University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives Department.

Baez, Tony.

Papers, 1968-1979.

Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 8

1.6 cubic ft. (4 archives boxes)

ABSTRACT: Papers of a Puerto Rican activist and leader of Milwaukee's Latin community from 1970 to 1979. Baez held a number of positions in the areas of bilingual/bicultural education, juvenile delinquency, and curriculum development. The collection illustrates his work with several agencies, among them, the Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee, the Community Independent Learning Program, the Bicultural Education, and the Midwest National-Origin Desegregation-Assistance Center of the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Baez's papers include fragmentary personal material, such as correspondence, financial records, and writings and notes; minutes, memoranda, and correspondence, budgets, grant proposals, curriculum studies and reports, and student papers from the various agencies; and reference files, and papers from education conferences. After leaving Milwaukee in 1979, Baez returned to his native Puerto Rico to work with the youth in his home town of Caguas.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The papers include a small amount of personal material, but primarily relate to numerous Milwaukee educational and community organizations, with which Baez was active from 1972 to 1975. His interests in bilingual education and Puerto Rican culture are represented by reference files, and by some materials from several educational conferences.

In Tony Baez's personal papers may be found biographical information, including a copy of his baptismal certificate, a resume written in 1974, and a Milwaukee Journal article written when he left the city. Also present are a few items of personal correspondence from 1974, financial records in the form of canceled checks and statements of account from 1973 to 1975, and two of his brief, unpublished writings and other notes on Latin education.

Considerable material pertains to three organizations: the Advocate Education Agency (LEA), which administered the Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and the Community Independent Learning Program. The AEP-TCC-M, in 1973 and 1974, established seven teams of interns in neighborhoods throughout Milwaukee, consisting of UWM students trained to work among adolescents who had come into conflict with the law. Baez was one of the seven team leaders. Included are the mimeographed AEP-TCC-M and LEA memoranda, minutes, agenda, and budgets. Note the memorandum of 29 June 1973, for a description of the program. A proposal and other papers form Baez's Northeast side team are also in the AEP-TCC-M records. Baez's work as a member of the AEP-TCC-M curriculum committee is reflected by the files of minutes and curricula materials for the training of interns in the handling of judicial problems, incarceration, and the reentry of prisoners into communities.

The Community Independent Learning Program was a two-year alternative high school for which Baez taught courses in reading interpretation and Puerto Rican history. The papers include descriptions of the program, grant proposals, articles of incorporation and by-laws of CILP, teaching materials, tests and student evaluations, and correspondence related to CILP.

From other cultural and educational organizations smaller amounts of materials are found. These include grant proposals for the Centro Cultural Educativo Chicano-Boricua and the Community Cultural Center, both for Latin drop-out students. Also in these files are documents for youth work experience and juvenile delinquency programs, both administered by the Community Relations-Social Development Commission (CD-SDC). There is an extensive file of the papers of the East Side Youth Service Bureau of the CD-SDC, including minutes, some statistics on delinquency, and the program's by-laws. Baez also participated on a committee studying youth employment and recreation in 1974, and a few of his notes and minutes are present. Additionally, there are minutes of meetings of the Milwaukee branch of the United States-China Peoples Friendship Association, its membership list and memoranda, as well as the resolutions of the US-CPFA's national founding convention on 1974.

Though Baez was retained by the Milwaukee Public Schools as a curriculum specialist for the Curriculum Adaptation Network for Bilingual/Bicultural Education, there are only a few items related to the organization. However, there are reports for some committees of the Milwaukee Public Schools, including appointment and instruction, and finance, as well as some inter-office memos. Baez sat on the MPS Special Committee to Study Advisory Neighborhood School Boards, and some of its minutes, transcript of hearings, and other proposals are included. The committee considered decentralization and community control of school administration. Another MPS committee with which Baez participated studied the problem of school truancy. Correspondence of the committee and its report, surveys of student suspension and a study of cases in the Children's Court Center, are included.

The collection contains some material regarding activities of Baez outside Milwaukee in 1974 and 1975. A few papers from the bilingual curriculum conferences in Dallas and Chicago, and an alternative education conference at Detroit, indicate his attendance. More material exists from a conference in Cleveland on the educational needs of Puerto Ricans, and there are also notes and a list of participants from a seminar on Puerto Rican History and culture held in Maricao, Puerto Rico. Baez organized a delegation from Milwaukee to observe Puerto Rico Solidarity Day in New York in October 1974; his papers contain lists of the activists from Milwaukee, and their instructions.

Within the reference files are a variety of materials on Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican residents of the continental United States. Papers by various authors deal with Puerto Rican juvenile delinquency and drop-out students, and describe specific programs serving Michigan and New York Puerto Ricans. A file of teaching materials and bibliographies for bilingual education and Latin American history has also been retained. Several articles concern Puerto Rican history and current economic developments, including the Puerto Rican Civil Rights Commission report on naval activities at Culebra. A number of works are in Spanish, among them one regarding multinationals in Puerto Rico, a publication by the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and a report from the University of Puerto Rico on unemployment, dated November 1973.

There are two indexes to the collection. The first index is arranged alphabetically file name. The second index is arranged by the collection's box and folder numbers, which reflects the original order of the materials.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Luis Antonio Baez, a leader of Milwaukee's Latin community from 1970 to 1979, was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico on 3 September 1948. After graduation from high school in 1966, he attended the University of Puerto Rico and was active in community liaison work. In Milwaukee, Tony Baez worked for the La Guardia community newspaper from December 1970 to February 1971, and served as director of the Centro Nuestro-Inner City Development Program from February 1971 through June 1972.

