Roberto Hernández Center From UW-Milwaukee Celebrates Its 47th Anniversary At Mexican Fiesta 2017

After 47 years of its creation, the Roberto Hernández Center formerly the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute continues to service the Latino community by providing an educational pathway for Hispanic students to enroll at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee today.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

August 27, 2017

Milwaukee, WI - On Sunday, the Roberto Hernández Center (RHC) formerly the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute (SSOI) celebrated its 47th Anniversary at Mexican Fiesta 2017. Alberto Maldonado, the Interim Director of the RHC confirmed that there approximately 2,200 Latinos enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and more than 150 Latinos are expected to enroll each upcoming semester for the next 5 years.

The current UWM Chancellor Mark Mone was invited to help celebrate the 47th Anniversary of the RHC.

Jesús Salas and Ernesto Chacon were recognized for their instrumental leadership for the August 27, 1970 UWM Chapman Hall takeover, which five educational activists were arrested including Salas, Jose Luis Huerta-Sanchez, Gregorio "Goyo" Rivera and the late Marla O. Anderson and Dante Navarro. The educational activists and about 500 community members for the Latino community decided to takeover the UWM chancellor's office after the then chancellor cancelled a meeting with community members. UWM under Chancellor J. Martin Klotsche practice a discriminatory policy that kept Latinos from enrolling at UWM. In that year, there were only 15 Latino students compared to 25,000 Anglo-American students.

The educational activists succeeded in taking down the discriminatory UWM policy and the university began to accept Latinos and created the SSOI. On September 1, 1979 then UWM Chancellor Klotsche decided to admit Latino students into the universary.

RHC 47th Anniversary video at Mexican Fiesta 2017 https://youtu.be/WT3roNkzMyY


RHC 40th Anniversary video with news footage https://youtu.be/FzOpOxI_GKw