics, its own economic order. And in that sense it's very dangerous."

Both the chancellor and the president of Glendale Community College have assured Kehowski that no punitive action will be taken against him.