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Saddleback College, a community college in Mission Viejo, Calif., announced that it will be getting rid of its controversial “Gaucho” mascot, one many have said they see as a racist caricature. A gaucho is an Argentinean cowboy, and the mascot depicts an angry, black-haired and mustachioed man riding a horse.
President Elliot Stern made the decision after receiving a petition signed by 200 community members, as well as recommendations from the college’s three governing bodies, the Los Angeles Times reported. About 30 percent of the college is Hispanic.
“We also wanted to be sensitive to that 30 percent of our employees and 30 percent of our community that told us, dozens and dozens of voices in these town halls, that they had been made to feel lesser, that they’d been made to feel other, that they were embarrassed that employees had never spoken up about it until given an opportunity,” Stern told the L.A. Times.
A faculty group, called Retire the Gaucho, also put pressure on the administration. The group was responsible for circulating the petition. Criticism of the mascot has existed for at least a decade but grew in the past year.
In its announcement the college said the mascot was an angry racist caricature that relied on stereotypes and tropes.
“The Gaucho is a cultural appropriation that dishonored a symbol of South American culture by using it as a mascot,” it said. “The Gaucho is representative of an all-male culture and does not provide equal representation of female athletes and women in general. Women make up approximately 60 percent of the Saddleback College student population.”
The college is accepting submissions for a new mascot. It is in the process of converting merchandise, as well as other references to the Gaucho around campus.
