Chicano Consortium - Beginning & Mission.

We rose from humble beginnings in 1992. With a handful of idealist individuals - ex- Mechistas, Raza Unida Party, Democratic Party - and just plain community folks who wanted a change to occur within the Chicano/Latino community. We began during the Reagan/Senior Bush administrations and, frankly, we had,had enough. Borne of frustration at the past administrations and the desire to serve our communities we decided to call ourselves the Chicano Consortium.

Our goal is, and has always been, to represent our community in every venue, to participate on boards, commissions and committees that address issues effecting our community. This philosophy is reflected in our Mission Statement. Perhaps it is the 3M slogan that states our purpose more succinctly, "we don't make the products, we just make them better." So it is with us, we go about making things better for our communities at large.

As a community based organization we have involved ourselves in defeating Proposition 209 and Proposition 187. We have coordinated the efforts in the 1996 Southwest Registration Project for Sacramento County. In that endeavor, we successfully doubled voter registration here, prior to the statewide effort. It is the empowerment and movement of our work that now enables us to have more input in our communities. It is our belief that too many years have gone where we did not exercise control of our own communities and those forces controlling our community's life.

Our ability to affect change is rooted deep in the respect and love for our gente. It is our roots that allow us to branch out and influence the political climate. A climate which bears the fruit of enlightenment, empowerment and betterment in our communities. We have witnessed change. We are proof of change. We are the voice of change. We continue to promote change with the full support we get from our community and we thank all of you for that support.

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The Chicano Consortium has established a website which, we believe, enables us to bridge communication between our constituency and the elected officials. This bridge of communication is just one way our concerns may be voiced. We hope you will find the website not only educational but also motivational and useful.

Join us in." Preparing Leaders Today for a Better Tomorrow. With your continued support we can truly make the changes necessary to make a better Tomorrow, Today, Right Now. Let's all of us pledge to each other to make a change for better tomorrow,

for it starts with each and everyone of us today....

Sincerely,

Efren M Guttierrez Founder and Executive Director