UFW support accepted, separatism rejected

? Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante accepted the endorsement of farmworkers in California’s gubernatorial recall election Saturday, and fended off criticism of his past involvement with a Mexican-American student group that opponents have labeled racist.

The United Farm Workers union is among several groups that have endorsed Bustamante while opposing the recall effort against Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Bustamante’s enthusiastic welcome in Delano, the symbolic heart of the state’s farm labor movement, was countered by questions about his fund-raising and his previous involvement with the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, or MEChA, while a student at Fresno State University in the 1970s. The group has called for a separate Chicano nation.

Bustamante said on Fox News on Saturday that he loved his culture and would represent the entire state if he became governor.