Over 50 years ago, Latinx activists staged a sit-in at the UW-Milwaukee chancellor’s office to fight for resources to support Latinx students. Their efforts proved successful as UWM opened its Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute to support the needs of Latinx students later that Fall.
Today, the institute is known as the Roberto Hernandez Center and recently they've been collecting the histories of local advocates, leaders, students, staff, and faculty to build the Latinx Activism Oral History Community Project. These collected interviews will be turned into a podcast for Milwaukeeans of all ages to learn about the city’s Latinx change makers.
According to Alberto Maldonado, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center, the idea of an oral history project came from a desire to commemorate the 50th year anniversary of the sit-in at UWM in 1970.
He says, "The Oral History project became very prominent in in our discussions. So, it was out of curiosity and out of this need to find out more and to celebrate appropriately."
Ann Hanlon, the Head of Digital Collections and Initiatives for the UWM Libraries, explains the local implications of the oral history podcasts. "One of the, I think, big things that we really want to get across with this podcast is putting the context of Latinx history in the context of Milwaukee and in the context of the institution," Hanlon says. "So, specifically students at UWM will have the opportunity to understand their relationship to the institution."
Hanlon says this project is a valuable opportunity to use the vast resources and materials about civil right activism that are available for but often go underutilized. Hanlon says, "To take a form of media like a podcast and weave together these stories these interviews provide an opportunity that we really want to take in order for people to understand their history."
When discussing the possible impact of the project, Maldonado referenced how a current UWM student is the great granddaughter of one of the protestors from the 1970 sit-in.
"The most recent [person] that we interviewed was the great granddaughter of Marla Anderson, who is now a student here. Her great grandmother was one of those students arrested during the March and the Chapman Hall event in 1970."
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