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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