Fifty years after student activists pushed UW-Madison to establish a program dedicated to the histories, cultures and experiences of Chicanx/e and Latinx/e communities, the university’s Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program will celebrate the milestone with a two-day symposium, titled Desde 1976: Education, Culture, and Community, this weekend.
“It’s such a great milestone for an ethnic studies program,” Hope Kelham, communications specialist for the Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program, tells Madison365. “We will have some alumni back for this event … folks who started this program back when they were students at UW. The program was a direct result of student activism and student protest demand.”
Desde 1976: Education, Culture, and Community will take place Oct. 16-17 at Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall on the UW-Madison campus, bringing together program founders, alumni, faculty, students and community partners to reflect on five decades of scholarship, education and community engagement.
The celebration comes from a movement that began with student activism in the 1970s.
“Students began organizing in 1972, seeking greater representation and scholarly attention to Chicanx/e and Latinx/e communities at UW-Madison,” Kelham says. “Their efforts included lobbying, organizing and protesting before the university established the Chicano Studies Program in 1976.”
The movement followed the establishment of African American Studies at UW-Madison in 1969 and reflected a broader push for ethnic studies and greater representation on college campuses.
“It was really students organizing and lobbying and basically just protesting until they were heard,” Kelham says.
This weekend’s 50th anniversary symposium will look at how that initial student movement has developed into a program whose graduates have gone on to careers in law, health, education, entertainment and numerous other fields.
Friday’s events will begin with the opening of an exhibit documenting the program’s history, followed by a panel featuring some of the program’s founders. “We are really excited about the large exhibit that will be on display the whole weekend,” Kelham says. “The exhibit includes a 76-page booklet chronicling the program’s history, including student activism, community work, faculty research and scholarship.”
Saturday will feature a full day of panels examining the program’s contributions over the past five decades. “We have alumni in law, health, education, entertainment — basically every discipline,” Kelham says. “The keynote speaker will be poet Rafael Pérez-Torres of UCLA, who will discuss Chicanx poetry and talk about dramatic poetry.”
Current students will discuss their experiences, while recent alumni will highlight the range of careers available to graduates of the program. Alumni, faculty and community partners will also reflect on the program’s relationship with communities in Wisconsin and beyond.
The Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program’s reach extends well beyond the university classroom, Kelham says, with alumni working across a wide range of professions.
The day will conclude with a reception featuring the Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band.
As a bonus, the program will also host a discussion on comparative racialization on Monday, Oct. 19, featuring scholars whose work examines divisions among racial and ethnic groups.
“The entire event is free and open to the public, but we’re asking people to go online and register so we know how much food we will need,” Kelham says.
For Kelham, the anniversary is also an opportunity to make sure the history of the Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program and the activism that created it remains accessible to current students and the broader community.
The anniversary exhibit will provide an opportunity for visitors to see that history in one place while also considering the program’s continuing role in Wisconsin.
The Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program is also using its 50th anniversary to look toward the future through a “50 to 50” fundraising campaign, with a goal of raising $50,000 in 2026 to support the next 50 years of Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies.
More information and registration for this weekend’s events are available at the website for the UW-Madison Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies Program.
