Mission Statement
The 1969 writing of El Plan de Santa Barbara marked a historical event for the Chican@ community, where community activists, faculty, and students came together to develop a strategy to intervene in the educational system and take control of our learning, making the universities work in the interest of our communities. El Congreso, the official M.E.Ch.A chapter at UCSB, and community activists invite you to commemorate El Plan de Santa Barbara as we create a space of encounter and dialogue. In the celebration of forty years of movimiento, we invite you to analyze and reflect on the strategies and goals laid out by El Plan de Santa Barbara. Forty years after, capitalism’s efforts to divide and create hierarchies in our communities through race, class, gender, and sexuality continue just like the present common sense that promotes self-hate. Racial disparities in our community persist as we witness police repression in our barrios, an increase in policing and the criminalization of our youth, the militarization of the border, large school drop out rates, the destruction and closing of cultural centers, the cut in after-school programs, the displacement of our community for corporate interests, the dismantling of social welfare, the rise of the prison industrial complex, the mass incarceration of People of Color, the continual silencing, exclusion, and violence against the LGBTQIA community, as well as the destruction of our Mother Earth. In what amounts to a low-intensity war directed at our community we remain committed to the need to create change. Given the challenges we face, it is essential for our community to come together to collectively develop a new plan of action. We must not remain silent and dormant; the time for action is now!
Our vision is to bring together veteran@s, community, youth, students, elders, professors, children, artists, activists, and anyone with the same vision so that we may exchange ideas, generate new knowledge, create movimiento, connect, develop networks and make us stronger in this ongoing struggle. Join us for this historical encuentro on May 22nd, 23rd, and 24th at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Bring your dancing shoes, because this pachanga is going to be off the chain!
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E-mail us at elplan40yrs@gmail.com
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All donations are Tax-Deductible, email us at elplan40yrs@gmail.com for the Tax-ID #
Make money orders payable to: Associated Students
MAIL TO:
El Congreso de UCSB-El Plan Steering Committee
El Centro, Bldg. 406
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
