Taking it to the Max

Taking it to the Max

Max Espinoza battles for equal educational access for minority
students

By Patrick Marantal

Daily Bruin Contributor

To some members of the UCLA community and the greater Los
Angeles area, Max Espinoza is as committed as a knight in King
Arthur’s medieval court.

But in the battlefield of life’s haves and have-nots, Espinoza
fights not with swords, but with words that resound amid the people
with whom he works.

As chairman of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA),
UCLA’s Chicana/o student advocacy group, Espinoza represents and
works with members of an organization dedicated to achieving equal
access for students of color.

"Activism consumes his life, often to his own personal
detriment," said Levin Sy, director of the Asian Pacific Coalition,
an umbrella organization for 22 Asian and Pacific Islander groups.
"Studying, sleeping and eating are secondary to his primary
concerns of representing students in the community he serves."

Born in Mexico, the young Espinoza immigrated to Logan Heights,
a Chicano barrio in San Diego. Although coming from a low income
background, Espinoza said he feels very grateful for the support he
received from his family throughout the years.

"Regardless of my family’s socio-economic status, I feel
fortunate that I have very good parents who have been supportive
and instilled strong beliefs and values," he said.

After moving to the north county of San Diego, Espinoza attended
a school that he described as overtly racist and culturally
insensitive.

During his junior year, Espinoza was convinced by a friend to
apply for the Chicano/Latino Youth Leadership Conference, a summer
program in Sacramento dedicated to youth empowerment and
education.

"All my life, I was never really told by professors, teachers
and anybody in general, except for my parents, that I had
potential," Espinoza said. "(My friend) convinced me to apply
thinking that I had some sort of potential."

Although Espinoza was skeptical about being admitted to the 1992
conference, his fears were assuaged by his acceptance.

"I came back a completely different person. I was finally
awakened to a lot of things that I always knew were happening, but
I didn’t know much about," Espinoza explained. "It put a lot of
things into perspective for me. It gave all my potential and all my
frustrations a purpose."

After the conference, Espinoza could no longer stand the blatant
racism that he saw around him in high school. With the help of two
women, Espinoza co-founded a high school chapter of MEChA his
senior year, against the administration’s wishes.

While Espinoza was organizing the high school activist group,
racial issues were coming to a head on the UCLA campus as
Chancellor Charles Young refused to grant departmental status to
the Chicana/o Studies program.

The tensions on campus, coupled with the concentration of
Chicanas/os in Los Angeles, prompted Espinoza to accept his
admission to UCLA.

"Watching the news and seeing the Chicana/o protest (at UCLA)
from San Diego on television was definitely something that I
factored into my decision," Espinoza said.

And since his entrance to the university, Espinoza has been
committed to Chicana/o issues and active in the student advocacy
group.

"I think through Max’s hard work and dedication to issues, he’s
been able to garner support of the organization (MEChA) and other
organizations in Kerckhoff," said Dan Ryu, a member of the students
association board of directors and chief of staff at the
undergraduate president’s office.

Espinoza has moved up the ranks of MEChA quickly, becoming
chairperson his junior year. His fellow students emphasized
Espinoza’s marked change from an amateur politician to a leader at
the head of community issues.

"He’s become more experienced on a lot of things, especially
campus issues," said Reyes Valenzuela, a fifth-year political
science student. "When I first met him, he was still on the
learning stage of how the campus worked. Now, he’s on the forefront
of all this campus action," Valenzuela continued.

While striving to attain leadership of MEChA, Espinoza
emphasized two platforms. First he said that he would help the
organization’s members make the group a more effective voice in the
community. Second, he emphasized coalition building to work on
issues such as affirmative action.

"With the help of all the other students that were elected to
MEChA’s board, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot," Espinoza said.
"I don’t see us moving backward anymore. I see us moving
forward."

And other students have agreed that Espinoza has been effective
in carrying out his promises. Specifically, he has an understanding
of the need to build coalitions, said Sy.

But Espinoza does not limit himself specifically to working
solely with the UCLA community.

Last year, Espinoza was involved with the rest of the statewide
members of MEChA in an effort to stop the passage of Proposition
187. He is also working to unionize the minority labor work-force
in the Los Angeles area.

But Espinoza’s crowning accomplishment, at least in his eyes,
was the founding of the La Raza Youth Conference, an outreach
program for Chicana/o youth, and his position as chair of the event
for two years.

"To me, that’s one of my biggest achievements because it reaches
out to youths who wouldn’t have an opportunity," he said.

But throughout all his struggles, Espinoza’s reason for fighting
is to reform the systems of power which he claims have marginalized
communities of color.

"There’s an orchestrated, institutional effort being made to
disempower and dislocate people of color," Espinoza said. "We are
fighting against that whole institutional disenfranchisement of our
community.

"Things like Prop. 187 and the (California Civil Rights
Initiative) are made to deny opportunities to people. Both
propositions are reactionary attempts to continue to oppress
specific communities," Espinoza said.

Espinoza’s primary political concerns are curricular reform and
affirmative action. Espinoza emphasized the need to maintain a
relevant education and keep affirmative action as an assurance that
ethnic and cultural diversity is maintained.

"People of color have not been graduating at the same rate of
the Anglo population. We have to ask what is happening and why it
is happening," Espinoza said. "It is for that reason the students
have taken it upon themselves to take their own retention and
graduation into their own hands."

Although Espinoza has worked to achieve reform within the
university and other institutions, both he and supporters pointed
out that leadership is only as powerful and capable as its
supporting membership.

"From working with him in the coalition, I feel that Max is a
strong person because MEChA is strong, and powerful. I think that
he is as good as its organization," said Barbara Brazil, the
undergraduate internal vice president.

Despite setbacks such as the July affirmative action decision
and the anti-affirmative action initiative’s approval for the 1996
ballot, Espinoza said he still pursues activism and the need to
inform the community.

"Progressive activists are people that are doing something about
their education and their community’s future," Espinoza said.

"We hope to wake up those apathetic students not doing anything
because maybe they have been disenfranchised," he concluded. "(And)
we hope to create something positive and something that we can feel
good about."

PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin

Max Espinoza, chairman of MEChA and a leading campus activist,
is making a difference with his desire to end injustices against
people of color.

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