• Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

newsMilwaukee NNSMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / Home / Carousel / Milwaukee’s Latinos prepare to make history. Again.

Milwaukee’s Latinos prepare to make history. Again.

July 9, 2019 by Sergio M. González 3 Comments

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
  • Quetzalcoatl and the Aztec calendar between some Aztec pyramids. (Photo by Marcela Garcia)
  • Tonantzin. (Photo by Marcela Garcia)
  • El Dia de los Muertos parade 2017. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Two former Puerto Rico residents held a resource fair in spring 2018 for new arrivals at the Olga Village Senior Center, 722 W. Washington St. (Photo by Elizabeth Baker)
  • El Dia de los Muertos parade 2017. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • El Dia de los Muertos parade October 2016. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Cyclists take a break at Ciclovia 2015 (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
  • Miss Latina Wisconsin talks to kids about staying healthy during Hispanic Heritage Month at Forest Home Library. (Photo by Maria Corpus)
  • Youth participate in the "Day without Latinx" Immigrants and Refugees Pilgrimage for Justice on May Day 2017. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • This offrenda is one of a collection on display in a 2014 Dia de los Muertos exhibit at the Latino Arts, Inc. gallery in the United Community Center. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
  • The new Escuela Verde location is next to the Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center, with the Valley Passage between them. (Photo by Adam Carr)
  • A mariachi band takes a break on Mitchell Street. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • On Cesar Chavez Day, March 31, 2016, Latino Arts Strings students perform at the community celebration marking the Cesar Chavez statue unveiling on Chavez Drive. (Photo by Adam Carr)
  • This part of an extended mural on the wall of the Butters-Fetting building, 1669 S. First St., was completed in spring 2017. Led by artist Raoul Deal, it tells the 50-year history of UMOS (United Migrant Opportunity Services) and depicts the struggles of migrant workers and immigrants in Wisconsin. (Photo by Lydia Slattery)
  • Dinorah Marquez conducts Latino Arts Strings Program students in a performance for Jane Chu, chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, and other dignitaries at the United Community Center in November 2014. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
  • Zulay Oszkay, artistic director, Latino Arts, Inc., explains the significance of the Mexican Dia de los Muertos icon, La Catrina, in the gallery at the United Community Center. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
  • The "Day without Latinx" Immigrants and Refugees Pilgrimage for Justice on May 1, 2017, was organized by Voces De La Frontera as part of a national day of action for immigrant and worker rights. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Pinatas decorate the aisles of Mercado El Rey on Cesar Chavez Drive. (Photo by Jennifer Janviere)
  • The Felix Mantilla Juniors All Star Team featuring mostly players from the Milwaukee South Side Baseball Club, won the district championship in 2012. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
  • Ballet Folklorico performs a traditional Mexican folk dance at the auditorium at the Mexican Fiesta office, 2997 S. 20th St., in January 2012 to celebrate El Dia De Reyes, The Day of the Three Kings. (Photo by Jennifer Janviere)
  • A young girl in traditional dress joins in the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts in October 2016. (Photo by Sue Vliet).
  • Bruce-Guadalupe Elementary School is a K4-5th grade charter school operated through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the United Community Center. (Photo by Analise Pruni)
  • A customer waits for his food at Taqueria Arandas taco truck. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
  • Voces De La Frontera's headquarters is located at 1027 S. 5th St. (NNS file photo)
  • Buses from a dozen cities across the state carried people to the "Day without Latinx" Immigrants and Refugees Pilgrimage for Justice organized by Voces De La Frontera on May Day 2017. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Colorful ofrendas were on display at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts annual Dia de los Muertos celebration in October 2016. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Milwaukee artist Ramiro Sandoval Argueta painted this mural featuring hands rising out of the ground offering an ear of corn to the viewer on the side of the barbershop at 1622 W. Mitchell St. (Photo by Adam Carr)
  • Creative masks and painted faces grace the 2017 parade celebrating El Dia de los Muertos. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
  • Members of the Dance Academy of Mexico perform a traditional dance from Jalisco at Forest Home Library's celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month in September 2013. (Photo by Maria Corpus)
  • The "Mural of Peace" at 611 W. National Ave. was painted in 1993 by Renaldo Hernandez on the South Side of the Esperanza Unida International building. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

Sergio M. González is an assistant professor of Latinx Studies at Marquette University. A historian of 20th century U.S. immigration, labor and religion, his scholarship focuses on the development of Latina/o/x communities in the U.S. Midwest.

On Wednesday, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, will hold its 90th annual national convention in Milwaukee.

While this year’s LULAC convention will be the largest national Latino meeting organized in Milwaukee’s history, it certainly won’t be the first of its kind. That honor belongs to the 1971 Milwaukee Latin American Convention, an event organized to harness an upsurge in social movement activism among the city’s growing Mexican American and Puerto Rican communities.

