April 20, 1986-San Antonio Express-News

Chicano academia discontent brews

Perhaps Pogo was right when he uttered years ago, "I have met the enemy and it is us."

Such a thought passed through my mind last weekend upon returning to El Paso for the 14th annual Conference of the National Association for Chicano Studies(NACS) at the University of Texas at El Paso.

According to Javier Barrales Pacheco, there is growing unrest among the students at many colleges and universities.

The kind of disaffection that can spell heightened activism. You know the kind, all one has to do is remember the turmoil and questions on many campuses in the '60s and '70s.

Pacheco happened to be flying to San Antonio from El Paso after having participated in the conference. He was taking a rest from his doctoral studies in ethnomusicology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Strong presence

A fine keyboardist and poet, Pacheco first made a splash in the early '70s, and his presence was felt at many national and regional Chicano arts and political movement events.

His poetry was powerful and fluid as he assailed social and historical ills. He was then a very young voice, one that pointed to an exciting future.

His current résumé is a compendium of major conferences, symposia and rallies. Sprinkled throughout are the many musical events he has hosted or played at from one end of the nation to the other, with sojourns in Mexico City and Puerto Rico.

A musician he truly is, as well as a composer whose works run the gamut of "música tropical." At present, he is playing professionally with Okan Ise, a Cuban Songo Group in L.A.

The music is progressive Cubano, a genre developed in Cuba in the '70s - a newer kind of sound which, be says, "has been resisted by the salsa fans."

Just as this new strain of music is being resisted, Pacheco spoke about the cultural and spiritual resistance now prominent in much of what is happening in Chicano academic and cultural programs nationwide.

"Once Chicanos and Latinos make inroads in the economic and social realms," Pacheco said, "they become role models for youth."

Pitfalls

Such role modeling has been a much-sought stage in the social development of Chicanos, but it seems that it, too, has its pitfalls.

"Students in many universities are raising issues which professors fear," he continued. "The movement created new possibibties for cultural and social development, but those possibilities have been curtailed by questions of tenure and research.

"NACS (in El Paso) underutilized their artists . . . many Chicanos have fallen into the tone that the media have set up, that America is moving toward tax, right, and there is a strong fear by artists, administrators and activists of a backlash.

"The ironic thing is that new rallies and gatherings point to a new activism, one which is questioning seriously the makeup of academia and cultural funded programs.

"The problems exist almost everywhere, as a new generation responds to its own needs and aspirations, and the old guard becomes even more guarded of its power and their hold on resources.

Poor models

"UCLA is an example," Pacheco continued. "We have a substantial Chicano faculty which does not relate to students, and these faculty members have evolved into poor role models who can only reflect accommodation and assimilation instead of a renaissance of Chicano/Latino culture."

The tenor of the conference was academic, but that is to be expected as it was an event designed to speak to academic visions and needs.

It was not a "Chicano Movement" gathering of activists speaking through the voice of the barrios, nor did it really delve into the poetics which helped to create the programs.

The topics ranged from "Regional Microsurveys for Research on Language" to "Descriptive Analytics of the Production of High School Dropouts."

Students from the area also spoke about the need for serious encounters with faculty.

They talked about classes that do not mirror the lives of Chicanos, but which only pose problems in social work terms.

Pacheco called the newly entrenched Chicano academicians the wrong kind of models.

"There are too many theoreticians and not enough real practitioners," he said. "Too many Marxist theoreticians, too many arm chair revolutionaries with tenure ... setting an example for even more complacency, and the issues are just as pressing now as they were a decade or more ago.

"There is a need to make NACS responsive to community and human needs, and stop its paying of lip service in order to put theory into practice," Pacheco continued.

No leadership

Observing that there is a new dearth in effective cultural leadership in the Chicano/Latino world, Pacheco proposed that the arts become a priority at such gatherings.

Pacheco, like many of the surviving artists and poets from the '60s and '70s, continues with his transformative vision of making society a cross-cultural realm.

The problem goes beyond the parameters of programs in academia or within community cultural settings. It is a problem that also plagues other kinds of programs.

Modern society is bent on the total institutionalization of its elements, and most social experiments have succumbed to its lures. Yes, we do need better leadership, but we have seen the results of promises, theories and lack of practice, and the people still hurt.