CHICANO STUDENT GROUP VICTIM OF HATE CRIME IN EL PASO

Iris Rodríguez, president of the Movement Estudiantil Chicano Aztlán (MEChA) at the University of Texas at El Paso, reported that vandalism motivated by hate occured at the group's UTEP office the weekend of October 25.

The MEChA office is located in the Union Building on the university's main campus. Unidentified vandals broke into the office and, according to Rodríguez, "They wrote 'pigs' on our calendar and where we had marked off Dia de la Raza, they put '187,' referring to Proposition 187 in California." In addition the vandals poured soda on the group's computer keyboard and destroyed collected newspaper articles about the Chicano movement dating from the '60s. Rodriguez said the vandal or vandals also poured soda on a computer owned by the Black Student Coalition.

Rodriguez said "this type of stuff should not be happening at a university." University and police officials said they "did not take this kind of thing lightly" and have launched a complete investigation. Police have fingerprints but no match for them as of November 4.

Source: El Paso Times