Young Lords/Puerto Rican Radical Nationalists During the Late 20Th Century

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Title Puerto Rico En Mi Corázon: Young Lords/Puerto Rican Radical Nationalists During the Late 20th Century

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Author Arguello, Martha Mercedes

Publication Date 2015

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Puerto Rico En Mi Corazón: Young Lords/Puerto Rican Radical Nationalists During the Late 20th Century

DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

in History

Martha Mercedes Argüello

Dissertation Committee: Professor Winston A. James, Chair Professor Vicky Lynn Ruiz Associate Professor Lauren Robin Derby

2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

CURRICULUM VITAE vi

ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION vii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1: La Isla 20

CHAPTER 2: Migration, Labor, Transnational Politics 60

CHAPTER 3: Chicago: Rising Up Poor, Rising Up Angry 102

CHAPTER 4: New York and Beyond 146

CHAPTER 5: The Young Lords Movement Dreams, Demands, Platform and Vision 181

CONCLUSION: Pa’lante 216

BIBLIOGRAPHY 219

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 Puerto Rican Population, States: New York, Illinois, 1950-1970 94

Table 2.2 Puerto Rican Population, Increase States: New York, Illinois 95

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation represents a long journey of discovery and development, one that allowed me to become immersed in histories that profoundly impacted me. Its completion would not have been possible without the support of many. The process has been long and often challenging. However, I was continually reminded of the reason that I embarked on this journey, namely, that the stories and histories of the people who surrounded me, are indeed important.

Attending graduate school would not have been possible without the financial support provided by the University of California, Irvine and the History Department. Additionally, I am indebted to the Schlesinger Library’s Summer Seminar on Gender History, and the Dissertation

Workshop organized by the Institute for Advanced Feminist Research at UC Santa Cruz and the

UC Transnationalizing Justice Multicampus Research Group, for their financial and academic support. The experience in both, proved to be invaluable. This work would not be possible without the assistance of the archivists and staff of various university libraries. The following libraries assisted me in my search for documents related to the Young Lords and the New Left:

Special Collections at De Paul University and Stanford University, the Tamiment Library/Robert

F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, the Bancroft Library, University of

California, Berkeley. I spent a considerable amount of time at the Centro de Estudios

Puertorriqueños and Hunter College, CUNY. And at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford

University, where staff members directed me towards important collections and endured my multiple requests for assistance. I found tremendous support and guidance at the Archivo

General de Puerto Rico in San Juan Puerto Rico and its affiliated Archivo Fotográfico. The

Laboratorio Fotográfico at the Centro de Investigaciones Históricas Sobre Puerto Rico y el

Caribe, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Rio Piedras, Biblioteca General, also proved to

iii be invaluable. I am particularly grateful to the staff of the newspaper Claridad, who allowed me the rare opportunity to access their archived newspapers, posters, and photograph collections and provided a space for me to work in while in San Juan.

Throughout this process, the dissertation committee guided me and offered warmth, understanding, and positive encouragement. I will forever be indebted to them. My dissertation chair, Winston James, came to my aid when I most needed it and urged me to move forward or pa’lante as some of us are fond of saying. His gentle prodding has gotten me to this final stage. I have also been privileged to work with committee members Vicki Ruiz and Lauren Robin

Derby, scholars whom I admire professionally and personally. Robin’s comradely and vivacious spirit is renowned; she has lifted my spirits many times. Special thanks to Heidi Tinsman and

Alice Fahs, who both believed in my abilities and in the value of my work. In addition to the members of my dissertation committee, UCI Professors Rachel O’Toole, Heidi Tinsman and

Steve Topik guided me through foundational coursework on Latin American and Caribbean

History as did Laura Mitchell in African History.

I am grateful for the work of two University of California groups. The Cuba and the

Caribbean working group at UCLA welcomed me into their fold of Caribbeanist scholars and at a critical juncture, served to enhance and revitalize my commitment to these studies. I am indebted to Robin Derby and Jorge Marturano for their endeavors in bringing us together and keeping us engaged and connected. Similarly, the UC-Cuba, Multi-Campus Academic Initiative coordinated by Raul Fernandez deepened my understanding of the histories of Cuba in particular, and the Caribbean in general. I would also like to thank Raul Fernandez, for his support and his ability to bring music and humor to those lucky enough to cross paths with him.

My academic family at the Claremont Colleges has also been a motivating force during critical periods of this journey. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Cindy Forster for the many, many times she mentored, advised, and provided sustenance and friendship. Sheila Walker, chair of

Africana Studies, offered me a place to grow as a teaching professional. She has mentored, guided and supported me in multiple ways. Abrazos to Sid Lemelle, Miguel Tinker-Salas,

Phyllis Jackson, Suyapa Portillo, Alicia Bonaparte, Jose Calderon, April Mayes who have all been an important part of this process.

Fellow graduate students Adriana Ramirez, Teishan Latnor, Danielle Vigneaux, and

Nick Bravo, offered their smiles, friendship and support. To my fellow citizen of the world,

Shreelaja, biologist extraordinaire, I extend a warm thank you for your friendship, calm spirit, and keen intellect. In the spirit of compañerismo, Diana Schwartz, opened her home to me when

I attended classes at UCLA through the UC Intercampus Exchange Program. Gracias mi hermana.

My final words of gratitude go to my family. To my sister Carmen: you are my hero!

My nieces and nephews give me great hope and pride in the beautiful web we call family. To my father, Papa Abiga, I offer thanks for always encouraging and providing for my education.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the loves of my life: Alfredo,

Sergio, Gabriel and Nicolas Arguello. My life partner Alfredo, has provided an incredible outpouring of love and support. To say thank you, does not begin to express what this has meant.

To my sons, new daughters and future grand-daughter, I send a loving embrace and my sincerest hopes that your future holds a more just world.

In the process of writing this dissertation, I have lost three of my most cherished family members: my mother Elinisia “Manisa” Rodriguez, my brother Dr. Juan Jose “Tito” Nolasco,

v and my cousin, Isis Duarte. All deeply believed in education and social justice. Their lives have inspired me and have kept me moving forward. They would have loved to share this moment with me. Manisa, Tito, Isis, I dedicate this work to you.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Martha M. Arguello

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in History, University of California, Irvine June 2015

M.A. in History, University of California Irvine June 2008

BA Scripps College, Claremont, California, Cum Laud May 2005 Honors in History, Art History

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

Summer Research Fellowship, UCI School of Humanities 2011 Transnationalism, Feminism, Justice Residential Dissertation Workshop Award 2010 Institute for Advanced Feminist Research at UC Santa Cruz, UC Multicampus Group on Transnationalizing Justice UCI Center in Law, Society and Culture, Graduate Fellow Award 2008-2009 Summer Seminar on Gender History 2008 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University Conference Travel Award, University of California, Irvine 2008 Regents Fellowship, University of California, Irvine 2005-2007

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Instructor, Scripps College, History 2011-2012 Adjunct Instructor, Pitzer College, Africana Studies 2009, 2011 Africana Studies 195F: Special Topics in Black Studies:

Teaching Assistant Positions

University of California Irvine, Department of History 2007-2011 University of California, Department of African American Studies 2008

PUBLICATIONS

“Sisters, Brothers, Young Lords, A Common Cause: 40 Years of Struggle and Remembrance” ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America, Winter 2009, p. 43.

vii

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Puerto Rico en mi Corázon: Young Lords/Puerto Rican Radical Nationalists During the Late

20th Century

Martha Mercedes Arguello

Doctor of Philosophy in History

University of California, Irvine, 2015

Professor Winston A. James, Chair

This dissertation examines the development of the Young Lords Movement. Founded as the Young Lords Organization in Chicago, 1968, it quickly spread into New York and multiple cities and attracted Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Chicanos and other Latin Americans.

Young Lords’ platform and protests demanded political power, community control of neighborhoods and institutions, and Puerto Rican independence. Although most studies place the

Young Lords solely within the confines of radical movements in the United States, my work situates island politics and the colonial status of Puerto Rico at the center. It also positions the

Young Lords within histories of the Caribbean and broadly, Latin America, and the New Left of the United States.

This study makes additional interventions, bringing together the history of the Young

Lords’ founders in Chicago, their spread into other mid-west cities, the east coast and Puerto

Rico. Rather than presenting a regional study, this dissertation shifts the focus on the Young

Lords Movement, comprised of the Young Lords Organization and the Young Lords Party. I

viii position the Young Lords as a transnational movement, whose direct actions and ideology included Puerto Rico. Uniquely, the Young Lords embraced feminist, anti-racist, ansocialist ideologies, coupled with a nationalist perspective. This re-formulation of ideas relative to race and gender adds an important dimension to this dissertation. I bring to this study my experiences as a participant observer, which coupled with my analysis of primary sources, challenges narratives that misrepresent or oversimplify the character and workings of the various branches.

My project draws on multiple collections from archives in Puerto Rico, Chicago, New

York, Berkeley, and Stanford; uses declassified FBI files, Nationalist Party records, private collections, periodicals, surveillance records of Puerto Rican Insular Police. This study examines visual documents such as photographs and posters. It incorporates poetry as a historical reference, and in deference to its importance in Young Lords’ iconography.

INTRODUCTION

Puerto Rico en mi Corazón

The Young Lords, a radical Puerto Rican organization, emerged in Chicago during the late 1960s. Their militant and widely publicized actions called attention to the large Puerto

Rican diaspora in the continental United States. Though born of urban North America, the

Young Lords embraced independence and rebel movements across Latin America. Central to their ideology, independence for Puerto Rico became a mobilizing slogan, underlining the vision that political power and self-determination in urban communities coalesced with the island’s independence.

In 1968, Chicana artist Felicitas Nuñez and several neighborhood volunteers painted a mural across the face of the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church, the site of the Young Lords

Organization headquarters in Chicago. Featuring iconic figures from Latin American history, the mural depicted the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Ché Guevara, Puerto Rican nationalists

Ramon Emeterio Betances, Albizu Campos, and Lolita Lebron, as well as Emiliano Zapata and the legendary Adelita of the Mexican Revolution. 1 Like this mural, in their flyers, newspaper articles, and proclamations, the Young Lords symbolically linked arms across North America, extending into the Caribbean and Latin America. Though largely made up of Puerto Ricans, the organization with the motto “I have Puerto Rico in my heart” attracted Mexicans, Dominicans,

1 Photos of the portraits that form the mural were taken by Carlos Flores. See: Flores Collection, Special Collections, DePaul University Library. In an interview of artist Felicitas Nuñez by Jose Jímenez, Nuñez states that she painted portraits of Betances, Lebron, Albizu Campos, and Adelita. However, she also states that she painted five portraits on the side of the church. The Zapata image is not clearly visible in the photographs. The Che Guevara image was painted on another side of the church. See: Felícitas Nuñez, interviewed by José Jiménez, August 25, 2012, transcript. Young Lords of Lincoln Park Collection, Grand Valley State University, Special Collections and Archives. http://gvsu.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16015coll6/id/91/rec/1. Photographer Carlos Flores, identifies the five portraits as those of: Betances, Lebron, Albizu Campos, Adelita and Zapata. See Carlos Flores, interview by José Jiménez, March 29, 2012, transcript. Young Lords of Lincoln Park Collection, Grand Valley State University, Special Collections and Archives. http://gvsu.cdmhost.com/cdm/ref/collection/p16015coll6/id/34/rec/16.

1 Cubans, Panamanians, African Americans, and Colombians to its ranks. 2 I argue that the emergence of the YLO points to broader narratives of migration and transnational activism.

This dissertation examines the development of the Young Lords Movement, its place in the history of Puerto Rican activism, and its relationship to radical movements in the United

States and nationalist movements on the island. It examines the internationalist perspective of this group.3 Looking at the legacy of pro-independence and civil rights activists, as well as the movements and the events that inspired their activism, I aim to capture the early history of the

Young Lords as well as the evolution of their political ideology. Many of the parents of Young

Lords members labored in the fields of Puerto Rico or in the factories on the island during the

1940s. Those who migrated entered agricultural, service, and garment industries in the United

States. Cubans, Dominicans, and other Caribbean migrants later shared similar social, residential and work spaces in the Northeastern United States. In Chicago and the Midwest, Puerto Ricans,

Mexicans and other Latin Americans converged in work places and social settings. Tracing family histories such as those of Young Lord members, sheds light on histories of labor, migration, social networks, and political movements. Hence, my work also examines the journey and adaptation of political ideology among Caribbean migrants, particularly Puerto

Ricans, during the mid to late twentieth century.

The history of the founding chapter of the Young Lords in Chicago has been largely overlooked, much of the scholarship focusing on the New York branch and its subsequent

2 Iris Morales, “Palante, Siempre Palante: The Young Lords,” (New York: Public Broadcasting Service, 1996), videocassette.

3 This includes the Young Lords Organization, national branch in Chicago, the Young Lords Organization in New York and the latter’s emergence as the Young Lords Party on the east coast and in Puerto Rico.

2 transition into the Young Lords Party. 4 Among the works that focus on political activism in postwar Chicago, notably Ana Ramos-Zayas, Lilia Fernandez, and Karen Secrist, all incorporate

Young Lords history amid larger themes of migration, community building and nationalist ideology.5 The complete story of the Young Lords, bringing together the history of both the

Chicago activists and their East Coast counterparts has yet to be told. This dissertation aims to fill this gap.

My work differs from previous studies of the Young Lords in various ways. First, I position the Young Lords as a transnational movement, one whose “ideology of liberation” necessarily included Puerto Rico.6 Culturally, historically, and geographically, Puerto Rico remains a part of Latin America and the Caribbean; its Puerto Rican diaspora is an integral part.

Hence, this study positions Latin American paradigms at its center. Secondly, this project provides a more expansive history of the YLO, highlighting its beginnings in Chicago while also documenting its subsequent expansion into other cities of the United States and Puerto Rico.

4 Frank Browning, From Rumble to Revolution: The Young Lords, Ithaca, N.Y.: Glad Day Press, 1970, represents one of the earliest works on the Young Lords; See also Agustin Lao-Montes, "Resources of Hope: Imagining the Young Lords and the Politics of Memory.” CENTRO, W inter 1995; Johanna Fernandez, “Radicals in the late 1960s: A History of the Young Lords Party in New York City, 1969--1974. PhD diss., Columbia University, 2004; Darrel Enck-Wanzer, “The Intersectional Rhetoric of the Young Lords: Social Movement, Ideographs, Demands, and the Radical Democratic Imaginary.” Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 2007; Darrel Enck-Wanzer, "Trashing the System: Social Movement, Intersectional Rhetoric, and Collective Agency in the Young Lords Organization's Garbage Offensive," Quarterly Journal of Speech 92.2 (2006): 174-201; Matthew Gandy, "Between Borinquen and the Barrio: Environmental Justice and New York City’s Puerto Rican Community, 1969–1972." Antipode vol. 34. No.4 (2002): 730-761; K.C. Diwas, “Of Consciousness and Criticism: Identity in the Intersections of the Gay Liberation Front and the Young Lords Party,” M.A thesis, Sarah Lawrence College, 2005; see also essays by Carmen Teresa Whalen, Iris Morales, Pablo Guzman in Andrés Torres, and José E. Velázquez. eds., The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998); Jennifer Nelson, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement (New York: New York University Press), 2003.

5 Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas, “La Patria es valor y sacrificio: Nationalist Ideologies, Cultural Authenticity, and Community Building Among Puerto Ricans in Chicago.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1997; Lilia Fernandez, “Latina/o Migration and Community Formation in Postwar Chicago: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Gender, and Politics, 1945—1975, PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2005; Karen Secrist, “Constuyendo nuestro pedacito de patria’: Space and dis(place)ment in Puerto Rican Chicago,” PhD diss., Duke University, 2009.

6 I borrow the term “ideology of liberation” from Iris Morales, as used in The Puerto Rican Movement, Torres and Velázquez, eds., p.212.

Rather than presenting a regional study, this project shifts the focus on the total movement, incorporating their attempts to organize in Puerto Rico. As illustrated by commemorative events of the last four decades, members of the originating chapters considered themselves participants of one movement espousing common goals, albeit with different local experiences and organizational strategies. In spite of the split between the founding chapter in Chicago and its second chapter in New York, both continued to organize under the name of the Young Lords, one as the Young Lords Organization (YLO), the other as the Young Lords Party (YLP). 7 Thus, my work makes an important intervention into the scholarship of the Young Lords through its comparative analysis of the two leading chapters. In addition, it documents the work of Young

Lord activists in other cities, such as Philadelphia, Hartford, Bridgeport, Milwaukee, San Juan and Aguadilla.8

Third, my work examines the ways in which Young Lords re-formulated constructs of race and identity. My comparative analysis of the leading branches and examination of the demographics of the cities and communities where Young Lords organized, help illustrate the differing ways that Puerto Ricans self-identified. As shown by YLO membership in the Chicago,

New York, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, the periods of migration, number of migrants and their perceived impact on “host’ communities, the intermingling of racial and ethnic groups, shared struggles and living conditions, and their racialization vis-à-vis African Americans, shaped the

7 Throughout this dissertation I use the following terms and abbreviations in reference to the Young Lords: Young Lords Organization (YLO) in reference to all YLO branches, collectively, prior to the split between the Chicago national branch and the New York regional branches including all New York City branches and the New Jersey. Young Lords Party (YLP) refers to the east coast regional branches that were established by the New York chapter. Young Lords movement refers to all branches of the YLO and the YLP. Note that the term “branch” and chapter are used interchangeably.

8 The scope of this project does not allow for an extensive discussion of the work of these branches. However, given the differences in demographics, settlement, and local politics, their inclusion provides a more expansive picture of the Young Lords movement, beyond New York and Chicago.

4 ways that identities were formulated and claimed. 9 The response to Young Lords in Puerto Rico illustrates yet another dimension of racialization and identity constructs. 10

Fourth, my project also builds on the limited scholarship on the women of the Young

Lords.11 In their internal struggles for gender equity Young Lords women profoundly shaped the group’s trajectory. As the organization grew, the ideological perspective of the YLO, moved beyond local issues and problems towards a more internationalist and decidedly left wing position, one that encompassed feminist, socialist, and nationalist ideologies. The women of the

Young Lords, particularly those in the New York chapter, were in the forefront of this development, forcing organizational shifts that resulted in new leadership, in a political platform that advocated feminism, and in practices that supported gender equity. Although the women of the Young Lords contributed to the political awareness of a generation of Puerto Ricans and

Latinos in the United States, their story remains largely untold. My project differs from prior studies in its comparative analysis of the struggle for gender equity within the Young Lords, highlighting the different approaches and outcomes in the various chapters.

My chosen topic as well as my methodology raises a number of questions. Foremost among them: What was the impact of the Young Lords in the communities members sought to

9 I build upon Jeffrey Ogbar’s examination of race and identity among the Young Lords. See Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, “Puerto Rico En Mi Corazón: The Young Lords, Black Power and Puerto Rican Nationalis m in the U.S., 1966 - 1972." Centro Journal 18.1 (2006): 148-69; See also Agustin Lao – Montes in "Resources of Hope: Imagining the Young Lords and the Politics of Memory.” CENTRO, W inter 1995.

10 A number of studies examine race and identity of Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora, among them Juan Flores, Jorge Duany, Winston James, and Ramon Grosfoguel. However, there is considerably less scholarship on the varying degrees of acceptance, rejection, and marginalization of Puerto Ricans born and raised in the United States by island Puerto Ricans.

11 Jennifer Nelson’s work on the position of the Young Lords relative to reproductive rights provides insight into the perspectives of some of the leading women in the organization. Jennifer A. Nelson, “Abortions under Community Control: Feminism, Nationalis m, and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City’s Young Lords,” Journal of Women’s History 13.1 (2001) 157-180. Lilia Fernandez devotes a chapter to the work of Chicana and Latina activists in Chicago, incorporating the work of Young Lords women in this broader discussion. See Lilia Fernandez, “Latina/o migration and community formation in postwar Chicago.”

5 organize? How does the history of the Young Lords movement shed light on histories of resistance on the island, particularly the pro-independence movement of Puerto Rico? How did the YLO and later the YLP connect to the Black Power and Chicano movements in the United

States? Moreover, can the Young Lords be considered a transnational movement, or one that is

Latin America-centric? What impact did the Cuban Revolution have on the Young Lords? What ideas, histories and icons did the YLO claim? How did the Young Lords re-formulate ideas relative to race and gender? In order to address these questions, I examine a variety of sources including photography, print, film, and audio sources.

