Chicano Conference Urges New Look at History : Education: Students say there aren’t enough Mexican-American studies programs. Activists and organizers emphasize the need to teach a non-European view.

Standing on stage in front of a large Mexican flag, activist Rudy Acuna urged an audience of Chicano students to continue a fight he started nearly 30 years ago, a fight he said has grown even more important over the years.

“We want you to be proud of who you are,” Acuna told the cheering audience of high school and college students. “We want you to know your history. We want you to join hands with other people to make change.”

A founder of the field of Chicano studies, Acuna was speaking at the first “Take Back Your History” conference, held Wednesday at USC.

Organized by community activists and educators, the conference was held to address issues of importance to the Chicano community, including the need for more information about Chicanos’ contributions to American history.

“For too long history has been taught to us from the perspective of Europeans, the colonizers,” said Marta Lopez-Garza, a sociology professor at Cal State L.A. “We are taking back our history. . . . That is what the Chicano movement is all about.”

In the 1960s, many colleges began offering courses in Chicano studies and some devoted entire departments to the history and culture of Mexican-Americans.

But campus offerings failed to keep pace as the number of Mexican-American students grew, and many scholars and activists complain that Chicano studies courses have been relegated to a second-class status.

Several hundred students from high schools and colleges throughout Los Angeles attended the conference and thousands more watched the program, which was telecast to universities across the nation.

“The Chicano movement is going high-tech,” said Martin GutieRuiz, a conference organizer. “None of the Ivy Leagues have Chicano studies. . . . We’re sending a (message that) with or without the administration we’re going to get Chicano studies to our youth.”

The theme of the conference was pride, change and strength through history.

Students viewing the conference were able to call in questions to panelists.

UCLA students cited the recent controversy over a fraternity songbook that includes racist references to a Mexican woman as a sign of the lack of ethnic sensitivity on campuses today. Students have held protests urging the university stop all funding for fraternities and to start a Chicano studies department at UCLA.

UCLA students Rosario Carrillo and Berta Cueva, who also spoke on the women’s panel, said the songbook issue illustrates the difference between various forms of feminism.

“We were very disappointed that the (white) sorority sisters didn’t support us,” Carrillo said. “Chicana feminism is very different from other types of feminism. We take into account class and gender.”

Oscar Pelayo, a 15-year-old student at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, said he was most impressed by the panel of women.

“The things that they said really got to me,” Pelayo said. “I never thought that we have them lumped in one certain area.”

The conference was an outgrowth of Acuna’s long-running battle with UC Santa Barbara. Acuna has filed a lawsuit against the University of California, arguing that Santa Barbara conspired to deny him a job because of his political activism, race and age.

“I was organizing against the university,” Acuna said. “I said there has to be a better way. I shouldn’t be organizing to promote my own cause. It’s a systemic problem. . . . There are a lot of other problems.”

The conference was free to students, and conference organizers arranged buses to take students to and from the campuses. But a few of the schools that initially agreed to allow students to participate backed out after agreeing to let students attend the conference, Acuna said. But some students decided to attend anyway.

“I think they’re afraid of any kind of brown pride,” Acuna said.

But some Reseda High School students decided to attend with or without the sanctioning of the school.

“If they’re going to penalize us for learning about our culture and trying not to lose our Hispanic identity, they have a problem. That’s all all we’re trying to do,” said Miriam Peniche.