Milwaukee Brown Berets seek to use storied past to make an impact in the present | WUWM 89.7 FM

Milwaukee has a long and storied history of social activism and is tied into the fabric of that story: The Brown Berets. The Brown Berets, a national organization founded in the late 1960s, are best known for their social commitment to struggles by farm workers, educational reforms, and the fight against police brutality.

Defined by their recognizable yellow blotch berets and accompanying brown uniforms, the Brown Berets continue to symbolize the struggle for civil rights within the Latinx community in Milwaukee and across the country.

Maria Cruz, a retired educator who also helps document the oral traditions of the Brown Berets in Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective, recalled the origins of the Brown Berets in Milwaukee.

“It was first in the Southwest (The Brown Berets Organization), but then the Midwest hit really hard in places like Kalamazoo, Michigan and Kansas City, and then of course Chicago and of course Milwaukee,” says Cruz.

Cruz explains that a large portion of the early Brown Beret members were tejanos who were migrant workers in Wisconsin. Cruz says that The Brown Berets’ Milwaukee sector was defined by a deeply ingrained passion for helping others.

“During the marches and demonstrations, they (The Brown Berets) were the vanguard, their job at the time was to take care of the demonstrators,” says Cruz. “They were the front line, they made a pact that they would stand on the line for others.”

In Milwaukee, the Brown Berets have taken a brief hiatus, but recently the Milwaukee chapter reorganized and current recruiter Bernie Gonzalez explains why.

“We started to see some things that were happening in our church. They know that the political situation did not help and that it somehow divided the country, ”says Gonzalez. “Hate groups came out and stopped hiding, so many people in our community felt fearful and we felt it was important to reorganize and reassure the community that they were. t alone. “

Gonzalez says The Brown Berets will continue to be a force of hope in the Milwaukee community and will continue to oppose hatred in the City of Milwaukee.

“One of the things that we started right away is that we took on the immigration issue, we went on a march,” says Gonzalez. “We marched and made some demands of the Biden administration, reminding them that there are still some people who live in the shadows … we want to hold institutions accountable – we are helping our community.”