I bring to this study my own personal experiences as a member of the Young Lords, my observations of the growth and the challenges we faced as an organization. This unique insight, coupled with my analysis of primary sources, challenges narratives that misrepresent or oversimplify the character and workings of the various branches. My project draws on collections and interviews not used in previous studies and it examines documents and archives in Chicago, New York, Berkeley, Stanford, Philadelphia, and in San Juan, and Ponce, Puerto

Rico. This study also makes use of declassified FBI files, Nationalist Party files, private collections, and the unpublished writings of several Young Lords. Additionally, I examine

Puerto Rican periodicals and the extensive surveillance records of nationalist and left wing activists by the Puerto Rican Insular Police. I incorporate poetry throughout this dissertation, both as a historical reference, and in deference to the importance of the genre in Young Lords’ iconography. While this broad scope of documents and resources presents logistical challenges, they serve to both enrich this dissertation and provide the necessary breadth that a study of the

Young Lords movement requires.

In this dissertation, I position the Young Lords amid the growing politicization of youth influenced by the anti-war, black power, Chicano and feminist movements throughout the United

States. The memory of anti-colonial and nationalist struggles in Puerto Rico and the presence of many imprisoned Nationalist Party members also informed the YLO’s political trajectory. As such, Young Lords members drew from multiple histories and embraced numerous influences, above all, the Puerto Rican nationalist movement, the Cuban Revolution and the Black Power movement in the United States.

In order to probe the ways in which migrants embrace and build upon political movements in their homelands and their transplanted communities, I seek to build on the scholarship of Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas, Jorge Duany, and Winston James. Ramos-Zayas posits a link between nationalist ideologies in Puerto Rico and the activism of Puerto Ricans in

Chicago. Similarly, Duany, and James, examine the cultural and political ideas that migrants contribute to their communities. 12

The concept of circular migration, a part of Mexican, Chicano, and migrant history for many years, also informs this project.13 In the context of Puerto Rican and Caribbean migration,

Jorge Duany advances this discussion, positing that the “vaiven,” or coming and going of migrants is a key feature of this migration. Gina Pérez also challenges earlier theories that

12See Ramos-Zayas, “La Patria es valor y sacrificio”; Duany, The Puerto Rican Nation; Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth Century America (London and New York: Verso, 1998).

13 See: Alicia Schmidt Camacho, Migrant Imaginaries: Cultural Politics in the Mexico-U.S. Borderlands (New York: NYU Press, 2008); Leo R. Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in America n Society. (Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1992); Donna R. Gabaccia and Vicki L. Ruiz, “Migrations and Destinations: Reflections on the Histories of U.S. Immigrant Women,” in Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive History in U.S. Women’s History, Vicki L. Ruiz, ed., with Ellen Carol DuBois (New York: Routledge, 4th edition, 2008); Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gendered Transitions: Mexican experiences of Immigration. (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2001); Hondagneu-Sotelo, “‘I’m Here, but I’m There’: The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood,” in Women and Migration in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, Denise A. Segura and Patricia Zavella, eds. (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007).

7 suggest “unidirectional” migration. In this study of migration between the Near Northwest Side of Chicago and San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, Pérez further illustrates the ways that migrants make economic, social, cultural, and emotional connections that are rooted in place but that also transcend geographic boundaries.14

My work expands this scholarship in that it examines not only what migrants carry with them, but also what they or subsequent generations re-claim as “belonging” to them. This is particularly evident in Young Lords, many of whom were second generation Puerto Ricans in the

United States who claimed an “Afro-Taino,” heritage and rejected Iberian and Anglo-American governance and influence.

Historiography

The most comprehensive studies of the Young Lords to date include the unpublished works of Johanna Fernandez and Darrel Enck-Wanzer, both concentrating their analysis on the

Young Lords of New York. Fernandez documents the rise and fall of the YLP, highlighting their

14 Jorge Duany, The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Gina M. Perez, The Near Northwest Side Story. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004); For additional discussions of circular migration see also: Elizabeth M. Aranda, “Global Care Work and Gendered Constraints: The Case of Puerto Rican Transmigrants,” Gender and Society, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Aug., 2003), pp. 609-626; Jorge Duany, “Nation on the move: The construction of cultural identities in Puerto Rico and the diaspora,” American Ethnologist 27 (1): 5-30., 2000; Ramon Grosfoguel and Chloe Georas, “Coloniality of Power and Racial Dynamics” in Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in the Global Perspective. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003); Carlos Antonio Torre, Hugo Rodriguez Vecchini, William Burgos “The Commuter Nation: Perspectives on Puerto Rican Migration,” Latin American Research Review, Vol. 31, No. 3 (1996), pp. 248-267. For studies of circular migration among Dominicans see: Sherri Gras muck, and Patricia Pessar, Between Two Islands: Dominican International Migration. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991); Patricia R, Pessar, A Visa for a Dream: Dominicans in the United States, (Boston: Simon and Schuster, 1995). See also Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsidered, Nina Glick Schiller, L. Basch, and C. Blanc-Szanton, eds. New York: (New York Academy of Sciences, New York., 2nd edition by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); Nancy Foner, “West Indian Migration to New York,” Linda Basch, “Transnational Social Relations and the Politics of National Identity,” and Karen Fog Olwig, “New York as a Locality in a Global Family Network” in Islands in the City: West Indian Migration to New York, Nancy Foner, ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001).

8 major protests, campaigns and successful reforms, particularly in the area of health care. 15 Enck-

Wanzer’s study examines the verbal and visual rhetoric of the Young Lords, as illustrated in the language, symbolism and actions of the YLP. 16 Both acknowledge the Chicago roots of the organization but purposefully focus on New York. Fernandez’ and Enck-Wanzer’s studies serve as foundational work, vital to our understanding of the history of the Young Lords.

A number of other works examine the emergence of the Young Lords in Chicago amid the broader topics of community formation, nationalism, identity and local spaces. 17 Among them,

Lilia Fernandez devotes a significant portion of her study to the origins of the YLO and their activities in Chicago. L. Fernandez’s dissertation examines connections between Mexican and

Puerto Rican migrants in postwar Chicago, as well as the coalitions and shared struggles of these communities. While the Young Lords are not the focus of this project, L. Fernandez makes a significant contribution to our understanding of this history.

My work diverges from the studies of Lilia Fernandez and Johanna Fernandez and challenges several commonly held perceptions of the composition of Young Lords chapters.

Johanna Fernandez describes the New York membership as primarily second generation college students. Similarly, Lilia Fernandez portrays the New York Lords as “largely college students who had begun leftist study groups” and juxtaposes them with the “street-bred Young Lords of

Chicago.”18 This rendering fails to recognize the fact that with the exception of perhaps one or

15Johanna Fernandez, “Radicals in the late 1960s: A history of the Young Lords Party in New York City, 1969— 1974.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 2004.

16 Enck-Wanzer, Darrel, “The Intersectional Rhetoric of the Young Lords: Social Movement, Ideographs, Demands, and the Radical Democratic Imaginary,” PhD diss., Indiana University, 2007.

17 See Lilia. Fernandez, “Latina/o Migration and Community Formation in Postwar Chicago;” Ramos-Zayas, “La Patria es valor y sacrificio;” Secrist, “Construyendo Nuestro pedacito de patria.”

18 This depiction aptly describes the group of students who contact the Chicago Lords and request to start a chapter in New York. It does not however describe the New York membership as a whole. Among the first members, there were former members of Viceroys and Dragons, street gangs from El Barrio. 9 two, the New York members were the “street-bred” children of Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx,

Washington Heights and the Lower East Side. Both studies overstate the presence of college students in the New York chapters, overshadowing the workers, the unemployed, the many high school students and dropouts who comprised much of the “cadre” and held leadership positions.

My emphasis on the local and transnational moorings of the Young Lords also distinguishes my work from that of Johanna Fernandez, Darrel Enck-Wanzer, and Lilia Fernandez.

This dissertation bridges the study of Ana Ramos-Zayas, by presenting a more detailed account of the YLO, their community campaigns, and the development of the group’s ideology.

In, National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago,

Ramos-Zayas places the Young Lords within the context of nationalist ideology and community activism in Chicago. Ramos-Zayas is less concerned with the campaigns and various community actions of the Young Lords, instead focusing on the impact of the YLO on subsequent generations. Hence, Ramos-Zayas identifies Young Lords activism as the cornerstone of subsequent “barrio militancy.”19 While she credits the actions of the YLO for current grassroots organizing in Chicago, Ramos-Zayas posits that the memory of island nationalists during the

1930s, 1940s, and 1950s serve as the “ideological referents” for contemporary Puerto Rican nationalism, grassroots organizing, and educational programs in the barrio.20 A dissertation by

Karen Secrist represents the newest work on Chicago activists, including the Young Lords. In contrast to the work of Ramos-Zayas, Secrist argues that the nationalism expressed in Chicago communities stems from a desire to claim local space. For Puerto Ricans in Chicago, the neighborhood rather than the island represents homeland or patria, argues Secrist. In contrast,

19 Ana Ramos-Zayas, National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

20 Ramos-Zayas, National Performances, p. 54.

10 my project posits that Caribbean migrant communities, particularly during the first and second generations, created re-formulated concepts of homeland linking the local to island histories. 21

Carmen Teresa Whalen makes a similar intervention in her examination of Young Lords organizing in Philadelphia.22

While my project focuses on the development of the YLO and its relationship to radical movements in the United States and nationalist movements on the island, several topics intersect this discussion. Among them, migration, identity, community formation and racial constructs represent important strands of this historiography. Puerto Ricans were among the earliest groups of migrants to come from the Hispanic Caribbean during the early twentieth century. 23 Although most Puerto Rican migrants initially settled in New York, many of the early migrants relocated as workers throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. 24 The migratory waves coming from the island reflected not only the recruitment efforts of specific industries but also the disintegration and displacement of rural farm communities in Puerto Rico and the spread of

North American sugar monopolies after the United States acquired the island. 25

21 This is not limited to the Caribbean migrants. There is a rich body of literature in Chicano/a and Asian - American histories that pose similar arguments. Unequal Sisters, and Memories and Migrations provide multiple examples. See: Vicki. L. Ruiz, ed. Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive Reader in U.S. Women’s History, 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2008; Vicki L. Ruiz, and John Chávez, eds., Memories and Migrations: Mapping Boricua and Chicana Histories (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2008); George Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993). For examples in Caribbean diaspora communities see Islands in the City: West Indian Migration to New York, Nancy Foner, Ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001).

22 Carmen Teresa Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” in The Puerto Rican Movement, Andrés Torres, and José E. Velázquez. Eds. 23 James, Holding Aloft.

24 Nélida Pérez, “A Community at Risk: Puerto Ricans and Health, East Harlem 1929-1940.” Centro Vol. II, No. 4, pp. 16-27. Various scholars discuss the dispersal of Puerto Ricans to the US and other countries, including Sidney Mintz, Virginia E. Sánchez Korrol and Winston James.

25 Virginia E. Sánchez Korrol, From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1917- 1948 (Westport, Connecticut, London, England: Greenwood Press: 1983).

The demographic shift of a significant portion of the Puerto Rican population places the topic of migration at the center of various debates relative to the history of Puerto Rico and the

Puerto Rican Diaspora. Much of the scholarship produced during the 1950s and 1960s focused on the migratory experience and the social and economic conditions encountered by the migrants.26 These early studies often overlooked the existence of Puerto Rican communities known as colonias, where Puerto Rican organizations and social networks flourished. Virginia E.

Sánchez Korrol’s pivotal work on the community formation and settlement patterns of Puerto

Rican migrants in New York during the first half of the twentieth century represents an important shift in this scholarship. Sánchez Korrol argues that the early Puerto Rican migrants formed an

“identifiable migrant community,” one in which they adapted Puerto Rican lifestyles and cultural norms to new surroundings 27 The ensuing organizations and social networks, Sánchez Korrol suggests, served to buffer subsequent migrants within an otherwise inhospitable environment and mobilize the community around political issues and social reform. After the publication of

Sánchez Korrol’s pioneering work, other scholars have utilized this scholarship as the foundation for subsequent studies of the Puerto Rican Diaspora 28

Analyzing seemingly disparate themes such as music, art, health, education, sociology, and identity among twentieth-century Puerto Ricans, contemporary scholars continue to identify the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States as a pivotal factor in the hybridization of

26 Examples include Daniel Wakefield, Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959).

27 Sánchez Korrol, From Colonia to Community.

28 See Carmen Teresa Whalen and Victor Vázquez-Hernández eds., The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005); Clara E. Rodríguez and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, eds. Historical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Survival in the United States (Princeton: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 1996).

Puerto Rican culture both on the island and the United States mainland.29 Through their status as largely first and second generation Puerto Ricans in the United States, members of the Young

Lords illustrated this hybridization, utilizing a political schema that incorporated issues relevant in the United States as well as the island. Thus, my work on the Young Lords contributes to the studies of Puerto Rican migrants in the United States through its analysis of the impact that first and second generation status has on perceptions of identity and community.

Puerto Rican activists in the United States constitute another strand of this historiography. Although early twentieth-century activists such as Jesus Colón, Rufa Colón,

Bernardo Vego, Luisa Capetillo, and Arturo Schomburg, left accounts detailing the membership, organizations and political involvement of Puerto Ricans in the United States, these sources were not incorporated into the scholarship until the 1980s and 1990s. 30 The work of Alfredo Lopez

29 There is a large body of literature on cultural identity. Among those focused on communities in the United States see: Ruth Glasser, My Country Is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities 1917-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Jorge Duany, “Nation on the Move: The Construction of Cultural Identities in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora,” American Ethnologist 27, no. 1 (Feb. 2000): 5-30; Raquel Rivera and Mayra Sanchez discuss the migration or “reshaping” of Hip Hop and Rap music from its New York urban roots to Puerto Rico. See Raquel Z. Rivera, “Boricuas from the Hip Hop Zone: Notes on Race and Ethnic Relations in New York City,” Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8, no. 1 & 2 (1996): 202-215.; Mayra Santos, “Puerto Rican Underground,” Centro, Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8, no. 1 & 2 (1996):216-231. See also Iris Lopez, “ Borinkis and Chop Suey: Puerto Rican Identity in Hawaii, 1900-2000,” and Victor Vázquez- Hernández, “ From Pan-Latino E: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, Enclaves to a Community, 1910-2000” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora: a Historical Perspective, Carmen Teresa Whalen and Victor Vázquez-Hernández eds., (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005); For a discussion of cultural identity in Puerto Rico, see José Luis González, Puerto Rico: The Four Storied Island (Princeton, NJ: Markus Weiner Publishing, 1993); Arlene Davila, Sponsored Identities: Cultural Politics in Puerto Rico ( Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997).

30 See Jesus Colón, The Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches (New York: Masses and Mainstream, 1961; Arno Press, 1975, and International Publishers 1982); Jesus Colón, The Way It Was and Other Writings, Edna Acosta-Belén and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, eds. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993) Bernardo Vega, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: a contribution to the history of the Puerto Rican community in New York , César Andreu Iglesias ed., translated by Juan Flores. (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1984); Both Virginia Sánchez Korrol and Winston James utilize the writings of Bernardo Vega and Jesus Colón as a springboard for their analysis of Puerto Rican activis m during the first half of the twentieth century. Sánchez Korrol pays scant attention to the contributions of Schomburg, James pays particular attention to his contributions; for a view of the life and work of Schomburg, see Elinor Des Verney Sinnette, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: Black Bibliophile and Collector – A Biography (New York: New York Public Library and Wayne State University Press, 1989); and Flor Piñero de Rivera, ed., Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: A Puerto Rican Quest for His Black Heritage (San Juan: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, 1989);for information on Rufa Colón see The Way It Was and Other 13 represents an early attempt to analyze Puerto Rican participation in “The Movement.”31 Like

Winston James, Lopez connects Puerto Rican radicalism in New York to radical traditions on the island. Although focused on the larger framework of Caribbean radicals in the Diaspora,

Winston James argues that early Puerto Rican activists, as exemplified by Jesus Colón, Vega and

Schomburg, proved key players in social and political movements in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. 32

My work seeks to contribute to this nascent scholarship by focusing on the Young Lords as an exemplar of the growing activism and shifting identities that characterized the era. I build on the work of Winston James, Carmen Teresa Whalen, and Andrés Torres and José E

Velásquez, by examining how the growth of the Puerto Rican population, the existance of identifiable Puerto Rican communities, and the emergence of fraternal protest movements such as the Black Panther Party and the Brown Berets led to the development of groups such as the

Young Lords.33

Until recently, discussions of Puerto Rican identity have been rooted in a nationalist discourse fixated on land, language and culture. 34 However, Puerto Rico’s continuing status as an Estado Libre Asociado, challenges the nationalist ideals of collective lands or national

Writings, Félix Matos Rodríguez and Linda C. Delgado, eds. “Rufa Concepción Fernández: The Role of Gender in the Migration Process,” in Puerto Rican Women’s History: New Perspectives (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993); Although Luisa Capetillo spent a short period of time in the United States, her activis m in New York and Florida warrants inclusion: for additional information on Capetillo, see Norma Valle-Ferrer, Luisa Capetillo, Pioneer Puerto Rican Feminist (New York: Peter Lang Inc., 2006) and Nancy Hewitt, “Luisa Capetillo: Feminist of the Working Class,” in Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community, Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, eds.(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

31 Alfredo Lopez, The Puerto Rican Papers (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1973).

32 James, Holding Aloft.

33 During the mid-twentieth century a number of Puerto Rican community activists set the groundwork for the more militant activis m of the Young Lords. In New York, Antonia Pantoja and Evelina Antonetti are key examples.

34 Duany, “Nation on the Move” p.6.

14 boundaries.35 A century of migrations to and from the United States mainland has resulted in cleavages among Puerto Ricans, often blurring the notion of collective memories and shared histories. This was clearly illustrated in the experiences of several Young Lords members who relocated to Puerto Rico. While Puerto Ricans in the Young Lords envisioned themselves part of the island community, their arrival from the United States and in the case of some Young Lords, limited Spanish language skills, marked them as outsiders. Although contemporary scholars notably Jorge Duany, argue for the restructuring of Puerto Rican identity to include its large diaspora, during the 1970s, the island-diaspora divide remained highly visible.36

Race represents another element that is intertwined with the construct of Puerto Rican identity. Beginning in the 1970s, scholars challenged popular notions of Puerto Rico as a non- racialized society, born of African-Taino-European roots. This debate continues in the contemporary literature as scholars contest notions of a fixed racial mélange that purportedly constitutes “Puerto Rican-ness.”37

Contemporary Puerto Rican scholars such as Jorge Duany suggest that identity constructs are fluid, influenced by factors such as migration, cultural exhange, and racial constructs. Vicki

Ruiz has described this fluidity of identity as “cultural coalesence,” a process of blending

35 The term Estado Libre Asociado translates as “Free Associated State.” Writers seeking to avoid using term colony employ this nomenclature, or the English counterpart, “commonwealth”, to describe Puerto Rico’s status.

36 Jorge Duany, The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

37 For a discussion of racial identity among Puerto Ricans, see Centro, Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8, no. 1 & 2 (1996). This volume contains varied interpretations of race and identity among Puerto Ricans both in the US and on the island. Contributors include scholars Juan Flores, Ramon Grosfoguel, Winston James, and Roberto Rodríguez-Morazzani. See also Ricardo Alcaraz Díaz, “Breaking Silence,” Centro, Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8, no. 1 & 2 (1996):4-7. For a discussion of racial/ethnic identity of Latinos in the US, see Suzanne Oboler, Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)presentation in the United States (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. For Puerto Rican identity, see José Luis González, Puerto Rico: The Four Storied Country (Princeton and New York: Markus Weiner Publishing Inc., 1993) and Juan Flores, Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity (Huston: Arte Público Press, 1993).

15 customs and influences into new cultural forms. 38 Scholars such as Judy Yung and Valerie

Matsumoto have incorporated this concept in a few of their studies of second –generation Asian-

American women. 39 However, few have written about the changing identities experienced by

Puerto Ricans in the diaspora during the 1960s and 1970s, an era of rapid change and contestation. My work contributes to the scholarship of the era, situating the activists of the

Young Lords Party as forerunners in the debate of Puerto Rico as a divided nation with fluid identities.40

Chapters

Here I introduce the dissertation with a brief description of the Young Lords

Organization, situating the group within a national and international perspective. I argue that the development of the YLO must be examined not only through the domestic lens of civil rights activism and urban unrest, since, transnational exchanges are filled with cultural, and political import.

Chapter One: La Isla: Puerto Rico

In this chapter I discuss the longer histories of Indigenous and African resistance that shaped Young Lords identity, then address the political status of Puerto Rico, providing a brief synopsis from independence struggles to early and mid-twentieth century Puerto Rican history. I argue that Puerto Rico remains a colony with changing labels: commonwealth, territory, free

38 See Vicki L. Ruiz, “The Flapper and the Chaperone: Historical Memory among Mexican-American Women,” in Seeking Common Ground: Multidisciplinary Studies of Immigrant Women in the United States, ed. Donna Gabaccia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992).

39 See Valerie Matsumoto, “Japanese American Women and the Creation of Urban Nisei Culture in the 1930s,” in Ruiz, ed., Unequal Sisters.

