During this holiday season, Ventura College’s MECHA Club asks for the community’s help in creating a Christmas for the children of the Mixteco population in Ventura.
Many of the Mixteco children have never experienced a Christmas, so MECHA is sponsoring a fundraiser that will bring presents to them for the Christmas holiday. The fundraiser is collecting toys from many Ventura County organizations, Oaxaca businesses, churches and individual people in the community.
“You really don’t know the different elements you feel until you go and see how many kids smile,” said the president of MECHA Rodrigo Mendez. “I guess you can say for me it’s self-fulfilling.”
Mendez is coordinating this year’s toy drive, because after attending the event last year he became extremely motivated to help more children like the one’s he aided last year.
Mendez explained that there are approximately 20 indigenous Mixtecs from the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Coming from extreme poverty in their native home, many have come to California to find work, mainly in agriculture. A lot of the Mixteco people live and work in Ventura County.
MECHA noted that because Mixteco people speak neither English nor Spanish, instead speaking their own Mixtecan languages, they find themselves linguistically and culturally isolated.
As a result of this they have severe economic disadvantages in America. Therefore, the community’s help is greatly needed to bring luxuries, like Christmas toys, to the Mixtecan population.
Along with the Christmas toys a Christmas dinner will also be provided as well as holiday performances to entertain the children.
“It makes you very happy knowing that you brought joy to someone else’s life,” said Mendez. “Whether it’s for that day, that hour or the next couple weeks, but you’ve done something.”
MECHA’s advisor, Professor Mayo de la Rocha, has extended the toy drive’s donation period to Dec. 17. They plan to collect over 300 toys.
“We’re still putting in work until the last day because it doesn’t stop until the last day,” said Mendez.
Students can find information boxes and flyer’s posted all over campus. For further information, people can call de la Rocha at 805-654-6400×3123, or email MECHA at [email protected].
