This article includes contributions from former reporters Caroline Krum and Marisa Angulo. 

Throughout the new federal administration, there has been backlash to student protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict in the Middle East. The administration states that these protests promote antisemitism. These attacks have led to deportations around the nation of college students.

At the University of Utah, student protests of the Israel-Gaza conflict were organized by the student-led organization Mecha.

Mecha is a student organization that has existed on college campuses across the country since gaining prominence during the Chicano activism of the 1960s. The U’s chapter has been active for over 40 years.

Mecha’s protests span beyond the Israel-Gaza conflict. The organization focuses on the human rights of minorities and promotes fighting back against institutions. Mecha particularly identifies as a leftist organization.

In the past, the group has had conflicts with the right-leaning organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF).

The Daily Utah Chronicle aimed to explore perspectives of the Mecha and YAF conflict a year later through the lens of both organizations. This article is focused on Mecha’s perspective. 

Nov. 1, 2023

In October 2023, YAF began promoting a screening of “Damaged” The Training of America’s Kids,” a documentary produced by The Daily Caller, a right-wing news and opinion site. The film features Chloe Cole, an activist who opposes gender-affirming care for minors.

Prior to the event, YAF put up flyers around campus with phrases including “The transgender movement harms women” and “Men shouldn’t be in women’s bathrooms.”

In response, Mecha members called for students to join them in protest.

Christopher Loera-Pena is currently a student at the U and a student leader for Mecha.

Pena, reflecting on the event said, “A lot of students on campus were rightfully angry, and Mecha helped organize a lot of these students, helped mobilize them, and it showed how unpopular YAF’s ideas are because they had no one in attendance. The room was filled with Mecha supporters.”

According to the University Department of Public Safety, the protest was filled with chants and a refusal to leave when authorities came to clear the room. 

Jason Hinojosa, who was captain of the University Police Department at the time of the protest, said in an interview with the Chronicle in 2024 that Mecha took actions beyond free speech, including “blocking exits.” He said that no matter what the message or political alignment is, UPD’s role is to make sure that student groups can have their event.

Pena says the use of university police, in general, “should not be on campus.” Additionally, Pena said the event was running smoothly until the police got involved.

“I think one of them got up in one of our members’ faces … The university police did not help ensure the safety of anyone. They actually only escalated the event. Things were going pretty smoothly until the police got involved and started detaining students,” Pena said. 

Disrupting a school event is illegal in Utah, which is why nine Mecha members were criminally charged. By refusing to leave the YAF event and not allowing it to continue, protestors violated Utah Code 76-9-105.

Free Speech

The right to protest is something that is established under the First Amendment in the Constitution. Additionally, hate speech is also protected under the First Amendment.

Natalia Garrido is a student leader for Mecha who works on the organization’s DEI campaign. She said Mecha felt the event YAF was hosting was promoting hate speech, which is why Mecha felt the need to protest.

“Just because you have a right to speak doesn’t mean you have a 100% chance that it can’t be countered,” Garrido said. “It’ll happen to both sides, but their right to speak is hate speech at the end of the day, and Mecha has been firmly on the stance of standing, supporting, and fighting for oppressed and LGBTQ people.”

Police Involvement

During 2023, there was another YAF event in April where YAF brought on speakers to speak about critical race theory, DEI and the LGBTQ community. Similar to the event Mecha protested in November, they also protested this event and faced similar actions with campus police.

Pena said a similarity between both of these events as well as other protests organized by Mecha was that among the protesters, people of color were often targeted during these police interactions. 

“A lot of the organizers who were arrested during the encampment were also people of color. So I would say the University of Utah Police does target marginalized students by targeting Mecha,” Pena said.

A report by the American Association of University Professors echoes these claims, discussing how police involvement on college campuses can lead to the targeting of marginalized communities.

Garrido says that people of color are “very much targeted,” adding that there is clear “racial profiling” and that the police intentionally detain people who “have strong beliefs and are brown.” 