40 In its later years, the YLP departs from the idea of a “divided nation.” 16 associated state. I analyze popular responses to colonization during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Among them, the development of the Nationalist Party in Puerto Rico, and the acts of resistance and rebellion that followed its formation, take center stage. Using newspapers, photographs, letters, speeches and government documents, I examine popular and governmental responses to economic and political shifts on the island. This chapter draws on the rich and varied documents of the Fondo, Oficina del Gobernador: the Nationalist files, as well as the Luis Muñoz Marin

Papers. The history of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party serves as a basis for my subsequent discussion of Young Lords’ pro-independence position.

Chapter Two: Migration, labor, transnational politics

Here I discuss the waves of migration coming from Puerto Rico, 1900 to 1970. I also examine the influx of other immigrants from the Caribbean to the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. The class, occupation, and employment opportunities of migrants and immigrants take center stage in this discussion. In addition, I examine the ways in which benchmark events such as the Great Depression and World War II impacted migration from the Spanish speaking

Caribbean. This chapter incorporates the experiences of parents of YLO members, gathered from memoirs, interviews and articles of YLO members, focusing on those whose work experiences highlight the working conditions in industries where significant numbers of Puerto Rican, other

Caribbean, other Latino, and African-Americans were employed.

In addition to the patterns of migration, the chapter also discusses the social, labor and political organizations YLO members and their families allied with. This includes community, church, neighborhood gang, student-based, union, civil rights, and pro-independence organizations. The chapter examines the influence of island-based affiliations and ideologies.

Here, I analyze the influence of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Movement on the YLO.

Chapter Three: Young Lords: Rising Up Poor; Rising Up Angry

In this chapter I examine the origins of the Young Lords Organization in Chicago. I review accounts of the early activities of the organization, focusing on local alliances, tensions, and organizational strategies. In particular, I examine the YLO’s coalition with the Black Panther

Party (BPP), I Wor Quen, and the Young Patriots as well as its alliance with Rising Up Angry

(RUA). Additionally, I probe the relationship of the Young Lords to Chicano organizations such as the Brown Berets and Crusade for Justice. I will use literature of the period and recorded interviews to examine these alliances. The history of gangs in Chicago represents an important segment of this chapter as does the representation of Puerto Ricans in the Chicago media and national press. Additionally, I examine the difficulties of early Puerto Rican migrants to the city and the living conditions encountered by the generation that would become Young Lords members. Chapter three also considers the relationship between Civil Rights and Black Power

Movements and the emerging political activism that gave rise to the Young Lords Organization.

Chapter Four: “New York and Beyond”

This chapter introduces the YLO expansion into New York. In examining the early organizing efforts of the pioneering east coast chapter in El Barrio. I discuss the legacy of earlier community organizers and the centrality of East Harlem as a site for organizing among Puerto

Ricans. Chapter four also introduces the movements and alliances that set the stage for emergence of politically active Black and Brown youth in the city. These include the anti-war movement, housing coalitions, and the growth of identity-based clubs and organizations. This

18 chapter discusses the mobilizing strategies of the Young Lords in New York and analyzes the feminist perspective of the YLP.

Chapter Five: Movement: Platform, Demands, Visions

Here I introduce the ideological platform, organizational structure, and modes of protest of the

Young Lords. Utilizing YLO and YLP documents such as the “Thirteen Point Program,” Palante newspaper articles, photographs, press releases, transcripts of radio programs. I examine the work, vision, and beliefs of the organization. In addition, I also analyze the organization’s focus on community issues such as health care, urban renewal, and education. Additionally, I examine the multi-ethnic composition of the YLO. I also introduce a key argument: that YLO members reframed their identities, celebrating an Afro-Indio ancestry and history. This chapter also discusses some of the challenges that the organization faced internally and externally. It also summarizes the factors that most contributed to the demise of Young Lords and the dispersal of its members.

Conclusion: Pa’lante

This concluding segment, I summarize the history and impact of the Young Lords movement and examine their legacy.

CHAPTER 1

La Isla

Awake, borinqueño The sign, given, incites! Awake from that dream. It is now time to fight! -Lola Rodríguez de Tió 1

“Either we sit by saying ‘ay bendito’ as our nation dies, or we stand up, organize, prepare for the revolution we know is coming.” -A Young Lord, circa 19702

Histories of Puerto Ricans in the United States are often placed within the parameters of

United States history, artificially severing diasporic experiences from the history of Puerto Rico and the broader histories of the Caribbean and Latin America. In truth, these histories are deeply connected, interwoven across space and time, linked through shared peoples, colonial practices, labor histories, migration and struggle. This dissertation examines the development of the

Young Lords movement, its place in the history of Puerto Rican activism, and its relationship to radical movements in the United States and nationalist movements on the island. Bound to Latin

America and the Caribbean through its geographic location, indigenous roots, history of slavery and Spanish colonial past, Puerto Rico occupies a nebulous place in Caribbean and Latin

American history. Tethered to the United States since 1898, it remains a modern day colony, culturally and linguistically a nation, yet politically, economically and militarily non-sovereign.

1Roberto Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry: A Selection from Aboriginal to Contemporary Times (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 88, 90. “Anthem,” among the “Insurrectionary verses” of Lola Rodríguez de Tió, written “in solidarity with the Grito de Lares uprising of 1868.” Rodríguez de Tió is among the best known poets of her generation. Internationally acclaimed” and described as “the most decisively engaged and politically active women Puerto Rican women of her generation.” Despite her lineage as a direct descendent of Puerto Rico’s colonizer, Ponce de Leon, Rodríguez de Tió was exiled, along with her spouse due to her Pro -independence activities. Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 87.

2Michael Abramson and Young Lords Party, Palante (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1971), 94. 20

Clearly the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States envelops the modern history of the island, yet it is important to look beyond this unequal, often violent relationship and closely examine the lives of working people, activists, and the myriad issues they addressed, the concerns they voiced and the problems they attempted to resolve. The story of the Young

Lords, while enmeshed in the broader histories of imperialism, necessarily focuses on the day to day issues faced by working people. It takes place within a web of history that reaches back as well as across, traverses boundaries, and establishes new spaces. Hence, this story does not begin in 1898 or in the barrios of Chicago or New York, but rather is firmly connected to a history of protest and resistance that spans the Caribbean. 3

In their identification with past warriors and revolutionaries who fought injustice, the

Young Lords fully embraced the legacy of indigenous and slave rebellion. Reclaiming this hidden history, they celebrated an Afro-Taino past while eschewing European ancestry.

Similarly, independence for Puerto Rico and all colonized people became one of their rallying cries. Posters on walls of various chapter offices point to an array of men and women deemed heroes, a blend of urban activists from the United States and island militants and historical figures. Most prominent among them were Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Lolita Lebrón, Malcolm

X, Angela Davis, the Afro Puerto Rican political prisoner Martin Sostre, and various leaders and jailed members of the Black Panther Party. Young Lords leader David Perez links contemporary

3 Pedro A. Malavet, “Puerto Rico: Cultural Nation, American Colony,” Michigan Journal of Race & Law 6, no. 1 (2000): 2-3; Pedro A. Malavet, “Reparations Theory and Postcolonial Puerto Rico: Some Preliminary Thoughts,” Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 13, no. 2 (2002). Throughout this dissertation, I use the term colony in place of Estado Libre Asociado (ELA), the contemporary designation given to the island by the United States government. I concur with attorney Pedro A. Malavet who also refers to Puerto Rico as a colony, a “polity with a definable territory that lacks legal/political sovereignty because that authority is being exercised by a peoples that are distinguishable from the inhabitants of the colony.” For a more comprehensive discussion see: Pedro A. Malavet, Puerto Rico: Cultural Nation, American Colony (New York: NYU Press, 2004). The author is an attorney and Law Professor at the University of Florida.

struggle to earlier histories with these words, “The chains that have been taken off slaves’ bodies are put back on their minds.”4

Taino and Kalinago roots

“And on this island, as far as I have been able to find out, their chants, which they call areytos, are their only books or memorials to pass from person to person, from fathers to sons, from present to future generations…” -Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés5

Acts of rebellion and resistance among Caribbean indigenous people are often overlooked in discussions of the early history of the region. The Tainos, the largest group occupying Puerto Rico, remain in popular memory as the forefathers and foremothers of the largest Caribbean isles. Without romanticizing the pre-colonial life of this indigenous group, by most accounts, the Tainos were not necessarily warlike. Whether this personification is a constructed image created by Spanish colonial forces in order to present them as a viable workforce or, alternately, a fairly accurate assessment, is not of concern here. Rather, it is important to note that there were many instances in which the indigenous populations organized and fought, attacked Spanish settlements, and otherwise attempted to hinder colonial incursion, even as they were suffering attack by disease, deception, and repressive colonial practices.

Among the most frequently referenced acts of protest associated with the Taino, were the incidences of mass suicides reported in colonial era diaries and letters. More explicitly, the news of European violence was also known and circulated through the work of visual artists. 6

4 Abramson, Palante, 65.

5 Roberto Márquez ed., “[O]f the areytos and dances with singing…” in Puerto Rican Poetry: A Selection from Aboriginal to Contemporary Times (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 7.

6 Bartolomé de Las Casas, José María Vigil, and Manuel José Quintana. Historia de las Indias 1. Imprenta y litografia de I. Paz, 1877. EBook. This image is located at Brown University, John Carter Brown Archive of Early American Images, Record Number 08984-22. 22

Perhaps the most famous image depicting Taino suicides was an engraving created by

Belgium printmaker Theodor de Bry based on the writings of Las Casas. 7 While many of de

Bry’s illustrations are stylized, and draw on a European vision and artistic conventions, several images, when viewed comparatively to other sources, provide a glimpse of life after the coming of Europeans. This particular rendering illustrates the multiple ways that Tainos committed suicide and infanticide; the methods included poisoning, stabbings, beatings, drowning, and jumping off cliffs and other elevated places. 8 Resembling the suicides and infanticides among

African and African descended slave populations decades later, these acts made a powerful statement against enslavement and colonial cruelties.

In many historical records, Taino rebellions have been swept aside. Like the revolts of the

African slave populations that followed, these events stand as evidence of the protest and resistance of oppressed peoples in the Americas. The “civilizing,” Christianizing mission of the

Spaniards fueled Taino rebellions even as it stifled dissent; evidence of outright revolt was necessarily silenced in order to maintain the appearance of Spanish dominance. Sixteenth- century accounts contain evidence of the largest organized revolts. Some of the first European chroniclers of Puerto Rico reference battles fought by the indigenous to regain regional as well as island-wide sovereignty. These narratives speak of intra-island rivalries and armed responses to Spanish incursion. In his Historia General y Natural de las Indias, the conquistador and chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés reported that in 1511, a Spanish town in

7 “Theodor de Bry,” The J. Paul Getty Museum, http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/983/theodor-de-bry- flemish-active-in -germany-1528-1598/.

8 John Carter Brown Archive of Early American Images, Record Number 08984-22. The descriptive notes for this image also point to these common methods of suicide.

western Puerto Rico was attacked by 3,000 warriors, under the direction of the cacique

Guarionex.9 Similarly, another de Bry engraving is illustrative of one of many concerted acts of rebellion. This image recreates the drowning death of the Spaniard Diego Salcedo in 1511. Led by the brother of the cacique Agüeybana, a group of Tainos drowned Salcedo, purportedly to prove his mortality and the vulnerability of Spaniards. 10 The Spaniard Juan de Castellanos, who arrived in Puerto Rico as a boy and later became “a soldier-adventurer” turned priest, wrote an

“extensive historical lyric” of his experiences in the Americas. 11 In his writings, he recounts the story of the death of Salcedo:

And most courteously when they neared a stream, They offered to bear him to the other side Upon their shoulders; best way it would seem, To keep his clothes dry from the river’s tide. He should have known such promises not to keep. They flung him in where the water runs most deep.

Watching him flounder as the waters rose Above where two or three had let him lour, All the Indians beset him now with blows, And kept him under water a full hour, Till seeing him still dead, at last each knows He had been mortal, with but a mortal’s power. 12

9 Jesse Walter Fewkes, “ The Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands,” a study in Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1903-04 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907), 23, https://archive.org/details/aboriginesporto00fewkgoog. Fewkes cites Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo extensively. Oviedo’s firsthand accounts were first published in 1535 as “Historia general de las Indias.” Oviedo describes the indigenous of Puerto Rico as being “adept in the use of Carib weapons,” thus indicating the Carib influence or presence on page 27. Fewkes, also points out the presence of “Carib words” in the Tainan language spoken in Puerto Rico on page 78.

10 John Carter Brown Archive of Early American Images, Record Number 8984-53, image published by Pieter van der Aa, 1707. Leiden.

11 Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 11. In his anthology of Puerto Rican poetry, Roberto Márquez positions the collection of fifty-five cantos written by Juan de Castellanos about the Spanish empire in the Americas as “the most extensive historical lyric in the Spanish language.”

12 Juan de Castellanos, “Canto the Second,” in Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 17.

While the verses of de Castellanos generally laud the Spaniards, they also provide a space for the defiant and rebellious presence of several indigenous leaders. The following verses illustrate how the cacique Agüeybana rallied other caciques “to think on war and so reclaim the land.”13

Speak up forgetful dwellers in this land, Snoring at ease, who not even in sleep complain. Were you not born with weapon in your hand?

Rather than headlong flight across the plain Were it not better in the hills to stand?

These words written and published in the sixteenth century bear an uncanny resemblance to the words often heard in rallies of the Young Lords and other pro-independence groups: “¡Despierta

Boricua, defiende lo tuyo!”

While the acts of rebellion among the Tainos have been understated, the presence of

Kalinago in Puerto Rico has often been altogether forgotten. In popular memory, the indigenous roots of Puerto Rico are usually portrayed as exclusively Taino, thus conflating communities of

Taino and Kalinago (whom the Europeans referred to with the pejorative “Carib”), into one homogenous group.14 “Literature, dating back to Columbus in 1494, in a contradictory fashion, denied Kalinago humanity while at the same time outlined their general anti-colonial and anti-

13 Roberto Márquez in “Canto the Second,” in Puerto Rican Poetry, 18. This quote is an “editorial verse” inserted by Márquez.

14 Philip P. Boucher, “First Impressions: Europeans and Island Caribs in the Pre -colonial Era, 1492-1623,” in Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World, eds. Verene Shepherd and Hilary McD. Beckles (Princeton: Markus Weiner Publishers, 2000), 100-16; Hilary McD. Beckles, “Kalinago (Carib) Resistance to European Colonisation in the Caribbean,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 117-26. See above for a discussion of Kalinago presence in the Caribbean. I use the terms Kalinago and Carib depending on the source/author being referenced. Historian Hilary McD. Beckles stresses the use of the group name, Kalinago, as opposed to the term “Carib” which was coined by European explorers and used interchangeably with the term “cannibal.” Philip P. Boucher uses the term Carib. The Ciboney, the earliest known indigenous group in the Caribbean, were present on several islands albeit in much smaller numbers by the time of European arrival. In the Greater Antilles they were mostly found in parts of present day Haiti and Cuba.

slavery consciousness and attitudes.”15 In addition, a large number of the Arawak sub-group called Lukku Cairi from the Bahamas (whom the Spanish referred to as Lucayos), whose livelihood was tied almost exclusively to hunting and fishing, were forcibly removed to Puerto

Rico by the Spaniards, their transport the result of raiding expeditions and trickery. Many Lukku

Cairi survived and were absorbed into the population and hence should also be viewed as part of the heritage of Puerto Rico.16 While these various indigenous groups had similarities, each constituted a distinct people, with differing lifestyles and contributions to the foundations of

Caribbean society.17 The Tainos were the largest, occupying most of Puerto Rico and the Greater

Antilles. The Kalinagos built regional strongholds, often in the most rugged and least accessible areas. Kalinago communities were located in eastern Puerto Rico and they occupied all of

Vieques and Culebra; these sites were a natural extension of their pre-eminence in the Lesser

Antilles.18 They defended their territories with their own tactics of warfare, adapted to their geographic locations and resources. As Philip Boucher notes, the Kalinagos (Caribs) were a force to be reckoned with: through the 1530s, “Caribs persistently fought Spanish occupation of

15 Beckles, “Kalinago (Carib) Resistance to European Colonisation,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 119.

16 Mary Jane Berman, Perry L. Gnivecki, and Michael P. Pateman, “The Bahama Archipelago,” in The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology, eds. William F. Keegan, Corinne L. Hofman, and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 264-79.

17 Fewkes, “The Aborigines of Porto Rico,” passim.

18 Fewkes, “The Aborigines of Porto Rico,” 26; Boucher, “First Impressions: Europeans and Island Caribs,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 100-16. Philip Boucher places Kalinagos on these smaller Puerto Rican islands. I concur with Boucher’s findings given the fact that it follows the pattern of Kalinago migration and occupation of smaller islands. Geographically, Vieques and Culebra are a natural extension of the smaller, Lesser Antilles.

eastern Puerto Rico, while attempting to defend their island against slave raids, punitive expeditions and campaigns of conquest.”19

Early European chroniclers of the Euro-Indigenous confrontation exclusively present the

Tainos and Kalinagos as enemies, yet during the early 1500s, accounts of raids against the

Spaniards point to cooperative efforts between these two indigenous groups. Among the most famous of the indigenous rebellions in Puerto Rico, the uprising of 1511 involved thousands of indigenous fighters. It demonstrates that resistance against colonization waged by indigenous people was massive and unrelenting. In the years that followed, a series of Kalinago-Taino revolts took place throughout the Caribbean. At the same time, the rapid demise of indigenous populations was well underway, a result of disease, slavery, and cruel labor practices.

Importantly, on the smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles, the Kalinagos continued their

“irrepressible war of resistance which intimidated all Europeans in the region” until the end of the eighteenth century, and they often formed unions and alliances with runaway slaves. In

Puerto Rico, the last major revolt of Kalinagos and Tainos occurred in 1513, the same year that

African slaves were first brought to the island and undoubtedly learned of the indigenous peoples’ defense of their lands.20

“Under your lush green palm trees How many sighs have I sighed Borinquen, how often I cried The loss of my land’s liberties.” -Anonymous copla, Vox Populi, 21

19 Boucher, “First Impressions: Europeans and Island Caribs,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 100-16.

20 Beckles, “Kalinago Resistance,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 118-19; Boucher, “First Impressions: Europeans and Island Caribs,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 102. After they had been largely forced out of Puerto Rico, the Kalinago conducted raids on Spanish settlements; according to Boucher, the raids “increased in momentum in the later 1520s, and reached a peak of intensity in the 1570s.”

21 Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 41. Borinquen is the Taino name given to the land of Puerto Rico, while Boricua, a modern-day variant, refers to the people. A copla is an anonymous verse, a part of the oral traditions of 27

Slavery in Puerto Rico

The anti-slavery struggle of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean has been better documented than that of their indigenous brethren, yet in terms of slavery and its aftermath,

Puerto Rico has received relatively less scholarly attention among the islands. The late development of the plantation economy in Puerto Rico has meant that the island is not at the center of research on plantation societies. Although the Spanish started cultivating sugar in

Puerto Rico during the sixteenth century, production was minimal in comparison to other sugar producing islands. This is evident in the rapid dispersal of Spanish colonists to Mexico and

Central and South America during the sixteenth century in search of gold, silver, pearls, and other precious natural resources. Population rates on the island fluctuated significantly during the early centuries of Spanish colonization. Not until after the Haitian Revolution, when French planters fled their former colony, did the cultivation of sugar rise in Cuba and to a lesser extent in Puerto Rico. “An active instigator of slave uprisings, a refuge for runaways, and a fountainhead of libertarian ideas, Haiti loomed very large in the minds of Puerto Rican slaveholders and government authorities: the fact that after 1822 the sovereignty of the Black

Republic extended to within a few leagues of the shores of western Puerto Rico, which was just across the Mona Passage, only aggravated their worst fears.”22

The later agro-export expansion of Puerto Rico, coupled with low population growth rates and an infusion of poor white laborers after 1815, has led to the perception of the island as the Spanish speaking Caribbean. In the case of Puerto Rico, these were often inserted in plenas and bombas, as well as guarachas, the musical forms that are most representative of popular music and of the island’s African and criollo descendants.

22 Francisco A. Scarano, Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico: The Plantation Economy of Ponce, 1800-1850 (Madison: The University of W isconsin Press, 1984), 166. From 1822 to 1844 Hispaniola was under Haitian governance.

