MALLORY LORING/Arizona Daily Wildcat Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the nationally run comic strip "La Cucaracha," was the keynote speaker at Saturday's Hispanic Youth Conference put on by MeCHa. Alcarez told the more than 200 students in attendance, "Go to college. You'll make more money."

Weekend conference focuses on Chicano culture, identity

More than 200 Tucson high school students visited the UA on Saturday for a youth leadership conference that focused on Chicano/Hispano culture and identity.

The conference, titled "Unite: Revolution through Identity," was hosted by the UA's chapter of MEChA, a Chicano organization that promotes education and cultural and political awareness.

"The purpose of the conference is to give us a better sense of our identity and how we can use it to empower ourselves," said Orlando Salinas, co-chair of MEChA and a business management and marketing junior.

Salinas said that while the conference was open to everyone, MEChA primarily targeted high school students as part of an effort to promote higher education to Chicano/Hispano youth.

"We want to open their eyes to the college atmosphere," he said.

The conference, which ran from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., included 20 workshops on a variety of topics ranging from the portrayal of Latinos in the media, to Chicano arts, to salsa dancing, to the significance of low riders in the Latino culture.

Presenters included UA students and staff and speakers from across the state.

Veronica Martinez, a member of MEChA and chair of JUNTOS, a group that oversees MEChA and seven other multicultural organizations on campus, said she hoped everyone who attended the conference learned something new about themselves or their culture.

"I want everyone to unite and be educated," she said.

Kim Dominguez, a first-year student at Pima Community College, and a member of PCC's MEChA chapter, said it's important for high school students to know organizations like MEChA exist on college campuses.

"The conference gives the opportunity for young people to learn about our club," she said. "It's important because it supports and advocates Chicano views and voices."

Amanda Corillo, a senior at Cholla High School, and member of MEChA there, said the youth conference was a positive way of raising awareness of Chicano history and culture.

"It's important to know more about your culture and that you're not forgotten ÷ that people care," she said.

In addition to raising cultural and political awareness, Saturday's conference also aimed to familiarize students with the UA.

"We want to help our local high school students to get to the university," said Martinez, a political science senior.

Jennifer Rodriguez, a freshman at Cholla High School, said she plans to go to the UA after she graduates from high school and said she will be one of the first in her family to do so.

Rodriguez said that while her parents never went to college, they are determined to see their daughter attend a university.

"It's nice to have better chances than our parents," Rodriguez said.

Vanessa Gallego, co-chair of the conference and pre-business junior, said she wants to see more Hispanic high school students go on to college. She added that she hopes many of those who attended the conference will choose the UA.

"We want more youth to want to come to the UA," she said. "We want the numbers of Hispano/Chicano students to go up."

This fall, Hispanic enrollment was at its highest level ever with 4,950 Hispanic students entering the UA, up from 4,855 in 2002.

The keynote speaker at Saturday's event was Lalo Alcaraz, a cartoonist and journalist from Los Angeles who is known for his editorial cartoons and his comic strip "La Cucaracha," which appears daily in several newspapers including the Tucson Citizen and The Arizona Republic.

Conference attendees laughed and cheered as Alcaraz presented a sampling of his editorial cartoons on an overhead projector and even drew a few of his characters, including a caricature of George W. Bush, with a dry erase marker.

Alcaraz's final words of encouragement to the youth were simply, "Go to college. You'll make more money."