Baez attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after leaving the Centro Nuestro, and received a B.A. in education in 1974. During these years, from which the major portion of his papers have come, Baez worked in a number of capacities, particularly in Milwaukee's Northeast Side Latin Community. He was a team leader for the Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee, and as such, was one of seven persons placed throughout the city to train interns for educational work with "conflict" adolescents. In addition, Baez was a coordinator and teacher for the Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), curriculum specialist for the Milwaukee Public Schools' Curriculum Adaptation Network for Bilingual/Bicultural Education (CANBBE), and an active member of the United States-China Peoples Friendship Association. His last position in Milwaukee was program coordinator for the Midwest National-Origin Desegregation-Assistance Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:

Baez, Tony. Papers, 1968-1979. Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 8. Wisconsin Historical Society. Milwaukee Area Research Center. Golda Meir Library. University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.

RELATED COLLECTIONS:

Sevilla, Arnoldo. Milwaukee Mexican-Americans interviews, 1974-1977. (Milwaukee Small Collection 174, Tapes 829A, and 852A-861A)

Young Lords Organization. Milwaukee Chapter. Records, [ca. 1971]. (Milwaukee Small Collection 108)

ACQUISITION: Presented by Luis Antonio Baez of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1979 (accession number M79-418).

PROCESSING: Processed by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt and Jim Giblin in June 1980. The finding aid was revised at the Milwaukee Urban Archives in May 1994.

MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:

Community Independent Learning Program (Milwaukee, Wis.).
Education, Bilingual--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
Free schools--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
Juvenile delinquents--Services for--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
Midwest National Origin Desegregation Assistance Center.
Milwaukee Public Schools. Curriculum Adaptation Network for Bilingual/Bicultural Education.
Milwaukee (Wis.)--History--Sources.
Puerto Ricans--Wisconsin--Milwaukee--History.
United States-China People's Friendship Association. Milwaukee Branch.
University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Advocate Education Program.
University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute.

MILWAUKEE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION 8	BOX	FOLDER
Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and Local Education Agency (LEA) Records, Curriculum Committee Papers, 1973	1	5
Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and Local Education Agency (LEA) Records, Minutes, Memoranda, and Budgets, 1972-1974, undated	1	6-9
Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and Local Education Agency (LEA) Records, Northeast Side Team, Proposal and Papers, 1973-1974	1	10
Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and Local Education Agency (LEA) Records, Program Curricula for Community Reentry, 1972-1973	1	11
Advocate Education Program-Teacher Corps for Corrections-Milwaukee (AEP-TCC-M) and Local Education Agency (LEA) Records, Program Curricula on the Judiciary and Incarceration, 1973	1	12
Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum Materials Conference, Dallas, Texas, 1974	2	1
Centro Cultural Educativo Chicano-Boricua, Grant Proposal and Correspondence, 1974	2	2
Community Cultural Center, Proposals, Programs, Notes, 1973	2	3
Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), Correspondence, 1973-1975, undated	2	4
Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), Curricula and Student Papers, 1974	2	5
Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), Organizational Papers, 1974-1975	2	6
Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), Program Descriptions and General Papers, 1973-1975, undated	2	7
Community Independent Learning Program (CILP), Program Proposals, 1973-1974	2	8
Community Relations-Social Development Commission, Paraprofessional Social Service Program, Memorandum and Program, 1974	2	9
Community Relations-Social Development Commission, Paraprofessional Social Service Program, Youth Service Bureau, Minutes and Papers, 1974-1975	2	10
Curriculum Adaptation Network for Bilingual/Bicultural Education (CANBBE), Papers, 1974	2	11
Detroit (Michigan) Alternative Education Conference, 1974	2	12
International Bilingual Bicultural Education Conference, Chicago, 1975	2	13
Local Education Agency, By-Laws, undated	2	14
Milwaukee East Organizations Congress, Inc., By-Laws and Other Papers, 1974	2	15
Milwaukee Public Schools, Committee on Appointment and Instruction and Other Committees, Reports and Recommendations, 1972-1974	3	1
Milwaukee Public Schools, Interoffice Memoranda, 1973-1974	3	2
Miscellaneous, 1974, undated	3	4
Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1974	3	3
National Coalition for Social Change, Papers, 1974	3	5
National Conference on the Educational Needs of the Puerto Rican, Cleveland, Ohio, 1975	3	6
National Raza Youth Conference, Austin, Texas, 1974	3	7
Northside Latin Coalition, Papers, 1974	3	8
Personal Papers, Biographical and Personal Papers, 1974, 1979	1	1
Personal Papers, Correspondence and Memoranda, 1974	1	2
Personal Papers, Financial Records, 1973-1975	1	3
Personal Papers, Writing and Notes, 1973	1	4
Puerto Rican Socialist Party and Puerto Rican Solidarity Day, New York, 1974	3	9
Reference Files, Articles, Puerto Ricans, 1968-1974, undated	3	10
Reference Files, Bilingual Bibliographies and Reading Lists, 1971-1972, 1974, undated	3	11
Reference Files, General, 1973-1974	3	12
Reference Files, General Material, Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, 1973-1974	3	13
Reference Files, Hyde, Douglas, "Dedication and Leadership Techniques," In Spanish, 1965	3	14
Seminar on Puerto Rican History and Culture, Maricao, Puerto Rico, 1974	4	1
Special Committee to Study Neighborhood School Boards, Minutes, Hearings, and Proposals, 1973-1974	4	2
Truancy Study Committee, Minutes and Papers, 1972-1974	4	3
United States-China Peoples Friendship Association, Records, 1974	4	4
Youth and Recreation Committee, Minutes and Notes, 1974, undated	4	5