Some defenders of the Aztlan concept retort that Aztlan is actually a state of mind or a metaphor for self-improvement. But even if it is merely a state of mind or a hope for improvement, it is one predicated on founding documents that issue a Nazi-like call to blood and speak of a specific enemy: the �brutal gringo invaders.�

Most students in MEChA are also Chicano Studies majors, and are steeped in an academic witches-brew that combines readings about Aztlan with study of sub-academic rubbish like the Whiteness Studies course. The more Chicano Studies courses a Chicano takes, the angrier he gets, and the more he wants to learn more about how a foreign race of gringo invaders is holding him down. In the business world, they call that kind of a closed loop �synergy.� I�m interlocking my fingers right now over the joy of it all.

Avila�s public radicalism has been little better than his scholarly exploits. The Daily Bruin did note his presence as a panelist at a Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000, �Queer Life on Campus� workshop, held as part of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Welcome Week. Avila declared, �To me, being gay is an advantage. To me, being of color is an advantage. It allows me to see things others don�t.�

But other than that one outburst of identity-group solidarity, Avila has mostly kept himself out of the news. That doesn�t mean he�s kept his nose clean; quite the opposite. During the March 5, 2003 anti-war walkout, a student in Avila�s class reported in a private communication with the author, �Doctor Avila dismissed [our] Chicano Studies 101 class telling everyone that he expected to see everyone there. My TA [teaching assistant] cancelled his other discussion for that (but not the Thursday discussion) and wrote on the board, �support and march [at] the rally.��

(I)n a faculty populated by professors who refuse to donate to the Democratic Party until it becomes more radical, Zasloff looks almost reasonable.