Latino Groups Vow Effort to Restore Suspended Club

Latino organizations in Orange County expressed outrage Friday over the arrest of four student protesters, who along with about 80 others this week staged a rally demanding the reinstatement of a club that has been removed at Golden West College.

Several Latino groups vowed to support the students in their fight to get the club, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or MEChA, recognized again by the Huntington Beach college.

The club was suspended last spring by the college administration, which alleged that it held a fund-raiser on campus where drinking occurred. The suspension was later lifted, but the college will not recognize MEChA as an official club unless new officers and a new adviser are chosen.

“The constitutional rights of the students were taken away,” said Vera Palomino, a member of Manos Unidos, a nonprofit Westminster-based organization that provides scholarships to Latino high school students. “It’s outrageous.

“We will stand behind the students and support them in any way that they want,” she said. “I hope the rest of the Latino community will stand up and defend these students.”

Sharleen Maldonado, chairwoman of the Hispanic Business Roundtable, a group made up of Latina business owners who address economic policies, said her organization intends to go one step further.

“The only things that will solve the problem is money and a change of attitude,” said Maldonado, who founded the Mexican American Women’s National Assn. 21 years ago.

“I am willing to help write and get grants from the federal government so the MEChA club will have the financial support to be a true support system for the educational benefits for Hispanics--because if the college won’t support MEChA, we will.”

Three MEChA members--Ana Carbajal, 28, of Garden Grove, Lupe Lopez, 21, of Stanton and Claudia Rochin, 20, of Westminster--were arrested Thursday as they sat in the college president’s office with their wrists linked in chains and combination locks while a crowd outside held a boisterous rally. It ended after a lieutenant backed by 42 officers in riot gear ordered the participants to disperse.

The women were booked on suspicion of trespassing and disrupting campus business. Rochin also was booked on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer.

David Rojas, 22, of Fullerton was arrested and booked on suspicion of resisting arrest and prohibiting police activity.

Rojas and Carbajal each were released late Thursday night on $500 bail. Rochin and Lopez were expected to be released Friday night.

John Palacio, director of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, and Arturo Montez, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said they will offer to act as mediators between MEChA and the college’s administration in an effort to resolve the dispute.

“We don’t have a stake in the issue other than resolving it,” Palacio said. “We are concerned, however, when a Latino organization is denied the ability to assemble and establish itself. . . . Perhaps an organization such as MALDEF can help come up with a positive resolution.”

Golden West President Philip Westin and MEChA President Luis Guizar said they would welcome such mediation.

Westin said he received numerous calls from people on both sides of the issue. Some offered support for his suspending MEChA last spring over an event it sponsored where alcohol was allegedly being consumed, and others disagreed with his action.

“I don’t know what the fallout is,” he said. “Frankly, I hope we get past this.”