“an anomalous case” in the Caribbean: It was “an economy and society which developed an advanced sugar industry during times of a fairly open Atlantic slave trade, yet did not rely to any significant degree on the labor of African slaves.”23 Eric Williams suggested this line of thinking: “No sugar, no Negroes. In Puerto Rico, which developed relatively late as a genuine plantation, and where, before the American regime, sugar never dominated the lives and thoughts of the population as it did elsewhere, the poor white peasants survived and the Negro slaves never exceeded fourteen percent of the population.”24 Williams’ statement can easily be misconstrued to mean that the African and African descended population in Puerto Rico was much smaller than it actually was, however it is important to note that he is referring strictly to the enslaved population. The racial categories are complicated, moreover, by the numbers of escaped slaves coming from neighboring islands. Given Puerto Rico’s low-density population and its location, it was a favored destination for maroons who could navigate on various types of vessels, even at times swimming from small, nearby islands.

Larger plantations thus developed in Puerto Rico centuries later than on other islands such as Cuba, however they emerged with the same dependence on slave labor for their maintenance and expansion. “Puerto Rican expansion was shorter (through the 1820s and

1830s), localized and not as far reaching,” according to Luis Martínez-Fernández. “[D]uring the

1840s, the island’s sugar industry began to show signs of debilitation. The number of sugar

23 Francisco Scarano, “The Origins of Plantation Growth in Puerto Rico,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 276-88; Gordon K. Lewis, Puerto Rico Freedom and Power in the Caribbean (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1963), 58. Gordon K. Lewis reports that white immigration was heavy following the Latin American independence wars, not least for reasons of military defense, to the degree that “by 1830 (as far as it is possible to judge) the balance had changed in favor of a white majority.”

24 Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, (Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books, 1994) 27.

estates dropped by two-thirds…”25 Francisco Scarano states that many nineteenth century plantation owners were foreigners, and accustomed to exclusive use of slave labor on their haciendas and plantations. He also points out that “One of the characteristics of the Cuban and

Puerto Rican experience with sugar in the nineteenth century, a heritage of three centuries of society-building, was that there was no succession of slave labor to free labor, but a simultaneous juxtaposition of both...”26

The paintings of Francisco Oller y Cestero, one of Puerto Rico’s best known and celebrated artists, provide us with visual representations of slavery and plantation life in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. One particular painting illustrates the brutality of enslavement and provides a counter argument to the idea of the “benign” treatment of slaves in Puerto Rico. 27

In this untitled painting, Oller departs from images of plantation life that focus on the landscape and visual beauty of the countryside. Instead, he presents a portrait of violence. At the center of the painting, a young black man lies on the ground face down, naked and bound to what appears to be two poles or a ladder, thereby rendering him immobile and further exposing his body to the impending lashes. A crowd comprised mostly of slaves, surrounds the central figure. At the feet of a man who is dressed in white holding a teacup, we see a woman kneeling with arms outstretched. She appears to be pleading with the man in white. The slaves as presented in this

25 Luis Martínez-Fernández, “The Sweet and the Bitter: Cuban and Puerto Rican Responses to the Mid-Nineteenth- Century Sugar Challenge in Caribbean Slavery,” in Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World, eds. Verene Shepherd and Hilary McD. Beckles (Princeton: Markus Weiner Publishers, 2000), 513.

26 Scarano, “The Origins of Plantation Growth in Puerto Rico,” 286. Plantations on a scale as large as those in Cuba, for instance, did not appear in Puerto Rico until the U.S. period; see Sidney Mintz, Caribbean Transformations (Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 1974), 56.

27 Scarano, “The Origins of Plantation Growth in Puerto Rico,” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 281-83. Francisco Scarano posits that the image of a more benevolent system in Puerto Rico is based on the writings of George D. Flinter. An Irish officer in the British army, his travels to Puerto Rico resulted in two books. Scarano further notes that much of the literature on “free and slave labor,” on the island, draws from Flinter’s writings.

painting stand close together, forming a crowd that cuts across the landscape, dividing the idyllic from the horrific. In the background, the painter positions a sugar mill chimney, an ever present symbol of sugar cane plantations.28 Oller’s painting, said to be based on an actual occurrence, later documented by Cayetano Coll y Toste, a medical doctor and historian. 29 Following Coll y

Toste’s account, the kneeling woman with outstretched arms is the wife of the slave being flogged; the man she appears to be pleading with is the owner of Hacienda La Vega in Arecibo.

Oller created this painting between 1868 and 1872, a period of time that witnessed the revolt against Spanish colonial rule in the town of Lares as well as heightened anti-slavery activity.30

Arecibo was the location of one of dozens of juntas revolucionarias or organized units of rebel resistance throughout the island.31 The timeframe during which it is believed that Oller created this image, coupled with the location, gives the painting added significance. El Grito de Lares,

Puerto Rico’s cry for Independence, involved dozens of locales. When the rebellion was extinguished, the town of Arecibo became a site of imprisonment for rebels, several of them slaves. Viewed in this light, the imagery of a young Black man being flogged, becomes a specific allusion to enslavement and extreme punishment. Being tied to poles or ladders while being whipped as illustrated in Oller’s art work, bears a clear resemblance to the method of

28 Edward J. Sullivan, From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller and Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism (Yale University Press, 2014); Katherine Manthorne, “Plantation Pictures in the Americas, c. 1880: Land, Power, and Resistance,” Nepantla: Views from South 2, no. 2 (2001): 317-53. Several authors report that this painting has been lost, but that it was documented via a photograph of poor quality, now located in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Edward Sullivan states that many of Oller’s paintings and sketches of Afro Puerto Ricans, who were often the subjects of his paintings, have disappeared.

29 Cayetano Coll y Toste, Historia de la Esclavitud en Puerto Rico (San Juan: Publicación de la Sociedad de Autores Puertorriqueños, 1969). The nineteenth-century documents compiled by Coll y Toste, as well as his own writings, have proven to be foundational for subsequent studies of slavery in Puerto Rico. 30 Sullivan, “From San Juan to Paris and Back,” 14; Manthorne, “Plantation Pictures in the Americas,” 347. Art historians Edward Sullivan and Katherine Manthorne provide different dates for the original image, 1872 and 1868 respectively.

31 Comité amigos de Puerto Rico – México, “El Grito de Lares de Puerto Rico,” Archipélago Revista Cultural Nuestra América 18, no. 69 (2010). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

interrogation used on slaves and free people of color in Cuba, who were accused of being involved in the Conspiracy of 1843-1844. This period became known as the “Year of the Lash,” and the suspected conspiracy was called: La Escalera, the ladder. Similarly, the Bando contra la raza africana of 1848, which is discussed below, also imposed swift and brutal punishments against the non-white population of the island.32

Puerto Rico was among the last three countries to abolish slavery, in 1873, followed by

Cuba in 1886 and Brazil in 1888.33 The longevity of the institution of slavery is indicative of the wealth it produced for slaveholders and the strength of slavery’s hold in these societies. The existence of punitive legislation such as the Bando contra la raza africana of 1848 illustrates colonial fears of an organized populace inclined to revolt. This law aimed at controlling the entire non-white population of Puerto Rico, both enslaved and free, and exacted stringent punishments for any transgression by a person of color, even if it was a minor offence. It goes beyond the other Black Codes of the Caribbean with respect to draconian penalties for verbal threats, insults, or any perceived disturbance to public security or to whites, as well as the requirement for sentencing within a maximum time of one day. Punishment under the decree was also severe for any altercation or quarrel among people of color. 34

32 Seleccion de Leyendas Puertorriqueñas del Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste, compiled and annotated by Cayetano Coll Cuchi (Mexico D.F.:Editorial Orion, 1960) 177-79. In his collection of Puerto Rican legends and stories, Coll y Toste also contextualizes those stories relating to slavery with historical data. This includes the articles of the Bando.

33 Franklyn Knight, The Caribbean: The Genesis a Fragmented Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 167; Juan Antonio Corretjer, La Lucha por la Independencia de Puerto Rico (Unión del Pueblo Pro Constituyente, 1949, 1ra Edición. 1949. 8va Edición, PDF: Ciales: Casa Corretjer, 2005), 24; Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence: el Grito de Lares (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1993), 116. de Wagenheim notes that abolition began “piecemeal in 1869.” Abolition also marked the end of the “libreta system,” instituted in 1849, whereby the poor (un-propertied), men and women of all races, were required to carry passbooks. See for example, de Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence, 19-20.

34 Scarano, Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico, 165; Scarano, “The Origins of Plantation Growth in Puerto Rico,” 286; Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 477; Lewis, Puerto Rico: Freedom and Power (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1963), 51. The Bando was repealed by the crown in less than a year.

Statistics for the year 1872 show the slave population numbering 31,635, and free persons of color 251,709; about one in eight people of color were enslaved at the time.

Combined, these figures represented 88.8% of the population, indicating an overwhelming preponderance of persons of African descent. 35 Given the numeric, social, and economic disparity between the majority of the population and the creoles and peninsulares in power, elite fears of rebellion and popular uprisings were well founded. The brutal labor conditions in Puerto

Rico, as well as revolts launched by slaves and freemen on neighboring islands, led to continuing anti-slavery, anti-racist organizing on the island. Slaves organized major rebellions in Ponce and

Vega Baja at mid-century, their plans thwarted by the discovery of these conspiracies. 36

Considering the geographic position of these two cities, one in the north and the other in the south, the potential for unrest to have spread east and west throughout the island was great.

Ponce continued to be a center of insurrectionary activities for generations, and in the twentieth century, it was the site of the Ponce Massacre where dozens of pro-independence protesters were killed and imprisoned.

Resistance to slavery in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean was demonstrated in multiple ways, not only in the form of rebellion, but also through the claiming of rights via the court system. A review of cases in which enslaved women and free women of color made claims, illustrates that women often had more favorable outcomes through the law than did men. Black males, on the other hand, rarely secured the freedom of their female relatives through the courts.

Even so, female plaintiffs faced tremendous odds, for example in the case of María Balbina of

35 Luis M. Diaz Soler, Historia de La Esclavitud Negra en Puerto Rico, as quoted by Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America (London and New York: Verso, 1998), 364; César Ayala and Rafael Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898 (Chapel Hill: University of Carolina Press, 2007), 18. The later includes similar statistics for the slave population in 1873.

36 Scarano, “The Origins of Plantation Growth in Puerto Rico,” 286-88.

San Juan who stated, “On the promise of freeing me, when I was barely a teenager, my master made me the mother of his three children, born one after another. But now, unmindful of his given word and the lamentations of his conscience, he intends to sell me.”37

Throughout the nineteenth century, individuals seeking both emancipation and independence organized across the island, however such activities heightened from the mid-

1800s forward. This organizing found support in the neighboring islands of Cuba and the

Dominican Republic, the last two colonies struggling for independence from Spain. Cuban and

Puerto Rican patriots formed a special bond, which resulted in cooperative efforts in their respective countries and in Caribbean communities in the United States. The Dominican

Republic became a site of exile for Puerto Ricans and Cubans because it had achieved independence from Spain at mid-century; insurrection was organized on Dominican soil.

“Todos a Lares”38

The Comité Revolucionario de Puerto Rico was formed under the leadership of exiled

Puerto Rican nationalists Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis while in the

Dominican Republic. The Comité’s founding members included José Celis Aguilera, Carlos Elio de Lacroix, Segundo Ruiz Belvis’ brother, Mariano Ruiz, José Francisco Basora, then in New

York, and Father Fernando Meriño, a Dominican priest. Plans for the “revolution of Puerto

Rico” called for the establishment of a “parent revolutionary cell” in Santo Domingo, and the

37 Joseph Dorsey, “Women Without History: Slavery and the International Politics of Partus Sequitar Ventrem in the Spanish Caribbean” in Caribbean Slavery, eds. Shepherd and Beckles, 638; Maria Elena Diaz, The Virgin, the King, and the Royal Slaves of El Cobre: Negotiating Freedom in Colonial Cuba, 1670–1780. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000). For a discussion of legal challenges in Cuba and Puerto Rico see Dorsey, 634-658. Diaz provides a view of legal challenges brought by seventeenth-century royal slaves in Cuba.

38 Abramson, Palante, 127. From an MPI (Movimiento Pro-Independencia de Puerto Rico) poster situated behind the face of Mickey, a Young Lord working the front desk at the Young Lords New York office.

formation of “rebel cells” throughout Puerto Rico. These groups would then mobilize in Puerto

Rico where members would then set in motion a plan to free the island of Spanish colonial rule.

Though short-lived, the 1868 rebellion known as El Grito de Lares marked Puerto Rico’s largest, most coordinated, and widespread movement towards national independence and equality. Its demands included an end to slavery, as well as calling for national sovereignty, and its example became a rallying cry for twentieth-century activists.39

As indicated by the creation of these revolutionary cells, the organizing and planning for

El Grito de Lares took place in multiple cities and islands. There were cells in various Puerto

Rican locales: secret societies with their own leadership and structure. The planned revolt also included reinforcements in the form of weapons, as well as recruits scheduled to come from St.

Thomas and the Dominican Republic. 40 The newly independent island would have a new flag and anthem, both of these created by women. The leader of the rebellion, Emeterio Betances would arrive from Santo Domingo and subsequently be named the leader of the new republic.

“[I]n sum, by January 1968 the rebel leadership, although in exile, had managed to provide the discontented in Puerto Rico with a plan, an organization, and the appropriate channels through which they would work to depose the oppressive government.”41 However, there were obstacles from the onset of the rebellion. The leadership of the cell in Cumuy, scheduled to start the revolt, were all arrested a week prior, as a consequence of their plan being discovered. Hence, the insurgency began a week earlier. Originally set to begin on September 29, the feast day of San

39 de Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence provides an in depth examination of El Grito de Lares. Reference to the formation of the Comité Revolucionario de Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic can be found on page 72. Founding members are named on page 63.

40 de Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence, 96. The weapons, which were intercepted, were supposed to come from Santo Domingo, as well as a ship from St. Thomas.

41 Ibid., 67.

Miguel, rebel leaders hoped that the holiday would allow for greater participation of slaves, that is, that planters and government officials would not notice the absence of slaves in the fields and workplaces. On September 23, 1968 rebel forces took over the town of Lares and declared independence for the island. However, the rebellion was militarily squashed and by October10, the governor declared that all of the rebels had been captured. Of the six hundred to one thousand men who were said to be directly involved in the rebellion, 523 were imprisoned, eighty of them died in jail of yellow fever. The rebels included creoles and Afro-Puerto Ricans, both free and enslaved. They came from twenty-five different municipalities, though a majority came from the agricultural regions of western Puerto Rico. 42 Among the captured rebels, thirty-nine had been born in other countries and continents: “Spain, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, the Dutch

Caribbean, Africa, Italy, France, and Mexico.”43 The existing records of the armed participants of El Grito de Lares point to a preponderance of men. Three women described as “housewives” were included in the list of suspects.

We do not know to what extent and in what capacity women other than the three suspects participated in the planning and execution of the revolt. However, we do know that Mariana

Bracetti was an alternate junta member in the secret society known as “Centro Bravo” in Lares, placing her in the leadership of one of the most important cells of the uprising.44 Moreover, women created the symbols of this cry for independence. Mariana Bracetti created the flag and the poet Lola Rodríguez de Tió composed the revolutionary anthem. The flag, knit by Bracetti,

42 Ibid., 32. These figures denote the place of residence at the time of the revolt. De Wagenheim also has a separate listing for the places of birth of those captured.

43 Ibid., 31. In reporting these numbers, de Wagenheim notes that the information was compiled from “information provided by the rebels themselves.”

44 Ibid., 67-68. Additionally, the family and marriage ties of many of those arrested or suspected of being involved in the Lares Uprising provide clues to the probable involvement of women in the revolt.

resembles the Dominican flag in its overall structure: two blue and two red squares intersected by a white cross. 45 Like the Cuban flag, the revolutionary flag has a single white star. The symbolic resemblance of this flag, which independentistas still carry at rallies and commemorations, is suggestive of the close alliance between the island nations at this juncture.

Similarly, Rodríguez de Tió points to Cuba as an example of militancy: “Most lovely Borinquen,

/ keep Cuba in sight: / You, too, have brave sons / [who] are all ready to fight.”46 In this ode to El

Grito de Lares, Rodríguez de Tió also exhorts women to join the struggle. “We want no more despots! / Let the tyrant now fall! /Our staunch women also / will all answer the call.”47

Additionally, this revolutionary poet advocates for the continuation of the fight for independence. “The Lares Insurrection/ must happen again, /and then we will all know/ how to triumph or be slain.”48 Historian Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim points to the impact of this revolt on subsequent generations.

[N]either the short duration of the armed struggle nor the fact that the rebels failed to liberate the island has diminished the significance of the Grito de Lares. On the contrary, that historical event has grown in importance for an increasing number of Puerto Ricans since the 1930s. The founding leaders of the Nationalist Party declared the Grito de Lares a symbol of Puerto Rican identity and called upon Puerto Ricans to pay tribute to the revolutionary patriots. Every year since the early 1930s thousands of islanders visit the town of Lares on [the 23rd of] September to honor the Lares rebels. 49

In the immediate aftermath of El Grito de Lares, the crushing of the revolt did not diminish the commitment of those who struggled for national autonomy. Pro-independence

45 This flag is differentiated from the Dominican flag in the following: the Dominican flag has alternating blue and red squares and an emblem in the center. The contemporary flag of Puerto Rico closely resembles the Cuban flag, except that the colors for the stripes and the background for the lone star are reversed.

46 Lola Rodríguez de Tió “Anthem,” written “in solidarity with the Grito de Lares uprising of 1868,” as quoted in Márquez ed., Puerto Rican Poetry, 91.

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

49 de Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence, xiii-xiv.

sentiment was critically important in the United States in the 1890s where communities of Puerto

Rican and Cuban migrants were forming. Some of the strongest support came from tobacco workers in New York and Florida, and labor organizers and political exiles in New York. The tabaqueros, who were often the most organized, informed and radical contingent of Cuban and

Puerto Rican workers in their island nations, continued their advocacy for independence and social justice in their new communities, bringing new migrants into their political fold. 50 They embraced and cultivated organizers, community leaders and writers such as Arturo Schomburg,

Luisa Capetillo, Bernardo Vega – the famous “worker-intellectual,” and Jesus Colón, inspiring movements for years to come.51

Needless to say, 1898 marked a pivotal moment in Puerto Rican history. While it does not define Puerto Rico’s history, or its people, the U.S. acquisition of the island as a result of the

Spanish-American War altered the economy, political trajectory, and social fabric of the country.

Initial attempts to “Americanize” the island and institute English as the official language were met with resistance. Following the U.S. invasion, sugar mills spread rapidly throughout the country, displacing small subsistence farmers and prompting internal and external migration.

Historians Ayala and Bernabe make an important distinction between larger property owners, and other farmers who leased land, held usufruct rights, owned small farms, or squatted on farm lands. They argue against the view that wealthy Puerto Rican property owners were displaced by the post 1898 proliferation of sugar mills, coffee haciendas and large tobacco plantations. Rather,

50 Bernardo Vega, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega, A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York, ed. César Andreu Iglesias, trans. Juan Flores (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984), passim; James, Holding Aloft. Early chroniclers of Puerto Ricans in New York such as Bernardo Vega frequently mention the political activism of the tabaqueros.

51 Vega, Memoirs, passim.

they stress that this expansion drove out the small farmers, both propertied and un-propertied.52

Hence, the greatest and most damaging impact of the spread of large, U.S. owned plantations, ingenios, and centrales was suffered by the rural poor, who saw their communities, living quarters, lifestyles, and economic sustenance altered or demolished. Many of the newly unemployed workers and displaced farmers migrated to Hawaii to labor on pineapple plantations and in other agro-industries; some went to the Dominican Republic to work in American-owned sugar mills.

The U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico brought with it a complicated condition: an ambiguous political status and contested notions of citizenship and belonging. Historian

Gervasio Luis García succinctly illustrates the tenuous position of Puerto Rico’s political status:

In the same way that Spain swore that it had provinces and not colonies, the United States concocted an empire with neither colonial subjects nor objects into which Puerto Rico fit uncomfortably, obligating American representatives to fabricate the judicial fiction of an unincorporated territory and relegating the island to the perpetual status of a ward who will never become part of his patron’s family.53

Likewise, questions of citizenship placed Puerto Ricans in an equally uncertain position. With the passage of the Jones Act in 1917, Puerto Ricans became American citizens with limited rights, able to enter and travel throughout the United States as citizens, eligible to be drafted into military service, yet unable to vote in national elections as island residents, or to enact any laws not in keeping with US policies or legislation. From 1898 through the present century, the issue of citizenship and nationality inhabits a contested terrain, both from an American and Puerto

Rican perspective. Two legal challenges, brought by Isabel Gonzalez and Juan Mari Brás,

52 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 50.

