Vanessa Perez said she didn't really learn about Latino history while growing up in Oxnard.

"I went to private schools my whole life, and the Chicano aspect was never instructed," she said.

That changed when she came to California State University, Channel Islands.

"I enrolled in Tomas Carrasco's Chicano history class, and it opened up my eyes to a lot of things," Perez said. "Now I can see the injustices and the racism, and the only way we can make a difference is if we educate our family and friends."

Perez, 23, hopes her new membership in Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) will also help her learn more about Latino history and student rights, making her more valuable when she goes into teaching.

"The only way we can make a difference is if we get involved," she said.

Perez was one of a couple of dozen students and staff members who took part in the chapter's first event, the Cesar E. Chavez Celebration held Tuesday in the university's science building auditorium.

During the program, participants watched a segment of the 1997 PBS documentary "Chicano! History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement," which highlighted the birth of the United Farm Workers of America union. They also viewed a documentary in progress by professor Elias Serna of CSU Northridge.

CSUCI's chapter is the newest one formed in the state. Other local chapters are at Ventura and Oxnard colleges and at Pacifica High School in Oxnard, said Susan Carrasco, chapter president. So far, 20 students have joined the university's chapter.

She said it was important for the audience to watch the documentary on the UFW, which showed the initial organizing efforts between Filipino and Latino farmworkers, their five-year strike and boycott against grape growers and supermarkets, the protest marches, the fasting by Chavez and his nonviolent efforts that eventually won the union a number of contracts.

"A lot of these students drive past these farmworkers every day on their way to school," she said. "We need to recognize the struggle of the farmworkers."

Carrasco said, "We also need to raise local community issues." The primary issue is the cuts in the CSU budget and in the Extended Opportunities Program and Services budget, she said.

Chapter adviser Frank Barajas said he and Lillian Castaneda have wanted to start a MEChA chapter on campus. Barajas teaches California and Chicano history while Castaneda is a professor of education.

"We've been waiting for a core group of students to organize MEChA," Barajas said. Based on the turnout to Tuesday's event, "there was a need for a MEChA chapter, a hunger for it."

MEChA came under sharp attack last fall during the California recall election when Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante had to defend himself against conservatives, including Bill O'Reilly, regarding Bustamante's membership in MEChA while he was in college in Fresno.

"(The attacks) have actually been a positive," Carrasco said, because it has drawn renewed attention by students to the organization.

"O'Reilly called us a racist group but we are for all students, all races," she said.

Supporters say MEChA was founded in the 1960s during a period of unrest at the nation's college campuses due to the ongoing war in Vietnam and the effort by Latinos, African-Americans and other cultures to gain a greater voice in society. Conservatives have attacked the group, saying MEChA members want to remove all Anglos from the southwest and create a new republic called Aztlan.

"In the '60s and '70s, MEChA was much more radical," Carrasco said. "But the students have changed. The group seeks to raise awareness of political issues that affect all our brothers and sisters and to empower them to make a change."