In 1970, more than 20,000 Latinos called Milwaukee home. They were bound together not just by a common language and related cultural heritages, but also by shared concerns over employment, housing, and educational opportunities.

On the near South Side, where the majority of the city’s Latinos lived, 20 percent of residents suffered from unemployment, a marked disparity from the city’s overall unemployment rate of 6 percent. Latinos faced disproportionately higher rates of overcrowding and lower median property values than other Milwaukeeans. The city’s K-12 and higher education systems, meanwhile, failed to offer curriculum or programs that spoke to young Latinos’ linguistic diversity or cultural heritage, much less their lived experiences.

In response to these persistent inequalities, several Latino organizations emerged as vocal and integral members of the city’s larger civil rights movement. Like their African American contemporaries, Latino activists demanded full access to and participation in American political, economic and social life. Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans formed organizations like the Latin American Union for Civil Rights, or LAUCR, as well as chapters of the farmworker union boycott movement and the Young Lords Organization. These groups produced energy and enthusiasm for change but at times lacked cohesion in their organizing efforts.

To coordinate the work of these organizations, the LAUCR proposed a statewide meeting for Wisconsin’s Latino communities in January  1971. The Milwaukee Journal referred to the conference as the “most ambitious organizing project” yet attempted among state Latinos. The LAUCR sought to create a “federation” of organizations that could address problems cooperatively while reducing the duplication of services among a growing assortment of nonprofits across the state. Most important, attendees hoped this collaboration would empower Wisconsin Latinos of all backgrounds to confront current and future needs within their own communities.

More than 800 attendees from Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha, Delevan and Sheboygan assembled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and St. Hyacinth Catholic Church for the convention. With delegates from block clubs, social service agencies, churches, social groups and businesses, the meeting brought together a wide range of political perspectives, ranging from those calling for militant and radical change to more conservative voices. Regardless of their political orientation, most attendees agreed on the need for a more robust and organized movement to build a strong base for social and political change.

Participants attended workshops addressing community problems, including employment, housing, education, social services and political engagement. They also heard from representatives from national organizations. Carlos Guerra, national chairman of the San Antonio-based Mexican American Youth Organization, described the recent political success of La Raza Unida Party, which had shaken Democratic Party politics in 26 Texas counties. A representative from the Chicago Young Lords Organization, meanwhile, detailed the establishment of a free breakfast program and medical clinic for children.

The conference’s most thrilling development, however, were the actions taken by a committed group of Milwaukee Latina activists. Calling their initiative “Power of Women (POW)-Fuerza Femenina,” the 60-member caucus seized the conference stage and presented a list of their demands.

They argued that women for too long had been relegated to “cooking tortillas” instead of being equal partners in building community institutions. The activists consequently urged that Latinas hold leadership positions on all boards of directors for agencies and organizations serving Latino communities in Wisconsin.

POW’s efforts to empower all members of the state’s Latino community, women included, spoke to the conference’s central message of solidarity. Participants of different nationalities and citizenship statuses spoke of “una raza unida,” a united community with the shared goal of Latino empowerment. Local media described the multiday convening as “more than a convention” and instead a “coming of age” for the city’s rising Mexican American and Puerto Rican populations.

Since the 1971 convening, Milwaukee’s Latino community has continued to grow, both demographically and politically. The upcoming LULAC convention, which runs through July 13, represents another chapter in this community’s long history of activism and political engagement, one that places it now on the national stage.

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Carousel, Clarke Square, Community, Community Voices, Home, Kinnickinnic River Neighborhoods, Layton Boulevard West, Lincoln Village, Neighborhoods, News, South, Walker Square

Avatar

About Sergio M. González

Comments

  1. AvatarEduardo Briones says

    April 11, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    I have some information on the Club Latino Estudiantil of Marquette University from the mid 70’s.

    Reply
    • AvatarE.Gomez says

      August 31, 2020 at 7:58 am

      Hello Eduardo,
      I do some community history research, so I’m wondering if el club latino estudiantil de Marquette including Latina leadership. Gracias.

      Reply
    • AvatarSergio González says

      September 21, 2020 at 8:58 am

      Hello Eduardo – I’d love to connect and learn more about your experiences with El Club! If you’re interested in a conversation, please reach me at sergio.gonzalez@marquette.edu. Thanks!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement

How To …

How to avoid stimulus check scams

A new round of stimulus checks will likely also bring out a new round of scams. Here’s what to watch out for.

More "How To" articles

Advertisement

Recommended Reading

A Vaccine Reality Check

The Atlantic

UWM study on the state of Black Milwaukee describes the city as ‘the epitome of a 21st century racial regime’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland

The New York Times

These mayors want to fight Covid-19 and the recession with one big idea: A guaranteed income

Vox

The World John Lewis Helped Create

The Atlantic

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Videos
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect Radio

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Internship opportunities
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in