53 Gervasio Luis García, “I Am the Other: Puerto Rico in the Eyes of North Americans, 1898,” The Journal of American History 87, no. 1 (Jun 2000): 39-64, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2567915. Published by the Organization of American Historians. A portion of this quote has been italicized for emphasis.

represent the divergent poles of claiming and naming both nationality and other rights. Isabel

Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican woman who was denied entry to the United States in 1903 on the basis of her gender and unmarried status, presented her case in court in 1904, claiming citizenship for herself and all Puerto Ricans on the basis of the US acquisition of the island. 54 The gendered discrimination against unmarried migrant women as a supposed burden to society, as unchaperoned and perhaps potential prostitutes, is clear. Also evident is the racialization of this gender prejudice, given the plaintiff’s origin in the Caribbean. Ninety years later, pro- independence leader Juan Mari Brás formally renounced his U.S. citizenship, “while claiming the right to continue living in Puerto Rico.” Mari Brás’ petition was first approved, but then reversed in 1998. A series of legal challenges by Juan Mari Brás and later by other independentistas led to the issuance of a certificate of Puerto Rican citizenship by the island government in 2007.55

While the issues of identity and nationality remain contested, the strategic importance of

Puerto Rico to colonizing forces is well established. Describing Puerto Rico as “virgin territory virtually, the Cinderella of the Caribbean until 1898,” Eric Williams stresses the strategic importance of Caribbean outposts to the Spanish, British and French during the eighteenth century and to the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 56 Similarly,

54 Christina Duffy Burnett, “Second-Class Citizens, Naked Nationals: Response to Sam Erman,” “Beyond Nationalism: Reply to Professor Ngai,” and “‘They say I am not an American…’: The Noncitizen National and the Law of American Empire,” Opinio Juris, July 1 2008, http://opiniojuris.org/author/christina-duffy-burnett/; Edgardo Meléndez, “Citizenship and the Alien Exclusion in the Insular Cases: Puerto Ricans in the Periphery of American Empire.” Centro Journal 25, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 106-45. See above for information on Isabel Gonzalez case.

55 Mike Melia, “Puerto Rican Independence Leader Juan Mari Bras dies at 82,” People’s World, last modified September 14, 2010, http://www.peoplesworld.org/puerto-rican-independence-leader-juan-mari-bras-dies-at-8/; Jacqueline Font-Guzmán, “Confronting a Colonial Legacy: Asserting Puerto Rican Identity by Legally Renouncing U.S. Citizenship,” Centro Journal 25, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 22-49. Officially, Puerto Ricans who hold these certificates are still considered U.S. citizens. The following source examines both the Gonzalez & Mari Bras cases relative to claiming of specific identities.

56 Eric Williams, From Castro to Columbus: History of the Caribbean (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), 91. 40

Ramón Grosfoguel argues that the acquisition of Puerto Rico was important for “economic, military, and symbolic” reasons. Furthermore, he states, “in differing historical contexts one acquires priority over the others.”57 For example, “from 1898 through 1940 U.S. sugar corporations were the dominant economic actors.” In the aftermath of World War II, however,

“during the 1947-70 period, labor-intensive light industries (apparel, textiles, shoes, and so forth) became dominant. As of 1973, U.S. capital-intensive high-tech transnational industries (that is, pharmaceuticals and electronics) have controlled the production sphere.”58 In contrast to other locations, such as Venezuela, where 20th century US economic interests in oil were vastly important, Puerto Rico’s importance lay in its land and its labor force as opposed to its raw materials.59

The U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico produced massive changes, including an increase in the number of waged laborers. Among them were thousands of women, many of whom were employed in the tobacco industry. In her study of the “politics of sexuality and race” in nineteenth and twentieth century Puerto Rico, Eileen Suárez Findlay states that “between 1904 and 1920, the tobacco industry was the largest single employer of women, displacing domestic service, which had been women’s primary source of employment in the late nineteenth century.”60 While women of color are often not visible in the records in these decades, they would have been disproportionately represented in the poorest sectors; as mentioned above, they

57 Ramón Grosfoguel, Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2003), 45.

58 Ibid., 46.

59 Miguel Tinker-Salas. The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009). See above for a discussion of U.S. economic interests in Venezuela.

60 Eileen Suárez-Findlay, Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920 (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999), 138.

made up nearly ninety percent of all women on the island in 1872. 61 Findlay documents the punitive legislation and surveillance directed against the “discursively darkened” working class women, especially during the economic changes brought on by U.S. invasion and the World War

I years that also gave rise to a strong labor movement. The Federación Libre de Trabajadores

(FLT) emerged as the leading labor association in the beginning of the twentieth century; its radical base espoused socialist and anarchist ideologies. During the next two decades, the

Socialist Party, which was founded by the FLT, won elections in a substantial number of areas.

The party’s popularity was particularly strong in sugar and tobacco producing areas and urban centers.62 Hence the post-emancipation contexts of repressive local government controls, worker organizing that achieved significant political victories, and harsh U.S. state interventions in the daily lives of the poor, whether male or female, were salient features in the lives of generations of migrants to New York, Chicago and beyond.

It is important to note that women were an integral part of the successes of the FLT and more broadly, the early labor movement in Puerto Rico. These cadres of women were members and organizers, speakers at rallies, performers and audience members in radical plays and musical presentations.63 In addition to organizing across gender and industry lines, in the countryside and the city, the women and men of the FLT “spawn[ed] important new gendered discourses” in which “women’s emancipation was an integral part of the ‘tradition of dissent’ forged in the early labor movement.”64 The workers’ associations were also a center of educational and artistic production. Several scholars laud the “worker readers” of the tobacco

61 Luis M. Diaz Soler, Historia de La Esclavitud Negra en Puerto Rico, as quoted by James, Holding Aloft, 364.

62 Findlay, Imposing Decency, 138.

63 Ibid., 144.

64 Ibid., 145.

industry for creating a culture of informed radicalized workers. 65 “It was in the tobacco-rolling shops that Puerto Rico’s radical worker culture was born and most quickly flourished.”66

The early twentieth century witnessed the rise and fall of several industries, as detailed above, with severe effects on Puerto Rico’s social fabric. During the first three decades, the tobacco, sugar, needlecraft and banking industries received infusions of U.S. capital, upsetting regional demographics and altering the social landscape of the island. An initial expansion of sugar production during the first two decades of the twentieth century was followed by crisis during the 1930s, precipitated by the “creeping crisis of the world sugar market during the

1920s” prior to the Great Depression. 67

The 1920s and 1930s, a benchmark era for Puerto Rico, saw the rise of the pro- independence and left wing political parties: the Nationalist, Socialist, and Communist Parties.

The island witnessed turbulent economic, social and political changes at the same time as the migration of thousands of Puerto Ricans to the United States. Punctuated by multiple island-wide strikes led by a strong labor movement, the period from 1932 to 1945 brought political dissent to the forefront of island politics in the form of protests, work stoppages and constant militant actions.68

65 James, Holding Aloft, 195-257. W inston James talks at length about the radicalism of the tabaqueros in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and their Diasporas.

66 Findlay, Imposing Decency, 139.

67 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 8-9. As illustrated in Table I.1, where Ayala and Bernabe present a timeline illustrating the “Periods of Puerto Rican History Since 1874” in relation to “International Periods.” For a discussion of changing economics and politics during the early 20th century in Puerto Rico, and its impact on sugar and coffee industries, see Chapter 2, “Reshaping Puerto Rico’s Economy, 1898-1934,” 32-51 and Chapter 5, “Economic Depression and Political Crisis: The Turbulent Thirties,” 95-116.

68 Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20 (Primera y Segunda Parte), and Fondo Documental Oficina del Gobernador, “La Fortaleza.”

Among the most widespread strikes during this era, the drivers’ or gasoline strike of

December 1933 protested pricing by U.S. oil companies and garnered a large amount of popular support. What began as a statement against the high price of gasoline, turned into an island-wide mobilization that highlighted the strength and influence of the labor movement of the times. In an orchestrated effort to win their strike demands, hundreds of merchants, shopkeepers, union leaders, drivers, unionized and self-employed workers, pharmacists, fruit vendors, missionaries and everyday citizens sent telegrams to the governor of Puerto Rico, Benjamin Horton. 69 The messages were telegraphed between December 27 and December 29, 1933, often minutes apart, from multiple locations, both rural and urban. They inundated the governor’s office. 70 With few exceptions, the telegrams specified the hardships created by the strike, yet stressed the writer’s support for the striking drivers. The messages placed the responsibility for ending the strike on the governor, pressing him to lower gasoline prices. A significant portion of the telegrams came from women, illustrating the participation of women in varied sectors of labor and community organizing during the early twentieth century. As Eileen Findlay has noted, “the first decades of the twentieth century saw an explosion of working class organization, agitation, and intellectual production in Puerto Rico.”71 This included women as well as men. Among the women who sent telegrams, some stressed the impact on their businesses; others stressed communal welfare.

Several of the women appealed to faith based or humanitarian commitments. From Salinas,

Victoria Castro, who identified herself as an employer, wrote:

“PARO HUELGARIO INTER[R]UMPE TRANSPORTE LECHE ESTE PUEBLO.”

69 Horton was interim governor at that time.

70 AGPR, Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

71 Aviva Chomsky and Aldo Lauria -Santiago eds., Identity and Struggle at the Margins of the Nation-State: The Laboring Peoples of Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998), 230.

(“Work stoppage interrupts milk deliveries to this town.”)72 Another self-identified

“industrialist,” Maria Suárez, noted that while she supported the strike, her “business was paralyzed. Fix the strike” she pleaded.

“SIMPATIZAMOS HUELGA GASOLINA PERO MI NEGOCIO PARALIZADO.

RUEGOLE [SIC] ARREGLE HUELGA.”73

The city of Salinas appears to have been a site of organized protest among merchants and shopkeepers such as Victoria Castro and María and Carmen Martinez who raised their voices in protest and concern.74 Other community members also joined them in a barrage of messages.

They sent at least 46 telegrams in rapid succession to Governor Horton on December 28, 1933.

Several of these explicitly indicated support for the strike or placed the responsibility for its resolution in the government’s hands. 75 The messages expressed the urgent need for a settlement, and strongly indicted the gasoline companies, calling the prices excessive and abusive. 76

Merchant Pablo Rivera stated:

“IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR SALINAS TO RESIST STRIKE FOR MANY MORE DAYS.

I URGE GOVERNMENT TO ACT SOON.”77

Equally impassioned, Carmen Martinez wrote:

72 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

73 The telegraph messages were sent without accents, as shown. AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

74 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

75 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Salinas School Supply, [item #343].

76 A key example is the telegram from Cornelio Alvarado, President of the Unión Protectora del Trabajo, who writes: “Urge inmediato intervencion gobierno conflicto precio abusivo gasolina pueblo sufre carestia articulo primera necesidad motive huelga.” 11:30 AM 12/28 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 287, Telegramas, [item 336].

77 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

“WE BEG YOU TO GET GASOLINE COMPANIES TO REDUCE PRICES IN ORDER TO

RESOLVE THIS DRIVERS’ STRIKE.” 78

Across the island, many of the telegraphic messages illustrate the scope and impact of the strike, as shown in this example: “Strike of Salinas drivers has become a general strike.

Government must fix this.”79 A group that signed their telegram as “Fruit Vendors of the country, Plaza Mercado,” sent a more humorous or perhaps tongue-in-cheek message. They stated: “Our rickety business in the Plaza Mercado is dead. We urge you to fix the drivers’ strike.” 80 Municipal and local leaders as well as missionaries urged the governor to bring about a settlement immediately for the peace and welfare of the community. 81 Some of the telegrams demonstrated the resolve of the drivers, such as one from Río Grande in which the union president sent the following message:

“MANTENDREMOS HUELGA TANTO NO BAJE PRECIO GASOLINA. FIRMES EN

HUELGA.

DARIO FRANQUIS, PRES. CHAUFERES”

78 Ibid.

79 This translates as “Huelga chaufferes Salinas toma proporciones huelga general. Gobierno debe arreglar.”Juan Rivera, comerciante 1:32 pm 12/28. AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 287, [item 353].

80 This is a loose translation. The term they use, “raquítico” infers sickly, lean, meager or rickety. The exact wording of the telegram is: “nuestro raquitico negocio plaza mercado muerto. Urge arreglo huelga chaufferes.” Signed “Vendedores frutas del pais – Plaza Mercado.” AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 287, [item375].

81 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 287, Telegramas. See for example telegram from Carmen Perez, Misionera evangélica. Also [ítem 272] Huelga Choferes esta jurisdiccion esta causando graves trastornos urge inmediato arreglo beneficio comunidad” – Arturo Godreau, Alcalde Mpal. 12:10 pm, [ítem 378].

Franquis’ message translates: “We will remain on strike as long as the price of gasoline does not go down. We stand strong.”82 The mayor of San Juan, Adolfo Méndez Vélez, noted that garbage trucks were not collecting trash and hence neighborhoods were in deplorable conditio ns.

“PUEBLO ESTADO HORRIBLE SUCIO,” Méndez Vélez declared, which translates roughly,

“The town is in a horrible, filthy state.” With these words, he pleaded in effect for the governor to bring resolution to the strike.83 Beyond Salinas and San Juan, residents of Mayaguez also expressed opposition to the high gasoline prices. Telegrams poured into the governor’s office from other locales including Quebradillas, Río Grande, Río Piedras, Sabana Grande, Sangerman,

San Germán, San Lorenzo, Manatí, Lajas, San Sebastian, Morovis, Aibonito, Cayey, as well as other cities and towns.84 The documentation that exists regarding the drivers’ strike suggests extensive organizing throughout the island.

Among the most effective of the collective actions were those of the tabaqueras, the women working in the tobacco industry. The surveillance records of the Insular Police document the activities of these women. During the drivers’ strike, two hundred and fifty tabaqueras walked off their jobs as tobacco strippers at the José López de Ramoran y CIA factory “in solidarity with the protests against the gasoline prices.” Their actions paralyzed traffic and spread the protest to other workplaces, culminating in a work stoppage by 3,000 factory workers as well as laborers from the Guánica Central in Yauco.85

82 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 287, Telegramas. Note: this is not a literal translation. Hence, the colloquial equivalent of “firmes en huelga” is we stand strong, or we stand firm [in our resolve to continue the strike].

83 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676, Telegramas.

84 AGPR, Tarea 96-20 Caja 676, Telegramas.

85 MEMO FROM INSULAR POLICE; AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676. See telegram # 716 – YAUCO.

More broadly, tobacco and sugar cane workers appear to have been a major concern of the island governors and the Insular Police during the 1930s. In a letter from Frances Riggs, chief of the Insular Police, dated January 22, 1935, Riggs outlines the protest activities and strikes in various cities, mostly organized by sugar cane workers. 86 The majority of these strikes garnered a high degree of popular support in spite of the resulting hardships. On the heels of the Great

Depression, poverty and unrest were frequent bedfellows on the island. If the Great Depression heightened the suffering and homelessness of untold numbers in the United States, this economic plunge hit the island doubly hard. It also intensified the organizing efforts of the labor movement, pro-independence organizations, and political parties on the left, a subject we will return to below.

R.G. Tugwell, the last American governor of Puerto Rico, took office in 1941. In this position during the years of World War II, Tugwell witnessed the economic impact of the war on the island. An already strained economy in Puerto Rico was thrown into “the deep shock of economic depression.” The war years brought the inflation of prices for “basic food stuffs”; in his reports Tugwell noted increases as high as twenty, thirty, and at times fifty percent for these items. Tugwell understood the need to expand basic food production on the island, yet at the same time he wrote about the monopoly of sugar cane growers: “The best land as well as the best managerial experience is devoted to the growing of cane.”87 In spite of the hardship he described,

Tugwell proposed a legislative solution with generous support for “sugar interests,” urging that

86 AGPR Fondo: Oficina del Gobernador Tarea 96-20, caja 676.

87 “Puerto Rican public papers of R.G. Tugwell, governor,” (San Juan: Service Office of the Government of Puerto Rico, Printing Division, 1945), 163, http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072560/00001. University of Florida, Digital Collections.

existing subsidies for cane production be applied to food production.88 His proposal did not pass in congress.89

While Tugwell identified poverty as a major problem on the island, his proposed solutions, like those of his predecessors, reflected the belief that economic policies should favor

U.S. businesses and, concurrently, promote population control. In the same vein, he argued that migration would alleviate poverty. Tugwell was apparently shocked by the “extreme misery” that he describes in the following passage: “to walk in the streets of cities and be confronted with a slum. To travel through the countryside and to see everywhere the huts of the landless,” yet as we have seen, his thinking did not entertain the idea of land for the poor. 90 Rather, when discussing the prevalent notion of overpopulation of the island, Tugwell proposed that island resources be used more efficiently, and also suggested the need to distinguish between those deemed “fit” and “unfit.” He states: “This does not imply that society should forgo its interest in encouraging increase among the healthiest of its citizens and discouraging increase among the obviously unfit.”91 With this statement, he promotes the ideology of the eugenics movement that was widely accepted in the U.S. during that era. Eugenics provided a justification for the increasingly high incidence of sterilization among Puerto Rican women during the forties and continuing for several decades thereafter. 92 Moreover, the mantra of “overpopulation” or perceived fecundity of islanders encouraged the establishment of programs that tested various

88 “Puerto Rican public papers of R.G. Tugwell, governor,”163-166.

89 Ibid.

90 “Puerto Rican public papers of R.G. Tugwell, governor”

91 Ibid., 8.

92 Laura Briggs, Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and US Imperialism in Puerto Rico (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), passim. As Laura Briggs indicates, the idea that Puerto Rico ’s population needed to be controlled was already prevalent during the 1920s and 1930s.

birth control methods such as the pill, contraceptive creams, and IUDs. 93 The high rate of sterilization of Puerto Rican women was not made public until years later. Sterilization and reproductive rights are pertinent not only to the island’s history but also became a key area of mobilizing among the Young Lords of New York.

The Nationalist Party and Don Pedro Albizu Campos

The organizing efforts and protests of pro-independence and leftwing organizations burgeoned during the 1930s and 1940s. However, the birth of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party occurred decades prior. It emerged as the leading political group advocating independence, since its founding on September 17, 1922, with Pedro Albizu Campos as its most vibrant voice.94 He became a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in 1924, two years after it was founded and quickly attained leadership positions; in 1930 he was named president. Although there were other political parties advocating independence, the undisputed leader of the movement was Don

Pedro Albizu Campos, “El Maestro.”95 While Socialists and Communists were also part of this movement, the different sectors did not always constitute a united front. José Luis González notes the fissures within the pro-independence movement, particularly among Nationalist Party members and communists. He identifies Bernardo Vega’s dual vision of an independent and egalitarian Puerto Rico, as an example of this division. In 1934, Bernardo Vega and others had

93 Ibid. See above for an analysis of the intersection of politics, economics, and reproductive rights in Puerto Rico.

94 Manuel Maldonado-Denis, ed., “Albizu Campos y el desarrollo de la conciencia nacional puertorriqueña en el siglo XX,” in collected speeches of Pedro Albizu Campos, La conciencia nacional puertorriqueña (México City: Siglo XXI, 1972), 15.

95 “El Maestro” was a title of honor and affection given to Albizu Campos by his supporters. I diverge from Gerald Meyer’s position that Albizu Campos did not lead the movement. No other pro-independence political figure of the era had the status, respect, or following of Albizu Campos. The membership of the Nationalist Party may not reflect this following, since many supporters did not join the organization. Additionally, as illustrated in the discussion of surveillance, the harsh repression of the Nationalist Party resulted in depleted membership.

founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party “on the anniversary of the Grito de Lares.”96 In choosing this date, they sought to link Puerto Rican independence with workers’ rights. Vega, “a member of the Free Federation of Workers and co-founder of the Socialist Party,” was committed to a more inclusive vision according to José Luis González:

Never deceived by the true nature of the American colonial regime in Puerto Rico, for four decades Vega struggled against it and in support of independence. But the independence he fought for was not nor could ever be the same independence the colonial bourgeoisie, displaced from economic and political power as a result of the development of dependent capitalism in Puerto Rico, were in favor of. Men like Vega never found a place in the Nationalist Party, for the simple reason that it was never possible to fight in that party for both independence and the rights of the working class. 97

Archival documents support this notion of a divided front. In a letter written by Lolita Lebrón to

Albizu Campos, Lebrón questions what to do about the Communists. “After all,” she states, “we are not Communists.” Albizu Campos’ response however points to a more unifying position than perhaps González gives him credit for. “We may not be communists,” Albizu states, “but what I do know is that the communists are there in support of every position we take for independence.”98

As noted earlier, the growth of various movements and the increased activism of political dissidents was manifested in various forms of public protests and militant actions. These were met with increased surveillance by Insular Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as the imprisonment and deaths of several leaders and cadres of these movements. The arrest of Nationalist Party leaders, most significantly, Don Pedro Albizu Campos in 1936, and the event remembered as the Ponce Massacre became emblematic of the repressive measures

96 José Luis González, Puerto Rico: The Four-Storeyed Country and Other Essays (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1993), 116.

