Photo courtesy of UWM
Alberto Maldonado
It had been a turbulent summer. Hell, it had been a turbulent decade, a rebuttal to centuries of oppression that had culminated in one of the most explosive 10 years the country had seen. There was still more to come, and in 1970, at the dawn of a new decade, there were absolutely no signs of slowing. There was a fantastic universal sense of community embedded in the people, and the possibilities of mobilization were proving effective. Roberto Hernandez was one of the most vocal Latinx leaders in Milwaukee at the time as a member of the Brown Beret organization. He was also one of less than 12 Latinx students enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the 1970-1971 academic year.Although the Latinx community was vibrant in Milwaukee, with more than 30,000 people living in the city at the time, the scourge of unfair housing practices, unemployment and under-representation in academic settings affected the people regularly. Means of transportation were limited for people traveling to UWM’s Kenwood campus from different parts of the city, and no kind of support center existed for the students. In the ‘60s the university’s School of Education developed plans for a Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute (SSOI) and, in 1970, suggested that Latinx students take their suggestions to the office of the chancellor. The students charged headlong and were met with arrests and aggressive attitudes by police. Undeterred, Latinx activists staged sit ins, protests, marches and campouts at the office of Chancellor J. Martin Klotsche, and the SSOI—forerunner of the Roberto Hernandez Center—was opened in the late summer of 1970.
In 2020, the 50th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium as the sit-ins at UWM coincided with a vociferous year of new protests over old but unresolved issues. The Roberto Hernandez Center has been no stranger in the arena. “The beauty of where we are now, is that all BIPOC resource office were brought together as one unit. With that came the opportunity to connect on levels that we weren’t able to before. We realized we had to have more discussions, more events and dialogue in regards to what it is like to be a student of color not only at UWM, but in the workforce and in the community,” Alberto Jose Maldonado says.
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Maldonado has been the center’s director for five years now and has seen the growth of the Latinx presence on campus. Prior to this role, was UWM’s assistant director of admissions, the first Latino in charge of recruitment for the entire campus at the undergraduate level. Dynamic things were happening, including the the annual Casa Abierta program, established in 2013 as a bilingual open house. These programs have proved fruitful and as of fall 2016, Latinx students made up 9.5 % of the student body. As of fall 2020 there are 2,340 registered Latinx students, 12.4% of undergraduates. It’s a stark contrast to the 12 from 1970. College affordability and cost are very important for the Roberto Hernandez Center, as UWM tries to draw students by developing more scholarships, securing grants and fundraising. “We want to cultivate a sense of belonging through the center, presenting a place for them to have to help them navigate college life." Maldonado says. Seven years ago, an undocumented student task force was established in order to support DACA students attending UWM, numbering roughly 300. “Through the task force, we work to ensure that there is a process in place so those DACA students that don’t qualify for FAFSA can be given in-state tuition rates to alleviate the financial stress of attending college," he says. They are walked through the process and in state rates can be implemented.Back in 2016, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had slashed the UW system’s budget for by hundreds of millions of dollars, freezed undergraduate tuition and approved legislation that shifted power on UW campuses toward administrators and away from faculty. “The most important thing is for us to work directly with our chain of command to show the effect of the center. We provide evidence of best results and outcomes as well as best practices. The center has a small staff, but open dialogues about what is needed is very important as far as partnerships and collaborations in the community. It is in the spirit of those early negotiations from the 1970s,” Maldonado concludes.
For more information, visit https://uwm.edu/robertohernandezcenter
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