Fall 2008
Meet and Greet Fall 2008
The goal of this meet and greet is to welcome new and returning students and to inform students about classes in Chicana/o Studies and Black Studies at Mesa College.
Date: September 4, 2008
Time: 12:45pm-2pm
Location: G-101
Sponsored by the Chicana/o Studies Department
and the Black Studies Department
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.sdmesa.edu/chicano-studies
(619) 388-2368
http://www.sdmesa.edu/black-studies
(619) 388-2753
CHICANO LATINO HERITAGE CELEBRATION FALL 2008
Spring 2008
Cinco de Mayo 2008
Barrio Baroque
Rats, Rants, and Other Turf Wars of the Naked Tongue
Mesa Women History Month program
Featuring a presentation on "Chicanas In the Arts" from the new book Chicano San Diego (Ed. Richard Griswold). See http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1860.htm
Panel Discussion by: Prof. Rita Sanchez, Gracia Molina de Pick (founder of Chicano Studies Dept at Mesa College), Olivia Puentes-Reynolds and Prof. Alessandra Moctezuma.
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 12:30pm
Location: LRC 435
Cesar E. Chavez Celebration
Mesa College Celebrates the Life and Spirit of Cesar Chavez with many Campus and Community Events planned March 13- April 2. Details and additional details
Remembering Professor Dr. René Nuñez
(3/10/1936-6/30/2006):
Dr. Nuñez's role in proposing curricula and in giving impetus to the Chicano education movement resulted in his being hired in 1969 as one of the first educators in what today is San Diego State University's Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies. Dr. Nuñez, who retired a few years ago due to failing health, died June 30 at his mother-in-law's home in San Diego. He was 70. A celebration of life is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Aug. 26, 2006 at Chicano Park. Dr. Nuñez's family is establishing an education fund for his youngest son.
By Cesar A. Gonzalez-T.,
Prof. Emeritus San Diego Mesa College
I vividly recall René Nuñez as a major and respected voice in Los Angeles responding to and following-up on the student blowouts of March 1968. On April 4--the day of the assassination of Martin Luther King--I'd returned to East LA from Mexico, D.F.--right before the massacre of students and community at Nonoalco-Tlaltelolco--where I'd been working at a community development project.
René was an active member of the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EICC) founded and chaired by Rev. Vahac Mardirosian. The EICC was at the center of the community working for educational reform in the city after the blowouts, and a part of the community response to the arrest of the LA Thirteen, which included Sal Castro. René was a major voice in the EICC; and, as far as I can recall, he was also a founding member of the Mexican American Advisory Committee to the LA Board of Education that grew out of the EICC. His was consistently an assertive, thoughtful, and courageous voice.
I began teaching at Mesa College on Sept. 1970, at the beginning of the Chicano Studies Department established by Gracia Molina de Pick. This was days after the police riots at the Chicano Moratorium in East LA on August 29, resulting in the murder of Ruben Salazar. It must be noted and remembered that in that 1970-71, it was René who first suggested the idea of a Community College Consortium proposal to the feds to recruit, retain, tutor Chicana/o students. This was a precursor of EOPS. As Gus Chavez will recall, we asked for $700, 000.00 and received $250,000.00 the first year.
The first major planning meeting was called by René, for Sunday, January 17 of 1971. Bette and I remember it well because it was my birthday, and we celebrated with a bowl of menudo standing up outside a little street take-out place near St. Rita's Church off Imperial Ave., before going to the meeting. It was held at the home of Paul Jacques' sister, Evelyn, then a student at Southwestern, and of Evelyn's husband Dale Bartmas. They are parents of Adela Jacobson, formerly Director of EOPS, now Dean of Students Affairs Mesa college. René cleared a wall, got blank sheets of white paper, and some scotch tape. Then he began to putting up single sheets of paper with ideas as we identified them in our first brain-storming session. We would go on to organize and structure a proposal for the feds. As I recall, we were told that ours and a proposal from Puerto Rico were the only two presented that year that involved a consortium structure.
During these days, Paul Jacques, tells us, he was the founder of Chicano Studies at Palomar, representing that college for the Consortium; later, in 1972, he would be hired at Grossmont as the director of Multi-Cultural Studies, proposed by his sister, Evelyn, and other MEChA students, with him acting as their advisor. Evelyn, then a student, represented Southwestern. Gil Robledo--who would later run for mayor of San Diego, then teach at Sta. Barbara CC--stood for City College. I stood for Mesa College, and was the first Chairperson of the Community College Consortium. I can't recall who represented Grossmont. The final proposal was signed at Bette's and my apartment off of Cowles Mountain Road, with René and Gus in attendance.
René is established as, and will be remembered as a major historical advocate for Chicano/a community and scholarship. May he rest in peace.