97 Ibid.

98 AGPR, Fondo Departamento de Justicia, Serie Nacionalistas, CAJA 8.

used to quash Nationalist Party members and sympathizers. The Ponce Massacre, among the most commemorated of the nationalist protests of that decade, occurred on March 21, 1937. As pro-independence sympathizers marched through the streets of Ponce, local police shot into the crowds with rifles and sub-machine guns. The death toll reached twenty-one and included a young girl named Georgina Maldonado; at least two hundred nationalists and by standers were injured and many more were arrested. 99 Juan Antonio Corretjer, Secretary General of the

Nationalist Party, describes the day in chilling detail. “Eye witnesses and photographs show how completely trapped and cornered the Nationalists were—and how weaponless.”100 Corretjer names some of those killed and wounded: “Bolivar Marquez, a [Nationalist Party] cadet fell mortally wounded, dragged himself towards the sidewalk and on a wall of the house wrote with his blood, ‘Long Live the Republic! Down with the Assassins’.” A photographer captured the image of the writing on the wall. “Carmen Fernandez, 35 years old, saw the flag bearer killed. As she tried to take the flag from him she received a volley of carbine fire. She fell, seriously wounded…A young man walking down Jobos Street. Suddenly he saw a policeman coming towards him… [The young man] cried out ‘I am not a Nationalist, I am a National Guard. I am…’ until death silenced him forever. He really was a National Guard…His name was Jose

Delgado and he was 20 years old.” Corretjer continues: A fruit vendor beaten by a policeman,

99 Juan Antonio Corretjer, “Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre,” (World View Publishers, New York, 1965), pamphlet. Private Collection; Gerald Meyers, “PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS, GILBERTO CONCEPCIÓN DE GRACIA, AND VITO MARCANTONIO'S COLLABORATION IN THE CAUSE OF PUERTO RICO'S INDEPENDENCE. Centro Journal 23, no. 1 (2011): 87-123. Quote on page 92. The reported number of deaths and of persons injured varies. Juan Antonio Corretjer, who was Secretary General of the Nationalist Party, reports that twenty-one were killed and an additional one hundred and fifty were injured by bullets. Corretjer describes police use of these specific weapons as illustrated by photographs taken by amateur and professional photographers as well as photojournalists. Gerald Meyers cites nineteen deaths and as many as 200 injured. Meyers uses the term “police fusillade” to describe the weaponry. A plaque commemorating the dead at the Ponce Massacre Museum lists twenty names including Nationalist cadet Bolivar Marquez, the child Georgina Maldonado and the National Guardsman, Jose Delgado.

100 Corretjer, “Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre,” 18. 52

“[a]nother boy died in a nearby hospital; some were maimed for life.”101These were but a few of those killed and wounded. The ages of the dead varied and included a father and his eighteen year old son. Within this same family, a second son was wounded and witnessed the deaths of his father and brother. This Palm Sunday of 1937 thus became Puerto Rico’s Bloody Sunday. 102

Albizu Campos and other nationalist leaders, who at the time of the massacre were in an Atlanta penitentiary, remained in prison for several years, having been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

From that point forward, Nationalist Party members engaged in increasingly militant acts.

Governmental anxiety over the activities of the Nationalist Party and pro-independence supporters, public displays of protest, and the high level of labor organizing on the island, resulted in the enactment of particularly repressive laws and enhanced scrutiny. Among the laws casting a wide net, Law 53, also known as the ley de la mordaza or gag law, allowed for the suppression of pro-independence speech and mobilizations. Instituted in 1948, Law 53 coupled with the “Red Scare” tactics of the McCarthy era, produced a period of harsh repression for nationalists and leftists on the island. 103

Insular Police and FBI continued their surveillance and prosecution of oppositional groups for decades. The records of the Insular Police, the documentation maintained by the

Oficina del Gobernador, and the arrest records and court cases of members and supporters of the

101 Corretjer, “Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre,” 17-21.

102 In the U.S. “Bloody Sunday” typically refers to the March 7, 1965 Selma to Montgomery March in which civil rights protesters were beaten by police. Similarly, in Ireland a march on January 30, 1972, where British police killed fourteen persons, is also referred to as “Bloody Sunday.” Here, I draw the analogy between these and the Ponce Massacre.

103 Dorothy Kenyon, “ACLU History: Rooting Out 'Subversives:' Paranoia and Patriotism in the McCarthy Era,” American Civil Liberties Union, September 1, 2010, https://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-history-rooting- out-subversives-paranoia-and-patriotism-mccarthy-era; Robert Justin Goldstein, “Prelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a Blacklist,” Prologue 38, no. 3, Fall 2006, http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/fall/agloso.html. A newspaper article (Times Herald, Washington DC) dated December 8, 1947, announces Attorney General Tom Clark's release of a new list of subversive organizations. (Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233).

Nationalist Party and the Communist Party in Puerto Rico provide extensive information on the pro-independence movement. These documents became known as “Los Encadenados,” or the chained ones, since the cabinets that they were stored in were literally chained and padlocked.

Taken together, the photos and investigative reports indicate that surveillance of activists, supporters, family members, party leaders and actual members of these various political parties was endemic.104 A certain progression may be observed. While the 1940s witnessed the continued growth of membership in the oppositional parties, the 1950s was marked by heightened surveillance and repression of these groups. It was also a period of militant actions by members of the Nationalist Party and violent acts against them by local police forces.

Reprisals against party members were swift, particularly towards the leadership. The Nationalist

Party, Socialist Party (PSP) and Partido Comunista de Puerto Rico saw many of their leaders and members charged with various crimes and jailed, often for indeterminate periods of time.

The 1950s witnessed increasingly militant actions by Nationalist Party members. These included the Jayuya Uprising in 1950, the attack on Blair House in 1953, and 1954 shooting in

Congress.105 The first occurred on October 30, 1950. This Nationalist rebellion, also known as the Nationalist Revolution of 1950 took place throughout Puerto Rico in various towns and cities, including Jayuya, Penuelas, Ponce, Arecibo, Utuado, Mayaguez, and San Juan. With the exception of San Juan in the northeast and the coastal city of Mayaguez on the west, these rebellious locales cut a swath from north to south through the center of the island. The most widespread revolt occurred in the city of Jayuya, where Nationalists, led by Blanca Canales,

104 AGPR, Fondo Departamento de Justicia, Serie Nacionalistas.

105 The Jayuya Uprising is also known as Nationalist Revolution of 1950.

maintained control for three days. 106 Reminiscent of the Grito de Lares, The Nationalists in

Jayuya proclaimed independence of the island. The military response came quickly: National

Guard shot from fighter planes resulting in death of Nationalists and civilians and the destruction of much of the city of Jayuya. Nationalist Party offices throughout the island were surrounded by

Insular Police and military forces. 107 A few days later, the attempted assassination of President

Truman at Blair House by Nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo became national and international headlines. In the aftermath of these events hundreds of Nationalist Party members, as well as members of leftist organizations were arrested, including party leader Pedro

Albizu Campos. Tried under the Ley de Mordaza, several Party members received sentences in excess of 400 years.108 Similarly, the shooting at the U.S. House of Representatives on March 1,

1954, involving Nationalist Party members Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andrés

Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodríguez lead to in their incarceration. As a result of these actions, key leaders were imprisoned and the Nationalist Party’s ranks were decimated.

Incarcerated for their roles in the attack on congress in 1954, Lolita Lebrón, Oscar Collazo, Irvin

Flores Rodriguez, and Rafael Cancel Miranda received lengthy sentences. Their armed action became the rationale for subsequent jailing of members and the heightened monitoring of other party members.

An examination of the surveillance photos taken by Insular Police suggest that party affiliation alone, whether in the Nationalist, Socialist or Communist Party, did not determine surveillance. Rather, individuals were labeled as “suspect,” “dangerous,” or a potential threat to

106 Maldonado-Denis ed., “Albizu Campos,” 9-36.

107 María de Lourdes Santiago, “La ruta de la revolución en Puerto Rico,” Archipélago Revista cultural de nuestra América 11, no. 41 (2003).

108 Maldonado-Denis, ed., “Albizu Campos,” 33. 55

island security on the basis of their familial ties, attendance at events organized by political groups expressing a pro-independence stance or admiration for Albizu Campos the Nationalist

Party leader, for praising the Soviet Union, or the fact of having donated money to any of these organizations.109 This series of photos illustrates the level of surveillance dedicated to

Nationalists by police. They documented the breadth of activities undertaken by nationalists and leftists, and identified the towns and neighborhoods where they lived, worked, or held meetings.

Routinely, protests and commemorative events organized by the Nationalist Party were closely monitored by the Insular Police.110

With his impassioned oratory, Albizu Campus exhorted Puerto Ricans to fight for independence. “Los grandes no son grandes [,] sino porque estamos de rodillas. Levantémonos,” he stated. “The great are not so great [they just appear to be] because we are on our knees. Let us rise up.”111 His fiery speeches attracted a multitude and his immutable stance towards independence led to charges of conspiracy.

In his discussion of the trial of Albizu Campos and the seven other Nationalists charged in 1936 with “conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government,” Gerald Meyers highlights the court’s efforts to “all but ensur[e] a guilty verdict” in the trial. “The government did not charge them with overt acts of sedition as there was insufficient evidence for this charge.” Charging

109 AGPR, Fondo Departamento de Justicia, Serie Nacionalistas, CAJA 1-6.

110 AGPR, ARCHIVO FOTOGRÁFICO Tomo1/CAJA 1, Fotos No. 1-99 These files include photos of Nationalist Party headquarters, and many photos of various commemorative events during the 1950s. This includes photos of the following events: Ponce, 3/21/1957, San Juan, 4/16/1951, Fajardo 10/26/1952, Lares, Sept 23, 1951. Cabo Rojo, 4/8/53, SJ. 4/16/53, Manatí, día de la Bandera 6/11/52, Jayuya: Conmemoración de los nacionalistas caídos 10/30/51, Mayagüez 4/21/52. The file also contains several undated pictures (#82-95) commemorating the Ponce Massacre. Also included in the file: a letter from Pedro Albizu Campos (to Juan S. Bravo) dated May 10, 1851. The letter stated that there are lights continually being shined into his cell. Albizu Campos further stated that this is a form of torture and that his life is in danger. A subsequent letter, dated May 24, 1951, See: AGPR, Fondo Departamento de Justicia, Serie Nacionalistas, CAJA 1, ítems no. 20, 25, 33, 34B, 35.

111 Albizu Campos, as quoted in Maldonado-Denis ed., “Albizu Campos,” 36. Translation by the author.

them with conspiracy would place the trial within Federal Courts and thereby would allow for the inclusion of “mainland Americans.” Meyers further notes: “A charge of overt acts would require a trial in Puerto Rican courts with Puerto Rican prosecutors and juries, who would presumably be less likely to convict the Nationalists on these charges.” 112 Tried twice, the

Nationalists were convicted by a kangaroo court. The first trial with a jury that included a majority of Puerto Ricans, resulted in a hung jury. In contrast, in the second trial, the jury consisted of “ten North Americans and two Puerto Ricans (both associated with U.S. corporate interests on the Island).”113

The nationalists, Juan Antonio Corretjer, Pablo Rosado Ortiz, Juan Gallando Santiago,

Erasmo Velázquez, Luis and Julio Velázquez (father and son), and Clemente Soto Vélez received sentences that ranged between six to ten years. Albizu Campos would receive the longest sentence: ten years. All the Nationalsists served their terms in the Federal Penitentiary of

Atlanta, “whose staff and inmates spoke only English, and whose physical distance and prohibition of the use of Spanish, even in letters from immediate family, effectively severed contact with families and colleagues.”114 A few years after his release from the Atlanta prison,

Albizu would be charged with sedition and be imprisoned until a few months before his death.

His imprisonment for decades during his life further enshrined Albizu Campos as the most prominent voice and driving force of the movement. While incarcerated, he often

112 Meyers, “PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS,” 87-123. Quote on page 92.

113 Ibid, 92-93. Meyers also points out that repression on the island was such that “no prominent lawyer on the island” would take the case. This left the defendants no recourse but to use a fellow Nationalist who had only recently graduated with a law degree. Vito Marcantonio agreed to be the defense attorney, but unable to secure a flight to Puerto Rico. This was due to Pan American airlines’ “insist[ance] that there were “no tickets available to San Juan” for two weeks. Marcantonio arrived the day after the trial ended. However, Marcantonio became the co - attorney for the eight Nationalists in subsequent appeals.

114 Ibid, 95.

complained that he was being tortured. He reported bright lights aimed at his cell, and found lines of a black powdery substance in front of his prison door. Disturbing photos of an ailing

Albizu Campos documented his deterioration. 115 His treatment while in prison and his failing health only served to heighten stature of Albizu Campos.

A powerful orator and the independence movement’s theoretician, the Harvard educated son of Borinquen never wavered in his commitment to struggle for the independence of Puerto

Rico. He continued to lead the Nationalist Party until his death in 1965.

Sixty thousand mourners passed by his bier to pay their respects to the Afro-Puerto Rican nationalist who many believed had given his all to la patria. After a requiem mass in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, he was buried next to the massive wall surrounding Old San Juan, nearby the grave of José de Diego the pioneering Puerto Rican independentista.116

Years later in Chicago, New York, and other cities of the U.S., Young Lords, most of them in their teens or just entering adulthood, would find inspiration in the words and spirit of Pedro

Albizu Campos.

There are many independence and freedom fighters in the history of Puerto Rico not named in this chapter, largely because they were many, or because they remain unknown: everyday men and women who through their agency deserve a place in this history. Likewise there were many acts of rebellion and resistance throughout the history of the island, both among the indigenous, the slave populations, and the subsequent generations colonized by Spain and the

United States. The limitations of this study preclude a more expansive embrace of these histories.

In this chapter, I have attempted to include those whose actions were best known or embraced by

115 This file contains documents related to Albizu Campos’ allegations of torture via radiation, and black powder in front of his cell. They include a letter from Pedro Albizu Campos (to Juan S. Bravo) dated May 10, 1951. The letter states that there are lights continually being shined into his cell. Albizu Campos further states that this is a form of torture and that his life is in danger. A subsequent letter, dated May 24, 1951, has a similar allegation. See: AGPR, Fondo Departamento de Justicia, Serie Nacionalistas, CAJA 1, items no. 20, 25, 33, 34B, 35, 36,37.

116 Meyers, “PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS,” 89.

the Young Lords. Beyond these historic figures, the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and neighbors would become their raison d’etre, their reason for being. As expressed by Young Lords leaders Juan Gonzalez, “We knew our parents deserved better.”

CHAPTER 2

Migration, Labor, Transnational Politics

“Early in the morning of August 2, 1916, I took leave of Cayey [Puerto Rico]. I got on the bus at the Plaza and sat down, squeezed in between passengers and suitcases. Of my traveling companions I remember nothing. I don’t think I opened my mouth the whole way. I just stared at the landscape, sunk deep in sorrow…I left Cayey heavy of heart, but ready to face a new life”1 –Bernardo Vega

In 1949 Eugenia Rodríguez Flores took a similar journey, perhaps like Vega, experiencing a mixture of sadness and anticipation. Señora Eugenia took a bus from San

Sebastian to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first leg of a trip that would take her and her infant son to different cities on the east coast of the United States. She travelled to these cities accompanying her husband, Antonio Jimenez Rodríguez, a Puerto Rican laborer who lived in company dormitories in an enclave of mostly male workers. In addition to cooking, cleaning, and caring for her son, Rodriguez Flores washed and ironed for other workers, thereby adding to the meager family income earned by rural workers. By 1950 the family was living in Chicago, Illinois. That city would witness Señora Eugenia’s increased involvement in her church community and local

Catholic school. It would also become her son’s play space, his fighting grounds, and eventually the center of his political formation and activism. In 1993, Señora Eugenia recalled her journey in a taped interview with her son José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, one of the founders of the Young

Lords Organization. This interview forms part of the “Lincoln Park Project, an Oral History of the Young Lords Organization.”2

1 Bernardo Vega, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega, A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York, ed. César Andreu Iglesias and trans. by Juan Flores (New York: Monthly Review Press , 1984), 3. In this excerpt from his memoirs, Vega expresses his lament about leaving his girlfriend in Cayey and migrating to New York. However, Vega, a life-long activist expressed sadness over leaving Puerto Rico in various writings. A Socialist and an advocate of independence, his writings reflect bittersweet experiences in New York City. 2 “Jose ‘Cha Cha’ Jimenez and Mom,” an interview, Young Lords Collection, Box 3/2, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Libraries; Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez, “The Young Lords, Puerto Rican Liberation, and 60

Though not a formal member of the Young Lords, Señora Eugenia personifies much of what the Young Lords stood and fought for. “We knew our families deserved better,” stated

Young Lords leader Juan Gonzalez, echoing the YLO position on economic and social justice. 3

Representative of the wave of PR migrant families that settled in Chicago and other parts of the

American Midwest, “Cha Cha” Jiménez’ family embodies a particular Puerto Rican working class history whose main protagonists became travelers, migrating from rural areas to larger cities on the island and eventually, to the U.S. metropole. An activist in her church community,

Señora Eugenia also represents the many unsung women who within the realm of their communities, workplaces, and churches labored to improve conditions, extend services and voice the concerns of their peers. Many of these women remain largely unknown and unheralded, a reminder of the need for additional histories of activist Puerto Rican women. 4

the Black Freedom Struggle,” interview by Angel G. Flores -Rodríguez, OAH Magazine of History 26, vol. 26 issue 1 (2012): 61-64.

3 Iris Morales, Palante, Siempre Palante: The Young Lords (1995; New York: Public Broadcasting Service), videocassette.

4 Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez-Korrol, eds., Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Virgin ia E. Sánchez-Korrol, From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1917-1948 (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1983); Jennifer A. Nelson, “Abortions under Community Control: Feminis m, Nationalis m, and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City’s Young Lords,” Journal of Women’s History 13, vol. 1 (2001): 157-80. Eileen Findlay, “ Free Love and Domesticity: Sexuality and the Shaping of Working Class Feminis m in Puerto Rico, 1900 -1917,” in Identity and Struggles at the Margins of the Nation State: The Laboring Peoples of Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean, eds. Aviva Chomsky and Aldo Lauria-Santiago (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998), 229-59; Norma Valle, Luisa Capetillo: Historia de una mujer proscrita (Rio Piedras: Editorial Cultural, 1990); Marya Muñoz Vázquez, “Gender and Politics: Grassroots Leadership among Puerto Rican Women in a Health Struggle,” in Puerto Rican Women and Work: Bridges in Transnational Labor, ed. Altagracia Ortiz, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 161-83. Latina Legacies presents a number of Puerto Rican women active in varied circles within the US. Virginia Sanchez-Korrol includes the role of women in community organizations in NYC in her studies of pioneros in New York. Jennifer Nelson provides insight on the position of the Young Lords relative to reproductive rights provides insight into the perspectives of some of the leading women in the organization. These aforementioned works have contributed to erasing the invisibility of activist women in the written histories of Puerto Rican women in the Diaspora. In terms of activist struggles on the islands, there is a growing body of literature that examines women’s roles in various struggles. However, their number is relatively small in relation to the large number of women active in pro-independence, labor and university organizing throughout the twentieth century. There are a several works that examine the participation of women in general, but few highlight the leadership and participation of key women activists, particularly in comparison to the volumes dedicated to male figures. Eileen 61

The Young Lords movement began in 1968; the product of a Chicago street gang that evolved into a political organization. Within a year, a second chapter was established in New

York City in the community of East Harlem. In examining the development of this political group, it is important to understand the origins of the members and the circumstances that led their families to migrate. Additionally, the location choices made by migrants, generally the result of industry recruitment or family networks, and the political and economic forces that prompted and encouraged the flow of laborers from the island, also enter this discussion. While the Young Lords Organization was diverse, a majority of the membership identified as Puerto

Rican: some born on the island, while others were the children of Puerto Ricans who journeyed to the U.S. during key migratory periods. Given this mixture of first, second, and at times third generation Puerto Ricans as well as other Latinos, migration experiences often surface in the oral, visual and written histories of the Young Lords. A significant number of African

Americans were also part of the organization, some part of the migration from the U.S. South.

Thus, this chapter examines migration, labor, and transnational politics, three elements that constitute the prologue to the history of the Young Lords. These topics have been studied extensively in various foundational studies. Although this chapter does not treat each subject equally in terms of length or depth of analysis, the interdependency of these elements in the formation of organizations such as the YLO, warrants a combined discussion. Hence, this study provides an overview of these themes, maps communities, and presents the framework within which organizations like the YLO emerged. Additionally, the history of Puerto Rican migration is important in answering the questions, relative to why the Young Lords established branches in a particular community or city, and not in others. My discussion of labor in this chapter while

Findley makes a significant contribution in her discussion of gender and sexuality in working class, labor, and feminist movements in early twentieth century Puerto Rico.

vital is by no means exhaustive. Pointing to the various industries that employed large numbers of Puerto Rican workers this chapter seeks to link peak periods of migration with demands for low wage labor in key occupational sectors in the US. Although a significant portion of this discussion relies on earlier studies, Young Lord memories and publications frequently reference the occupation/labor of their migrant parents. The formation of Puerto Rican neighborhoods closely linked to class and racial boundaries, necessarily enters this discussion. Transnational politics represents another segment of this chapter. Within that vein, this chapter illustrates

Cuban-Puerto Rican and Dominican-Puerto Rican alliances, as well as the development of nationalist and socialist parties on the island and the influence of nationalist and leftist leaders on the island and in migrant communities during the decades preceding the formation of the YLO.

