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WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Volume 162 No. 24 SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
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Chicano group helps build community By Kaya Henkes-Power STAFF WRITER
In Student Union Meeting Room 3A, the smell of rosemary and the sounds of chatter filled the room as a student club MEChA de San José hosted a guest speaker session Tuesday evening. The student organization MEChA’s name stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán which translates to Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán. Sofia Calderon, MEChA co-chair and political science freshman said the organization is a Latino social justice group that focuses on building a community for Latinos. “I am a firm believer that we can build community through activism,” Calderon said. “I want to help uphold the Chicano movement and the values they instilled in this movement.” MEChA has 500 chapters across United States college campuses and was founded in 1969, according to a webpage from the University of Washington. As attendees waited for speaker María Ramos Bracamontes they were asked to get into groups and answer introduction questions led by Yasmine Ortiz, co-chair and political science sophomore. Ortiz asked students three questions each so individuals can get to know each other and meet new people. As the organization prepared for Ramos Bracamontes, biology junior Nataly Manzanero and Calderon prepared an altar featuring famous
Latina women. Photographs were placed on top of a woven fabric with lace that was surrounded by cinnamon sticks, rosemary, and flowers. “Connecting in this sense to our ancestral roots, I think is really grounding and almost tear-jerking in some way,” said Calderon. Ramos Bracamontes helped establish Campesina Womb Justice, a mutual aid project for womb justice and healing indigenous farmers, according to its Instagram page. Ramos Bracamontes said the project began during the pandemic while she was pregnant and working as a midwife serving undocumented indigenous women from the Highlands of Oaxaca. “My work has been through being a midwife and attending the sacred ceremony of birth and
KAYA HENKES-POWER | SPARTAN DAILY
Professor Johnny Carlos Ramirez (left) laughs as biology junior Nataly Manzanero and speaker María Ramos Bracamontes share a hug.
Indigenous practice of purifying or cleansing the soul of negative thoughts of a person or place, according to a webpage for the Indigenous Corporate Training Inc.
Ancestry is a gift that is abundant, that is richness and that is going to help us heal. María Ramos Bracamontes Co-founder of Campesina Womb Justice
protecting that journey,” Ramos Bracamontes said. “But also (through) new families and providing Mexican traditional healing.” Before beginning to speak, she had the group meditate while she walked around smudging the room with essential oils. Smudging is an
While individuals mediated they deeply inhaled the fresh rosemary Ramos Bracamontes handed out. Rosemary not only has health benefits including combating fatigue and depression, it also is used in spiritual cleansing practices, according to the website for UIC Heritage
Garden. “You can use (rosemary) for stings, like nasal stings or your congestion,” Ramos Bracamontes said. Ramos Bracamontes was invited to speak to MEChA as a way to honor Women's History Month. “I think that gender is more spiritual than physical, so we want to include everybody,” said Ramos Bracamontes. Calderon followed the Campesina Womb Justice movement since high school and felt it was fitting to invite Ramos Bracamontes to talk about women, indigeneity, the Latina community and the significance of being connected to one’s ancestral roots. Ramos Bracamontes said she aims to teach and is looking for funding to train female farm workers to use Mexican traditional healing practices such as sobada to work as community healers. Sobadas is a traditional
Mexican massage that is used to treat digestive issues, musculoskeletal pain and infertility to manage trauma both in the mind and body according to a 2020 article from South Side Weekly. “I am teaching this so campesinas don’t have to break their back in the fields, be harassed, and polluted in the fields,” Ramos Bracamontes said. In California alone 80% of women farmworkers have experienced some form of sexual harassment, according to the Center for Farmworker Families website. Ramos Bracamontes said she was born in Cocula, Jalisco which has a small community of indigenous people. As of 2020 the Cocula Territory has a population of 16,550, according to a map from the City Population website. Along with Ramos Bracamontes attendees shared their own ancestral
heritage, with many sharing a similar background. “Ancestry is a gift that is abundant, that is richness and that is going to help us heal,” Ramos Bracamontes said. She said using traditions including utilizing natural remedies allows individuals to connect more with their ancestry. Calderon said she experienced goose bumps throughout the speaking event because Ramos Bracamontes was from the same hometown as her mother. “The way she just elaborated on holistic healing as well as going back to natural remedies which is in and of itself a way to honor our heritage,” Calderon said. “I thought it was beautiful, intimate, sacred and fulfilling.”
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Success center teaches financial stability By Melany Gutierrez
study with other students, according to its website. Centro strives for The Chicanx/Latinx community outreach and Student Success Center, advocacy in many ways: also known as Centro, One being through their hosted a discussion student employees called workshop on Tuesday student success leaders evening about creating who offer personal advice financial stability through and academic support budgeting with a goal to through workshops, foster connections and seminars and other conversations between events, according to the San José State students same website. who are financially Centro Student Success struggling. Leader and Chicanx Centro is a safe and studies senior, Carolina empowering learning Medina said she felt space for Latinx students inspired to create and on campus where they can host the workshop, connect, collaborate or which she named “Girl
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Math,” because of the like she has people she financial struggles she’s can rely on financially. encountering herself as a “Most of my tuition college student. gets paid for by grants,”
like) books, being able to go out with your friends (and) buying things that you need in life to survive whether that's groceries, new clothes, a new laptop because the old one broke — whatever it is.” Medina said she started feeling the need to enforce financial planning and literacy into her life when she noticed that her Carolina Medina paychecks would not last Centro Student Success Leader long, which led to worse and Chicanx studies senior financial situations such as having to rely on credit cards. She said she often had to She said as a first- Medina said. “On top of generation college that I have, as with any watch her bank accounts student, she does not feel student comes (expenses go negative which was
I think that sometimes we’re ashamed to say that we’re broke, but in reality, it’s the truth.
something she wanted to openly discuss with people who are facing similar issues as her — to remove the stigma around having financial issues. “I think that sometimes we're ashamed to say that we're broke, but in reality, it's the truth,” Medina said. Aerospace engineering junior Katy Reyes said she feels uncomfortable talking to anyone about money, which is what attracted her to the workshop. She said the discussion GIRL MATH | Page 2