http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Santa_Barbara_Events_Center

An excerpt from this article:

‘In the early 1990s, it became customary for the students to toss tortillas onto the court like frisbees after the first UCSB basket of the game. The team would then be assessed a technical foul for delay of game while the tortillas were cleaned up, which became infamously known as the “Tortilla Technical.” Despite continued pleading from the players and coaches to stop the practice, students continued the behavior.

‘During a game televised by ESPN, tortilla fragments got into one of ESPN’s professional video cameras. The school had to purchase a replacement for the network. The school established a policy of searching students for tortillas as they entered the arena and eventually the novelty wore off. While the tortillas have stopped flying at The Thunderdome, raucous students have brought the practice to Harder Stadium, home of the 2006 NCAA champion UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men’s soccer team where no such penalties are enforced.’

This explains the reference to “tortillas” in the UCSB soccer poster. I suspect that the UCSB students who first used tortillas as projectiles in the 1990s were motivated primarily by their low cost, portability, and Frisbee-like aerodynamics.

I note that Professor Wade graduated from UCSB in 1996 (http://departments.oxy.edu/sociology/Wade%20cv.htm), during the years that the tortilla-throwing fad was going on and was being reported in the UCSB student newspaper. Perhaps she had forgotten the history of the tortilla throwers when she wrote this piece.

The following piece from the Santa Barbara Independent is also of interest:

http://ucsbgauchos.cstv.com/genrel/042209aah.html

(and I LOVED the comment about the yankees.)

There is a lot of different reasons for this (collective dutch guilt for the near-extermination of their jewish population in WW2, the “cult” surrounding the house and history of Anne Frank etc.), but it is not, and never has been an OFFICIAL name of the club. It could be compared with the way The Green Bay Packers are referred to as “Cheeseheads”.

There is a vast difference between a group of fans taking a derogatory nickname and turning it upside-down, and a team or a school, that uses an ethnic slur as their OFFICIAL name, against the wishes of the people being slurred, and continuing to do so, even when all excuses are exhausted.

now, calling someone gaucho in argentina is a class-racial insult–just ask borges. but the gaucho–as the aboriginals in the rest of latin america–have this contradictory yet useful pride-shame value: “we’re all the proud descendants of these good savages but god forbid we’re still as poor and uncivilized as them. wtf, we’re just not them.”

Well, I feel sorry for the students.

Regards from México City.

Still, compared to borderline-racist mascots, that seems like a silly thing to get upset about.

Also, I think their mascot is some sort of big furry creature, which reminds me of the Syracuse Orangemen, which is an interesting story too: http://archives.syr.edu/history/mascots.html

The suburban school I attended was the “Chiefs”. Through the initiative of some more thoughtful students, it was eventually changed during my time there to the Patriots (because the new mascot was left for a popular vote by students, and it being months after 9/11…does that count as being ironic?). Every once and while I will get facebook friend requests from a fellow classmate in which their “about me” proudly states “Chief Forever!”. I will never understand.

Indeed, I do; I’m afraid I’m a bit tired this morning, though–sorry about that.

You do understand the difference between DEnote and CONnote, right?

This reminds me a bit of the debates that tend to flare up in LGBT magazine op-eds about the word “queer.” It’s still quite abhorrent to the self-identified gays from a generation when it was a caustic slur, and regard it as a barrier against acceptance as “normal.” But it’s an inclusive and empowering term to their successors, who feel they’ve fully reclaimed it from the days when it was wounding. The time has probably come for “Oriental,” too, though I doubt a suburban high school is in any position to lead the charge.

Actually, this is not meant as an argument for or against anything you said – I just really, really want some Red State school to have a team called The Queers! And then Lisa can post photos of the mascot…..