Migration, Labor, Politics

In the movement of people from Puerto Rico to parts of the United States and the

Caribbean, economics, labor, and politics, were intimately and intrinsically linked to migration.

Most migration studies focus on the twentieth-century arrival of the greatest number of Puerto

Rican migrants, yet a significant and different population arrived in New York City during the early 1800s. Studies of migration, such as Carmen Teresa Whalen’s, identify Puerto Rican merchants as early migrants to New York and other eastern coastal cities during the Spanish colonial period. Aided by trade networks, these merchants ran businesses, and at times permanently settled in these coastal cities….” Whalen also highlights the fact that during this era, the Puerto Rican migrant population often grew as a result an “educational migration” comprised of the children of elite islanders as well as the children of merchants. 5 Hence, this small, earlier

5 Carmen Teresa Whalen, “Colonialis m, Citizenship and the Puerto Rican Diaspora,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives, eds. Carmen Teresa Whalen and Víctor Vázquez-Hernández (Philadelphia: 63

migration was made up of a wealthier class and occupied a different space in both U.S. and

Puerto Rican economy and politics, than the largely working class migrants that followed in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

There were other early migrations of note: one comprised of political exiles; the other of agricultural workers. The former traveled to New York, the latter to multiple regions: specifically to Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Regarding the migration of political exiles, Manuel Maldonado-Denis states, “Puerto Rican emigrations to the United

States begin before the military occupation by U.S. troops. These first emigrants were for the most part political emigrants: Puerto Rican revolutionaries who were conspiring on U.S. territory to break once and for all with the yoke of Spanish colonialism.”6 These political exiles and leaders met in New York and created the Partido Revolucionario Cubano, one of several acts of solidarity between Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans. As Spain’s two remaining colonies in the Americas prior to the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War of 1898, Cuba and Puerto

Rico shared a particularly strong bond. 7 Dominicans supported the independence efforts, particularly in Cuba, and the Dominican Republic served as a site where pro-independence leaders from these sister islands met to strategize, or at times, where they settled in exile. 8 The following poem of solidarity from the late 1890s, attributed to Francisco Gonzalo Marín, speaks

Temple University Press, 2005), 4. It should be noted that not all merchants settled with their families in the US. Rather, as Whalen points out, many engaged in the circular migratory patterns similar to that of many Puerto Ricans in later decades.

6 Manuel Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic: Puerto Rico and the USA (New York: International Publishers, 1980), 59.

7 Although this war is commonly referred to as the Spanish-American War, I prefer Spanish-American-Cuban- Filipino War of 1898 in recognition of the impact of this conflict on Cuba and the Philippines, both of which endured fighting on their soil and the loss of many Cuban and Filipino lives.

8 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) passim; Vega, Memoirs, passim.

to the bond between islands. In the following poem, Marín illustrates the sense of shared goals often expressed by supporters of independence in the Spanish colonies.

Oh beautiful Borinquen, Like Cuba filled with charms, Valiant sons are yours Prepared to take up arms!

Your patriotic spirit Vibrates in our soul, You are most inspired to hear the cannon’s roll.

No longer are slaves we, Trodden to the ground. We’ll burst the chains asunder, The chains that hold us down.

The rolling drums of battle, The warrior’s mighty song, We’re meeting in the mountains, Be sure to come along.9

Marín, popularly known as “Pachín” answered the call to action that ends his poem. Pachín, a

Puerto Rican named his daughter Quisqueya in honor of the Dominican Republic, and died in

Cuba fighting for independence.10 While the migration of exiles and political enthusiasts like

Marín is important for our understanding of the political trajectory of the Caribbean. The larger migration of agricultural workers to Hawaii started the outflow of workers from Puerto Rico that would define the islands’ twentieth-century history.11

9 Vega, Memoirs, 70-71.

10 Vega, Memoirs, passim.

11 Iris López, “Borinkis and Chop Suey: Puerto Rican Identity in Hawai’i, 1900-2000,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives, eds. Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández, 43-67. Puerto Rico experienced the greatest impact as a result of the outflow of workers. The migration of workers from Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Portugal contributed to the breadth of Hawaii’s multicultural society, already infused with a blend of Asians and Pacific Islanders. In terms of the U.S., migration altered the social, economic, and cultural fabric of the nation. For and expanded discussion of the effects of Puerto Rican migration to Hawaii.

The first sizeable migration from Puerto Rico consisted of approximately 5300 cane workers who went to Hawaii between 1900 and 1901, followed by a smaller group, numbered in the thousands, who went to the neighboring island of St. Croix. Within this first decade of the twentieth century, workers also went to Dominican Republic, Cuba, Yucatan and Panama. 12

This migration was facilitated by emigration officers and representatives from U.S. sugar companies, often through the use of unscrupulous recruitment practices. 13 That these early migrants represented the poorest and most desperate element of the Puerto Rican population of the times is evidenced by the following statements emanate from very different standpoints.

The first statement comes from Gov. Charles H. Allen, civilian governor of Puerto Rico from

1900 to 1901. His comments, though explicitly debasing and prejudicial; paint a portrait of recruitment methods and of the poverty of the migrants.

…The emigration agent found an excellent field for his enterprise. He penetrated the rural districts and offered golden inducements to these simple folk to travel and see foreign lands. Laborers are wanted in Hawaii to work in the sugar fields and in Cuba for the iron mines. Good wages are offered and many are persuaded to emigrate…Most of the emigrants are of the very poorest class of laborers, many of them without a box or a bundle or anything whatever more than the scanty apparel in which they stand upon the wharves. Very few of them have the least rudiments of education. In other words, these emigrants comprise the least desirable elements of this people. 14

The second statement comes from labor leaders concerned about the migration of Puerto Rica n workers at the beginning of the 1900s. Their words serve as an indictment against both the economic conditions of rural workers, and the recruitment practices used to entice workers to

12 Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic, 60-67.

13 Ibid., 60.

14 Allen, Charles H. First annual report of Charles H. Allen, governor of Porto Rico: covering the period from May 1, 1900 to May 1, 1901.(San Juan P.R.: Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades; Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia, 2005) ,14-15.

migrate. These leaders expressed fear for the working conditions the workers might face; offering predictions that all too often came true.

Due to the shocking misery that prevails in our countryside; due to the hunger that exists in the homes of the poor jibaros, and to the absolute lack of work, a hideous crime is being committed in Puerto Rico…in that crime which can be called treasonous to humanity, a vile commercial traffic is carried out with our brothers, the rural proletariat, leading and contracting us to the fatal regions of Hawaii and Ecuador…were it to continue in this way, honorable citizens, shortly the Puerto Rican will have disappeared, buried forever in those countries, to which misery, hunger and deceit are taking them. 15

The migration of Puerto Ricans to Hawaii and other regions marked the beginning of an outflow of rural and other poor workers to fill the demands of U.S. capital for low wage labor. 16

Benchmark periods for Puerto Rican migration include 1898-1920 and 1940s and 1950s, with

1945 representing the period of peak mass migration. During both of these eras, “the Puerto

Rican Diaspora continued to be heavily proletarian, largely employed in …low paying manufacturing jobs… and in service occupations.” 17 The Puerto Ricans that migrated during early twentieth century also included a significant number of leftists, labor leaders, and independentistas, many of them destined to become key members of growing Puerto Rican communities in New York.

As with the European migrants during earlier times, NYC became the port of entry for most Caribbean migrants, including Puerto Ricans.18 Aided by its geographic location, economic

15Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic, 60-67.

16 As indicated in this discussion, Puerto Rican workers also migrated to other countries or territories to work on U.S. owned plantations, mines, or other businesses. This included St. Croix, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Yucatan and Panama.

17 Cesar Ayala and Rafael Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 68.

18 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 41; César J. Ayala, American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish Caribbean, 1898-1934 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). Ayala and Bernabe note that the recruitment of Puerto Ricans to Hawaii to work on sugar cane and pineapple plantations of Hawaii constituted the earliest mass migration off the island. However, it should be noted that this population of migrants was relatively small in comparison to New York’s. Additionally, Hawaii’s tenure as the 67

prominence and history as an urban center, New York also established itself early as the vibrant hub of politically astute Caribbean communities. 19 Hence, New York emerged as one of the sites where Puerto Rican and Cuban pro-independence activists from Puerto Rico met at the end of the 19th century. Some of the earliest references to Arturo Schomburg, best known as a bibliophile and Black Nationalist, also surface from meetings of Antillean federations and clubs in New York at the turn of the century and into the early twentieth century. These groups were populated mainly by Cuban and Puerto Rican tabaqueros, the tobacco workers, whose progressive politics, self-education and level of organizing are well documented in island histories. 20 Additionally, upon migrating to New York and Florida, the tabaqueros continued their work as “the vanguard of dissent and social protest.”21 Carmen Teresa Whalen further punctuates their importance: “Cigar makers were prominent among the early migrants, not just because of their numbers, but also because of their political activism.” 22 In examining the lifelong activism of Jésus Colón, Linda Delgado notes that Cayey, the birthplace of Colón, the

largest concentration of migrant Puerto Rican workers was quickly eclipsed by New York City by the second decade of the twentieth century. During this era, Puerto Rican laborers also went to the Dominican Republic to work on U.S. owned sugar plantations. For an overview of the impact of U.S. corporate capital in Puerto Rico and the growth of American owned sugar centrales after 1900 see pages 38-44. Ayala provides a broader discussion of the sugar industry in Puerto Rico.

19 Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America (New York: Verso, 1998). W inston James aptly describes the network of activist Caribbean folk during this period.

20 Jesús Colón, A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches (New York: Masses and Mainstream, 1961, Arno Press, 1975, and International Publishers 1982); Jésus Colón, The Way It Was and Other Writings, eds. Edna Acosta-Belén and Virginia Sánchez Korrol (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993); Vega, Memoirs; Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century; Findlay, “Free Love and Domesticity” in Identity and Struggles; James, Holding Aloft.

21 Linda C. Delgado, “Jesús Colón and the Making of a New York City Community, 1917, 1974,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora, eds. Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández, 68; James, Holding Aloft, 194-231.

22 Whalen, “Colonialis m, Citizenship and the Puerto Rican Diaspora,” 4. 68

Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the “home of the tabaqueros,” also gave birth to many other native sons and daughters who ended up in different parts of New York City in the early 1900s. 23

The presence of tabaqueros in the United States during that period represents a key example of the linkage of migration and labor, particularly as it relates to working class migrants. They carried their progressive politics and activism with them from the island to the

U.S., forging new paths and platforms and adding followers to their respective causes. The transnational character of their political convictions, encompassing island and mainland, embracing independence and worker movements in sister nations such as Cuba, stands as an exemplar of international solidarity. Their activism in the nascent Diaspora foreshadowed the burgeoning political consciousness within latter-day Puerto Rican communities of the nineteen- sixties and seventies.

While leading activists and pioneros such as Arturo Schomburg, Jésus Colon, and

Bernardo Vega organized among communities in New York, the city also became a “go to place” for organizers and leaders who did not migrate from the island, but who recognized the strong link between the Puerto Rican Diaspora and their island brethren. 24 Early twentieth century

Puerto Rican activists traveled to New York habitually, in pursuit of economic and grass roots support. They met with sympathizers, spoke at rallies, and courted allies. Activist Luisa

Capetillo, prominent in Labor, Anarchist, and Feminist movements, frequented New York City

23 Delgado, Jesús Colón, 68.

24 James, Holding Aloft, passim. Schomburg, Vega, and Cólon were involved in and held leadership positions in various organizations. Schomburg gravitated between Puerto Rican, Antillian, and African American groups, eventually focusing on the latter. Vega and Colon focused their involvement in Puerto Rican organizations. Vega became a founding member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party: Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño (PSP) and later the Movimiento Pro Independencia (MPI). Cólon was also a member of the Socialist Party (PSP) and later the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), an affiliation that lasted until his death. 69

in her quest to promote these struggles25 Capetillo remained an island resident, while fellow activists Bernardo Vega and Jésus Colon settled in New York, their organizing efforts and writings leaving an indelible imprint on the growing Puerto Rican Diaspora. 26 New York City therefore became not only an early twentieth-century hub for Puerto Rican and other Caribbean migrants, but also a meeting place for island radicals who either reproduced progressive organizations founded in Puerto Rico, or created new ones. Even as these early travelers began to settle and create ethnic enclaves in the United States, Puerto Rico remained a point of reference; island news, problems and polemics continued to be central issues. As Puerto Ricans migrated to other east coast locales, both from New York and the island, the popular memory of radicals and independentistas also made the trek.27 The migrant communities that subsequently established themselves in Newark, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Hartford, Bridgeport and Boston, followed a similar trajectory. Decades later, Young Lords established branches in most of these cities. With the exception of the originating branch in Chicago, most YLO chapters followed a migratory path along the East Coast that was similar to, but not identical to the original route taken by

Puerto Ricans in earlier decades. While many of the Puerto Rican communities that established

25 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 66-67; Norma Valle-Ferrer, Luisa Capetillo, Pioneer Puerto Rican Feminist (New York: Peter Lang Inc., 2006); Nancy Hewitt, “Luisa Capetillo: Feminist of the Working Class,” in Latina Legacies, eds. Ruiz and Sánchez-Korrol. Capetillo’s speaking and organizing efforts extended beyond Puerto Rico and New York to Tampa, Florida and Havana, Cuba. Valle-Ferrer and Hewitt provide detailed accounts of the work of Luisa Capetillo.

26 According to César Andreu Iglesias, a friend of Bernardo Vega and editor of his memoirs, Vega lived in New York for several decades. He moved back to Puerto Rico during his final years where he continued his activism as a member of pro-independence organizations PIP and a leader of MPI.

27 Although there was a radical presence in Tampa and other parts of Florida where tabaqueros were employed during the first decades of the twentieth century, in popular memory, the entrance of a g rowing conservative, post-1959 Cuban population with political and economic prominence, overshadowed the earlier presence. 70

themselves along the east coast corridor initially branched out from New York, migration to the

Midwest and Florida tended to come directly from the island. 28

Labor contracts, offered in response to demands for low-wage labor, often resulted in the establishment of new Puerto Rican communities, as in the case of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

Lorain, Ohio, and various Midwest cities.29 Families working in agriculture often moved from state to state as part of temporary work teams, before settling in the Midwest or in Southern cities.30 Antonio Jiménez Rodríguez, father of Young Lords founder “Cha Cha” Jimenez worked as a tomato picker, part of an agricultural circuit during the late 1940s; labor which took him and his family through Concord and Boston, Massachusetts and ultimately to Chicago, Illinois. 31

Once the seeds of community were established in each of these areas, migration was guided by kinship and social networks.32 These systems, similar to those of previous international immigrants, eased the transition to the new, different, and often inhospitable conditions.

However, Puerto Rican migration differed in its circular dimension and the establishment of

28 This refers to early migrants to these regions.

29 Víctor Vázquez-Hernández, “From Pan-Latino Enclaves to a Community: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, 1910- 2000,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora eds. Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández, 88-105; Eugenio ”Gene” Rivera, “La Colonia de Lorain, Ohio” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora, eds. Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández, 151-73. The aforementioned provide an overview of Puerto Rican communities in Philadelphia and Lorain.

30 Whalen, “Colonialis m, Citizenship and the Puerto Rican Diaspora,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora, 31-33. Temporary agricultural workers at times chose to settle permanently in these areas. For a discussion of the Puerto Rican agricultural workers and contract farm labor programs in the U.S.

31 “Jimenez and Mom,” an interview, Young Lords Collection; Jimenez, “The Young Lords, Puerto Rican Liberation,” interview by Angel G. Flores-Rodríguez, 61.

32 Gina Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement, and Puerto Rican Families (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004); Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández eds., The Puerto Rican Diaspora; Jorge Duany, The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identity on the Island and in the United States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002). For a discussion of circular migration see the aforementioned works of Gina Pérez and Jorge Duany. In addition, Pérez provides studies of migration.

multiple recruitment efforts targeting Puerto Ricans. 33 The distinguishing features of the Puerto

Rican migration stemmed in part from the relative geographic closeness of the island, particularly when compared to European countries, the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans, and the established US governmental agencies that promoted migration from the island. 34

During the twentieth century, island economic problems and their subsequent impact on large segments of the population, were increasingly blamed on social and cultural practices, and on the size of Puerto Rican families, rather than on dominant economic forces and governmental practices. To understand the world that migrants left and the one they entered throughout the

1900s, it is important to delve into the island’s colonial status, the political and economic changes on the island, and the apparatus set in motion to promote migration as a panacea for the economic and social trauma that loomed after the American acquisition.

Puerto Rico remains a Caribbean anomaly, economically and politically tied to the U.S., yet historically, geographically, linguistically, and culturally linked to Latin America and the

Caribbean.35 While Puerto Rico has struggled to sustain its identity and culture, this endeavor

33 Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández eds., The Puerto Rican Diaspora; Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century; Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story; Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic. Multiple industries and agencies recruited Puerto Ricans. In addition to the early migrants recruited to work in Hawaiian and Caribbean sugar industries, and braceros hired to work throughout the U.S. east coast, Midwest and South, Puerto Ricans were also recruited to work in various industries such as mines, factories, service and domestic industries. Most histories covering Puerto Rican migration present supporting evidence.

34 Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens as a result of the Jones Act of 1917.

35See: Lewis, Gordon K. The Growth of the Modern West Indies. Ian Randle Publishers, 2004. See also: Governor John P. deLongh, “Economic Overview of the US Virgin Islands,” http://www.governordejongh.com/budget/fy2013/docs/economic-overview.pdf; “EDA 2012 Annual Report, US Virgin Islands,” US Economic Development Association, a federal government agency charged with regional economic development. Operated by US Department of Commerce. http://www.eda.gov/annualreports/fy2012/states/usvi.htm; Joy Blackburn, “Virgin Islands’ economy rapidly shrinking,” Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, V.I.), Aug. 13, 2013, accessed Nov. 20, 2013. http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/virgin-islands-economy-rapidly-shrinking-1.1535378. The U.S. Virgin Islands are also territories of the U.S. Like Puerto Rico, their acquisition was strategic, but these islands did not experience the level of economic investment and acquisition of private lands that Puerto Rico endured. Additionally, the territorial size of the Virgin Islands relegated them to a position of lesser importance and focus vis-à-vis US economic development. Given the scope of my study, I have not delved into a more detailed study or analysis if US 72

spans several generations. Yet the island’s economic and political processes have been marked by its colonial status. While differing sectors of the Puerto Rican populace and various movements on and off the island have challenged U.S. hegemony, the impact of this colonial relationship remains incontrovertible. As a result, the migratory path of Puerto Ricans hinged on the economic and labor demands of U.S. capital, insular politics, and U.S. policies and actions in support of American capitalism. Political scientist Manuel Maldonado-Denis presents a similar analysis of the root causes of Puerto Rican migration. “Emigration is not a fortuitous nor accidental social phenomenon, but rather something profoundly connected to the capitalist- colonial mode of production.”36 Maldonado-Denis further elaborates on the ways that emigration is often perceived.

There are two ways of focusing on the problems of emigration from a scientific-social perspective. One consists of seeing the problem as an isolated, particular and self- contained social phenomenon. The other perspective requires a global, general focus, where the problem of emigration is seen within the wider perspective of the problems and disorders that affect society as an organic whole.37

As a colonial entity tied to a global power, Puerto Rico must be studied within the framework of global socio-economic development, concludes Maldonado-Denis. Hence, Puerto Rico’s emigration cannot be viewed solely through the internal lens of “rural-urban exodus” brought about by changes from a hacienda to a plantation economy, the attendant, massive dislocation of

Puerto Rican landowners and subsistence farmers, and the subsequent industrialization projects that paved the way for the entrance of transnational companies.

“What is altered in the change from the sugar economy based on the plantation to the new industrialization is merely the form of dependency, not its substance.

Virgin Island economy and history. However, contemporary reports of the region do provide a picture of the economic development of these islands: an economy dominated by tourism, as well as petroleum refining and rum production.

36 Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic, 29.