Armed Queers Event

Gabriela Merida, education secretary for Mecha in 2023, said the year had made Mecha “experience a lot of tension” with the university. Merida believes this comes from them starting to discuss politics, which “obviously doesn’t align with the university.” Merida said the first sign of tension came with an event they organized partnering with the organization Armed Queers.

“The event was to highlight queer and trans revolutionaries throughout history,” Merida said.

To promote the event, Mecha advertised with posters depicting a queer person with a gun. 

Merida said Former Vice President, Mary Ann Villarreal and Vice President of Student Affairs, Lori McDonald, told Mecha, “We’re not trying to restrict your speech, but it’s highly encouraged that you change this poster.” 

The posters did not violate any official university policy.  

Merida said they also told Mecha to release a statement explicitly stating that they were not inciting violence, which she described as “ludicrous” because “the Armed Queers are very safe, they believe in gun control and have spoken on it.” 

Mecha’s flier for the Armed Queers event was posted on the national YAF website. This led to a backlash against the club and individual members.

“We got death threats … and the university didn’t do anything about it,” Merida said.  

Pena explains that there was a hypocrisy with the Armed Queers post, stating that while Mecha’s posters are “extreme,” YAF’s are seen as “normal.”

“And again, I think it just shows like any kind of left politics, any kind of radical politics that takes focus on student struggle are kind of demonized, whereas bigoted events like YAF are kind of seen as normal,” Pena said. 

Pena holds the same opinion as Merida about what the posters represent.

“We were doing an event with Armed Queers and we were talking about the history of queer activism. It was a really popular event, a lot of community members came, a lot of students came,” Pena said.

Sponsorship Removal

After the November 1 protest, Mecha was called to meet with Montelleo Hobley, the Assistant Director of what was previously known as the Center for Equity and Student Belonging (CESB), to go over expectations and guidelines for what CESB expects as a club sponsor.

For CESB, better communication meant informing them in advance of when Mecha wanted to have a protest and giving them the basic details of the protest.

Mecha said they informed their CESB advisor that they would be having their pro-Palestine protest later that week, and “the day after, they stripped us of our sponsorship and our high school conference.”

Documentation from Mecha shared with the Chronicle confirms they informed CESB of the upcoming protest on November 7, 2023. On November 10, 2023, Mecha took to social media to share a letter that CESB had sent them informing them their sponsorship had been stripped.

Garrido said the sponsorship removal hurt the organization and their efforts toward diversity. 

“When they removed this sponsorship, it was very frustrating because it’s not just, you know, these students here who are organizing on campus, but this is the future Brown students, Hispanic students,” Garrido said. “The high school conference was something very important that got Latino students to understand that they do belong on campus and this is how they can get to campus, so they punished not only student activists and organizers but the future of diversity.” 

This decision was made before House Bill 261, known as the anti-DEI bill, which prohibits public education from implementing programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. After this bill was passed, all sponsorships of student affinity groups at the U were removed, leading to all organizations losing financial support.

Looking Forward

Since the loss of sponsorship, Mecha has worked with other organizations to create what is known as the Legacy Alliance.

Pena said the Legacy Alliance holds historical importance for the U, allowing organizations to come together and urge the university “to further develop Chicano studies, ethnic studies, and the School of Transform.” 

Pena said the removal of sponsorship from the U pushed Mecha to organize. 

“This is a moment where a lot of students are seeing the truth and as a result are being pushed to organize and Mecha is hoping to be a leader in this, we’re hoping to make sure the student movement is fighting for a more democratic campus,” Pena said. 

Pena said there is still so much that Mecha is working to organize, including Palestine and the federal administration’s actions. 

“We’ve been involved in organizing on the streets for Palestine and for immigrant rights. It doesn’t stop there,” Pena said. “I think as long as the university is going to put up a fight and not be a place that represents students, Mecha is going to be there to make sure the university actually does its job of standing up for students and not just the wealthy donors or the politicians.”