THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Centro Hispano’s 15th Annual Banquet

Transcending the fields to academia

by Jonathan Gramling

During the past decade, many Latino families have moved to the Madison area seeking economic opportunity and a better life for their children. For the children, academic achievement is one of the surest ladders to success and the better quality of life that their parents have dreamed for them.

Centro Hispano's annual banquet, held October 22 at the Madison Concourse Hotel, has always been a vehicle to emphasize the value of academic achievement and to reward students who have excelled. This banquet had a special quality and relevance because the keynote speaker, Jesus Salas, has walked down the path to economic opportunity and achievement that so many of today's families and students are on.

Salas, who was appointed to the UW Board of Regents in 2003 by Governor Jams Doyle is a third generation migrant worker who worked his way to the pinnacles of academia. "We migrated for ten years and it appeared for a time that we were always going to continue migrating, Salas said. It wasn't a straight line [to my present position], let me tell you that."

Salas' father traveled the migrant labor trail to Wisconsin many times and was bound and determined to move his family their. World War II interrupted the process. "He thought about relocating at that time, but he returned to Crystal City, Texas and kept on coming up here without us," Salas recalled. Then, we joined him in 1951. I migrated from 1951-1961. Then, we relocated to Central Wisconsin. Two years later, I was at Oshkosh State College." Slas was the only Latino enrolled at the college at the time.

Although Salas' father worked hard so that his children would escape the long, physically demanding labor in the fields, fate drew Salas back to the fields. A group of individuals from Madison were interested in setting up a daycare for the children of migrant farmers in the Wautoma area. They needed someone to help them set up the project. "They asked me if I knew where the migrant camps were," Salas said. "And of course, I did. I had spent ten years in Wisconsin migrant camps. We developed the first childcare center back in 1961. For the next several years, right after school during the summers, I would work for the migrant programs. And that took me back to the migrant camps that my father had attempted to prevent me from doing."

During his trips to the migrant camps, Salas was reminded of the poor conditions the migrants worked under and the low wages they were paid. "I got to see the problems of the parents of these children and felt we weren't doing enough simply by providing services for the children, that we had to do something about minimum wage, workmen's compensation, and those types of issues," Salas emphasized. "That's what led me to organizing the union." In 1967, Obreros Unidos United Workers, Salas' union for pickle workers was certified. However, its success was short lived as the company switched to mechanical harvesting and a contract was never negotiated.

Salas went on to teach social studies courses at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He is a former lecturer at UW-Madison in Chicano Studies and presently teaches an introductory course in Latino Studies at UW-Milwaukee.

Salas has maintained his progressive perspective in fighting for the rights and interests of the working poor and other disenfranchised people. While he admits that he has lost more battles than he has won as a regent - he was on the losing side twice when he voted against the tuition increases eventually contained in the state's 2003-2005 biannual budget. But he has also begun to win some. "In June of this year, we passed a resolution endorsing Assembly Bill 95, which waives the out-of-state tuition for children of undocumented workers," Salas said. "I introduced that resolution. I am very proud of it. I am very happy that my fellow regents saw fit to endorse it and it passed unanimously. So, we are sending a strong bi-partisan message to the legislature. The UW System has spoken and we hope the legislature will respond positively to allow children of unauthorized workers to come to the UW System just like any other Wisconsin resident and pay regular in-state tuition. What needs to be said is that our generation - I'm third generation migrant worker - we made Wisconsin a leader in the processing and harvesting and canning of vegetables in the nation, number one in peas, corn, and a whole bunch of other vegetables. Yet, we never asked Wisconsin for anything. We never made any demands. Our generation never really benefited from the UW System, but these children who are being recognized tonight will and that's what I'm here to recognize."

Salas has worked hard to get where he is today and now he is in a position to open the doors of educational opportunity wider for those who come behind him.

This year's Centro Hispano scholarship recipients were: Middle School - Julissa Oquendo and Stefany Beraldo. High School - Nereida Villapondo, Ana Cecilia Calderon Portillo, Kristofer Canto, and Erica Garcia. College - Denise Contreras and Ryan Vorce.

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