Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Anastacio "Tacho" G. Villegas, 1970's Community Activist And A Brown Berets Member Passed Away In Milwaukee

RIP Anastacio "Tacho" G. Villegas

By H. Nelson Goodson 
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

February 21, 2024

Milwaukee, Wisconsin- On Tuesday, February 20, 2024, Anastacio "Tacho" G. Villegas, 74, originally from Crystal City, Texas passed away in Milwaukee, according to family members. Tacho was well known in the Milwaukee Latino community for his participation in the late 1960's to mid 1970's Mexican-American Civil Rights movement in Milwaukee. Tacho as a proud member of the Brown Berets in the 1970's under the leadership of Juan Alvarez, the Commander of the Brown Berets in Milwaukee, he was among 500 educational activists on August 27, 1970 who fought against blatant discrimination practices at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that kept Hispanics from enrolling at the university. 

Tacho also participated as a Latino community resident and member of the Brown Berets to help change discriminatory practices against migrant workers in the State of Wisconsin and participated in local protests and actions to help Latinos to apply for jobs at City, County and State government levels that were not accessible to Hispanics, the protests were led by Salvador Sánchez, Dante Navarro, Lalo Valdez, Roberto Hernández, Jesús Salas from Obreros Unidos and Ernesto Chacon from the Latin American Union for Civil Rights (LAUCR) in the 1970's in Milwaukee.

Tacho along with those community leaders and activists previously mentioned were finally recognized and honored for their contributions to make Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin a better place to live for Hispanics after 31 years of their success to bring down the barriers of discrimination that existed in the late 1960's to mid 1970's, when the first article about the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Takeover of Chapman Hall was published in El Conquistador Newspaper edition dated July 13-19, 2001, Vol. 4, Issue 29, titled "Venceremos, The 1970 Struggle For Education" written by H. Nelson Goodson, which later led to other publications by other authors writing about the history of Latinos that helped shaped Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin.


Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA)

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