37 Ibid. 73

The changes that took place in the postwar capitalist economy with the development of monopoly capital and the displacement of medium and small business by the large transnational companies created a favorable setting for a project that can serve as “model” for Latin American countries faced with the problem of anti-development. As on past occasions, Puerto Rico must serve as the Caribbean’s experimental center for the domination designs of U.S. imperialism.”38

Nor can the island emigration be viewed as the result of overpopulation and the attendant problems of poverty, and unemployment, arguments which have been used to explain the twentieth-century exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island. Rather, the economic development of

U.S. during the twentieth century profited from the maintenance of Puerto Rico as a “peripheral dependent capitalist, and at the same time, colonial country.”39 This does not negate the existence of a “resident capitalist class” of Puerto Ricans who have profited and prospered from the economic trajectory that began with the U.S. acquisition of the island.40 Ayala and Bernabe state, that half of the sugar cane grown on the island was milled by Puerto Rican owners during the early twentieth century, and that more cane was planted under these owners. This implies a shared responsibility with U.S. sugar companies for the displacement of small farm owners and subsistence farmers and for the grueling labor and subsistence living conditions of agricultural workers. However, this “resident capitalist class” was small in numbers, maintained a privileged position, yet one subordinate to U. S. governance. In contrast, a majority of the Puerto Rican population was affected by the social and economic changes that swept through the island beginning in the twentieth century and continuing through several decades.

The popular adage, “when the U.S gets a cold, Latin America gets pneumonia,” appears benign in reference the colonial relationship Between Puerto Rico and the U.S. External

38 Ibid, 28.

39 Ibid. I borrow the quoted phrase from Maldonado-Denis who uses it in a different context.

40 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 38-40. Ayala and Bernabe use the phrase resident capitalist class to describe Puerto Rican sugar mill owners and processors.

policies, as well as insular ones, guided by U.S. law, governance, and American economic concerns greatly impacted Puerto Ricans throughout the twentieth century. Those feeling the impact the most have generally been the poor, subsistence farmers, and low wage earners.

Popular responses to the economic train of events that befell upon Puerto Rico varied: from increased labor organizing and the strengthening of labor unions, the growth of the Federacion

Libre de Trabajadores (FLT), to the rise of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and rural-urban, island-mainland migrations.41 The segment of the population most affected and in increased demand by U.S. industries, typically low wage earners, became part of the exodus from rural areas to the larger cities, many of them eventually making their way to urban and at times, also rural areas of the continental U.S.

Juan Flores fittingly describes the link between migration and Puerto Rico’s colonial status. Although his opening lines specify migrants to New York, his argument applies to the broader Puerto Rican migration throughout the United States.

Now as then, the Puerto Ricans’ coming to New York was motivated by economic need and the promise of a better life in the abundant metropolis. Still today as in the times when Bernardo Vega and other pioneers were first getting here, this gravitation of more and more Puerto Rican workers to the “land of opportunity,” is conditioned by the abiding colonial relationship between their home country, Puerto Rico, and the United States. 42

Flores concludes that this colonial relationship continued to bleed Puerto Ricans from their island shores, and rather than fulfilling the promises implied by “the land of opportunity, instead created a persistent underclass in the U.S. “For that reason, above all others, [my emphasis] the motivating hope for employment, equality and advancement continues to go unfulfilled in our time, though on a far larger scale than back when stowaway Jésus Cólon set out looking for

41 Ibid. passim.

42 Juan Flores ed., Puerto Rican Arrival in New York: Narratives of Migration, 1920-1950 (Princeton: Marcus Weiner Publishers, 1997), 21. 75

work,” Flores states.43 Speaking about his own experiences of migration, Cólon also links migration to Puerto Rico’s status and economic history. Like Flores, Cólon points to a continuing flow of workers coming from the island who, similar to previous migrants find themselves laboring in exploitative environments, Cólon states.

“Colonialism made me leave Puerto Rico about forty years ago. Colonialism with its concomitants, agricultural slavery, monoculture, absentee ownership and rank human exploitation are making the young Puerto Ricans of today come in floods to the United States, if only for a few months to work in the equally exploited agricultural fields.” 44

In this statement, Cólon also refers to the influx of Puerto Ricans who continued to arrive in the

U.S. in increasing numbers.

Key migratory periods in Puerto Rican history embrace both World Wars and follow a delineation suggested by Ayala and Bernabe: “The history of Puerto Rico after the onset of U.S. rule in 1898 breaks down into two distinct epochs: before and after World War II.”45 Economic policies on the island, the U.S. war industry, coupled with the view of Puerto Ricans as a source of cheap labor fueled migration during two periods: 1898-1920 and the 1940s and 1950s.46

Rapid industrialization in the U.S. and insular economic laws and programs such as Fomento

Economic, the “Law of Industrial Incentives” starting in 1947, and its program known as

Operación Manos a la Obra or Operation Bootstrap, further escalated the mass departure of

Puerto Ricans from the island during the forties and fifties, the period with the highest amount of migration. The economic strategy embedded in these programs, maintained that the root cause of poverty in Puerto Rico was overpopulation, and advocated industrialization and emigration as

43 Ibid.

44 Colón, A Puerto Rican in New York, 201.

45 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 2.

46 Whalen, The Puerto Rican Diaspora; Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century; Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story; Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic; Vega, Memoirs, 16. Vega includes firsthand accounts of Puerto Ricans finding jobs in munitions factories and other war-time industries. 76

remedies for the problem.47 As indicated by Flores, “Operation Bootstrap, the economic development plan for Puerto Rico inaugurated in the late 1940s, included as an integral component the emigration of nearly half of the Puerto Rican working class”48

The idea of “overpopulation” in Puerto Rico as source of poverty, led to a number of official practices that impacted the island and its population in ways that were intimate as well as broad. Beyond the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans during the first seven decades of the twentieth century, scores of sterilization and birth control programs were established throughout the island, during the 1930s. 49 The topic of reproduction or specifically sterilization entered the overpopulation debate as a solution, along with migration, to island poverty. Additionally, proponents used the argument that sterilized women were thus “free” to leave their homes and go to work. The large number of sterilizations performed in Puerto Rico, became one of the rallying cries of the Young Lords Party, who argued that the practice was a genocidal practice that impacted both women on the island and poor women of color in the

U.S.50

Factories and “homework” industries increasingly employed women throughout the

World War I years, reaching a high point during the 1930s. “The needle industry was concentrated in rural areas…to such an extent that by 1935, more than half of all island women in the labor force were involved in home-based needlework, factory-based needle trades, and other factory employment such as cigar and tobacco production, contributing necessary income

47 Maldonado-Denis, The Emigration Dialectic, 44-45; Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, passim.

48 Juan Flores ed., Puerto Rican Arrival in New York , 21.

49 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 40.

50 An expanded discussion of sterilization programs in Puerto Rico is included in a subsequent chapter. 77

to cash-strapped households,” notes Gina Pérez. 51 This represented a striking increase in the number of women engaged in wage labor; however it did not mark the entrance of Puerto Rican women into to the paid work force. Labor history points to women’s employment in myriad industries as venders, shop owners, coffee processors, tabaqueras, seamstresses, teachers, as performers in musical and drama productions, as well as in many other capacities. 52

Under the mantra of overpopulation and a surplus labor force, businesses and government agencies often collaborated in their efforts to encourage and manage emigration from Puerto

Rico. The creation of government agencies such as the Bureau of Employment and Migration, later renamed the Migration Division of the Department of Labor in 1947, coupled with the economic programs prescribing the elimination of “surplus laborers” from the island, resulted in a gendered “state sanctioned migration.”53 The contract labor programs, Fomento, and Operation

Bootstrap promoted the idea that there were “surplus laborers,” embodied by young women, rural agricultural workers, and other low wage laborers. During the late 1940s, “policy makers were increasingly vocal about the advantages of encouraging young women’s migration, since aside from birth control, the most effective means of reducing the population of Puerto Rico is emigration, primarily women of child-bearing ages.” This view, expressed in a memo to the

Commissioner of Labor in 1947, Included the idea that women would produce a “chain

51 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 36-37.

52 Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, “Street Venders, Pedlars (sic), Shop-Owners and Domestics: Some Aspects of Women’s Economic Roles in Nineteenth-Century San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1820-1870,” in Engendering History: Caribbean Women in Historical Perspective, eds. Verene Shepherd, Bridget Brereton, Barbara Bailey (London: James Currey Publishers, and Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1995), 178-90; Eileen J. Suárez Findlay, Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920 (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999), 135-66; Elizabeth Crespo, “Domestic Work and Racial Divisions in Women’s Employment in Puerto Rico, 1899-1930,” Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8, no. 1 and 2 (1996). The above are all sources of labor history.

53 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, passim. Pérez uses the term “state sanctioned migration.” She argues that rural workers came to be perceived as surplus laborers. 78

migration,” since it is “obvious that girls, with their typically strong family loyalties would send for their kin…”54

Recruitment practices including ads in Puerto Rican newspapers and information from the Migration Division led needleworkers and dressmakers to NY, and agricultural workers to

Hawaii, New Jersey and the Chicago environs. Additionally service, dock, manufacturing workers fanned out along the east coast and to major cities in the Midwest. The gendering of these recruitment efforts and the impact on families in both the receiving and sending communities manifested itself in various ways. Beyond the work of women, as wage laborers in agriculture, garment and other factories, and domestic service, island women also performed

“reproductive labor,” caring for the children and homes of relatives. 55

New York

During the two periods of the twentieth century when the largest number of Puerto

Ricans emigrated, the environment in New York City, the community with the largest number of

Puerto Ricans, was quite different. To illustrate this point, Juan Flores eloquently paints differing portraits of Puerto Rican migratory experiences during these two eras. The first illustrates the lives of early twentieth century migrants such as Bernardo Vega and Jésus Colon, and alludes to continuing struggles in the Puerto Rican community. The second points to the world experienced by many Young Lords and their parents.

Compared to the stormy struggles and complex changes of times closer to us, the scene [as told by Vega, Colon, and other early migrant chroniclers] seems to have been calmer then; the problems and clashes confronting the arrivals, though genuine and challenging, appeared solvable, somehow, and more straightforward. Seen retrospectively, there is an

54 Ibid, 68.

55 Ibid, passim. 79

air of naiveté to the world as portrayed in these stories, attributed to the smaller proportions and antecedent stage of the migratory process. 56

Flores thus sets the stage for his description of the subsequent, larger, migration and resulting communities.

Before those changes of the forties and fifties – the rapid industrialization of the Puerto Rican economy under Commonwealth status, the unchecked avalanche of families from the island, the vigorous crackdown on pro-independence and leftist movements and organizations in the years of McCarthyism, the influx of drugs into New York neighborhoods and consequent rise in crime, to name a few…“– the [early twentieth century migrant community was quite different. It was more cohesive, the threads of association with Puerto Rico clearer and more active, and relations to other nationalities in the U.S. more solidly grounded.” 57

Flores’ describes the smaller, earlier migration as one in which early 20th century pioneros, banded together as they faced the newness of their experience; their vision of home clearly island-based. Among these pioneros, came a number of Puerto Rican radicals, including socialists, communists, and independentistas of various political persuasions.58 While proudly

Puerto Rican, their political leanings also allowed them to embrace Antillian, and Latin

American identities, and maintain a working class ethos. 59 This era was characterized by support for progressive causes both on the island and in the Diaspora. In Puerto Rico the Federacion

Libre de Trabajadores (FLT), the Labor Federation, and the Socialist Party enjoyed popular support. Meanwhile, emergent Puerto Rican publications in the Diaspora, embraced both local and island news. They publicized stories and conditions that affected Puerto Rican migrant

56 Flores, Puerto Rican Arrival in New York, 15-17.

57 Ibid (emphasis added).

58 It should be noted that while pro-independence sympathizers were not universally socialists or communists, the latter always supported independence for the island. In a letter to Lolita Lebron, Albizu Campos makes a statement in support of this contention. Additionally, the newspapers of the PSP (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño) and the Puerto Rican Communist Party further support these claims. Campos’ letter contained in: documentos “La Fortaleza”, Fondo Documental Oficina del Gobernador, Tarea 96-20, Archivo General de Puerto Rico.

59 I use the term Antillian versus Caribbean because, Cuban and Puerto Rican activists of that era self-identified as such when speaking to a broader base. Clubs and community organizations that included members from other islands often included Antillian in their name. 80

communities, particularly in New York, while serving as a lifeline to politics and news from

Puerto Rico.

While early twentieth century migrants necessarily found themselves carving out their own spaces, during the second migration, Puerto Ricans coming to New York entered established communities, which also included the beginnings of a second generation. By then, many nationalists and leftist leaders on the island were imprisoned and sympathizers were under heightened surveillance, thereby weakening the pro-independence and Left movements. 60

Bernabe and Ayala paint an analogous portrait of the New York community during this second migratory wave: “the Puerto Rican colonia was undergoing a similar transformation. Past activism and left-wing influence were sidelined with the rest of the U.S. Left in the era of

McCarthyism and overwhelmed by new migrants from the island with no connection to past struggles in New York.”61 Cold War politics and the repression brought about by McCarthyism suppressed the activism of the previous decades. However, this period of apparent dormancy would soon be over, erupting in the movements of the 1960s.

As in previous decades, the discontent and protest of the 1960s appeared in various forms. Puerto Rican artists, poets, and musicians often used their craft to create historical narratives. At times these expressions appeared to be simply descriptive; other times, they inspired protest or served as dissent. The poem “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri voiced the discontent of the late 1960s. With each verse, Pietri attempted to recount the lives of many

60 Ample evidence exists of this surveillance of activists and events. Conducted by Insular police and the FBI on the island, in the U.S., “Red Squads” of local police departments and the FBI carried out the surveillance. . In Puerto Rico, the “La Fortaleza” documents became known as “Los Encadenados,” in English, “the chained ones, “because the records container was locked with chains & only accessible to officials from the Administración de Documentos de Fortaleza. See: “La Fortaleza” documents, Fondo Documental Oficina del Gobernador, Tarea 96-20, Archivo General de Puerto Rico.; Archivo Fotográfico, Fondo: Departamento de Justicia, Serie: Fotografías Nacionalistas, Tarea: 90-29; FBI: http://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/puerto-rican-groups; CUNY, Center for Puerto Rican Studies: http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/

61 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 202. 81

working class Puerto Ricans, collectively represented by five characters as shown in these opening verses.

They worked They were always on time They were never late They never spoke back when they were insulted They worked They never went on strike Without permission They never took days off That were on the calendar They worked Ten days a week And were only paid for five They worked They worked They worked And they died They died broke They died owing They died never knowing What the front entrance Of the first national city bank looks like

Juan Miguel Milagros Olga Manuel All died yesterday today And will die tomorrow Passing their bill collectors On to the next of kin All died Waiting for the Garden of Eden To open up again Under a new management All died Dreaming about america [sic] Waking them up in the middle of the night Screaming: Mira! Mira! Your name is on the winning lottery ticket For one hundred thousand dollars

All died Hating the grocery stores That sold them make-believe steak And bullet-proof rice and beans All died waiting dreaming and hating 62

Pietri first read this poem at a Young Lords’ rally in 1969.63 With urban eloquence born of the streets of East Harlem, Pietri placed both women and men in a communal landscape as he presented a plethora of ills, an indictment of the social and economic conditions encountered by

Puerto Ricans in New York. Decades earlier, the Puerto Rican song writer-composer Rafael

Hernández wrote “Lamento Borincano,” a mournful song about a peasant who leaves the countryside to sell his produce, finds the poverty of the cities, and goes home empty-handed.64

Thoughts of his land, home, wife, and children create the backdrop for this lament. “Dear God, what will happen to my children and my home...” continues the song. 65 While Hernández’ composition speaks to the despair of many Puerto Ricans on the island during the 1920s and

1930s, Pietri’s poem reflects the poverty and social alienation experienced by most Puerto Rican men and women in New York during the second half of the twentieth century. Written during radically different eras, “Lamento Borincano” and “Puerto Rican Obituary” remain among the most widely recognized protest works of the Puerto Rican nation.

For the generation of young Puerto Ricans residing in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, “Lamento Borincano” speaks to the struggles that many of their parents and grandparents experienced; “Puerto Rican Obituary” represented the dissatisfaction of a new

62 Pedro Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary,” as quoted in Abramson and the Young Lords Party, Palante: Young Lords Party (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971), 16.

63 Harry Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster eds., “Poetry: Puerto Rican Obituary,” Monthly Review 56, no.2 (June 2004).

64 The title translates as “Puerto Rican Lament.” This song is also popularly known as “El Jibarito,” a reference to el jibaro, the Puerto Rican peasant.

65 Rafael Hernández, “Lamento Borincano,” http://www.musicofpuertorico.com/lyrics/lamento_borincano.html. 83

generation. When Hernández wrote “Lamento Borincano” in 1929, the population of Puerto

Rican jibaros, or peasants, had declined, a consequence of economic policies including the expansion of American owned sugar monopolies on the island and the resulting dislocation of rural folk.66 Hernandez’ song helped enshrine the jibaro as a symbol of the Puerto Rican nation.67 This image, perpetuated in paintings and other art forms and utilized by island politicians remains a cherished icon, reflective of Puerto Rico’s long gone rural ethos.

By the time Pietri wrote “Puerto Rican Obituary,” Puerto Ricans had established communities in various metropolises throughout the United States and become a significant segment of the labor force in various industries. 68 In his poetic characters, Juan, Miguel,

Milagros, Olga, and Manuel, Pietri, “the poet-laureate of the Young Lords” presented a generation of Puerto Rican migrants battered by economic and racial strife in the United States, an evolving community caught between the island and the mainland. 69 Thus, “Puerto Rican

Obituary” became a symbol of the “one third of the Puerto Rican Nation [sic] [that] is in the

66 Ruth Glasser, “Buscando Ambiente: Puerto Rican musicians in New York City, 1917-1940,” in Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music and Identity in New York , eds. Ray Allen and Alice Wilchen (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 8.

67 The image of the jibaro has been subjected of a number of interpretations. Depending on the theoretical lens being used, the portrayal of the jibaro has ranged from “whitened” peasant to a racially-mixed peasant. Given the use of the jibaro image by politicians, and popular interpretations, most studies of Puerto Rican history, culture, and identity make reference to its cultural significance and contested imagery. See for example: Francisco A. Scarano, “The Jíbaro masquerade and the subaltern politics of Creole identity formation in Puerto Rico, 1745-1823.” The American Historical Review (1996): 1398-1431.

68 U.S. Bureau of the Census figures which indicate 892,513 persons of Puerto Rican birth or parentage residing in the United States in 1960 and 1,391,463 in 1970. For 1950 and 1970 population figures see: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future (Washington DC: GPO, Oct 1976). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED132227.pdf. For 1960 population figures see: U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Populations: 1960. Subject reports, Puerto Ricans in the United States, Final report PC (2)-ID, Table 15.

69 David Gonzalez, “Pedro Pietri Obituary,” New York Times, March 6, 2004; Raymond Beltran, “There Was Never No Tomorrow, Nuyorican Pedro Pietri In His Own Words,” La Prensa San Diego, Feb. 6, 2004.

United States,” and the protest movement that emerged.70 This poem and Pietri form part of the history of the Young Lords.71 More than a lament, “Puerto Rican Obituary” articulated many of the conditions that became the focal points of their organizing. The Young Lords voiced the unrest of a generation of Puerto Ricans; their militant actions and political positions are a part of the vibrant history of social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Yet, their beginnings were not in New York, the site of the largest number of Puerto Ricans outside of the island, but in

Chicago, a city with a newer, and much smaller population of Puerto Rican migrants.

Chicago

In comparison to the community in New York during the 1960s, Puerto Rican

Chicagoans were relative newcomers. Like many other cities outside of New York that subsequently developed Puerto Rican communities, Chicago had a small trickle of migrants prior to 1944. However, as a community, Puerto Ricans in Chicago during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s were “newcomers,” forging a path for subsequent islanders who made their way to the “windy city.” Large Scale migration to Chicago began after World War II. 72

As with earlier migrations to Hawaii and New York, the first group of Puerto Rican workers came with promises of higher wages and adequate working conditions. This first group, comprised of Puerto Rican women recruited to work as domestic workers arrived in Chicago in

70 The Young Lords Party, Palante, 158. I use the term “mainland” to differentiate between the continental United States and its island possessions.

71 The Young Lords chapter in New York was founded on July 26, 1969. Originally part of the Young Lords Organization headquartered in Chicago, they became the Young Lords Party a year later.

72 Felix M. Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987), 56; Maura I. Toro- Morrn, “Boricuas en Chicago: Gender and Class in the Migration and Settlement of Puerto Ricans,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora, eds. Whalen and Vázquez-Hernández,128; Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 241. 85

1946.73 They entered the United States as contract workers, part of an arrangement described by

Pérez as “abusive and largely unregulated.”74

Deceitful recruiters would arrive in Puerto Rico with a promise of jobs that never materialized, or they would charge both the employer and the employee placement fees, and sell workers items critical to their relocation. Once employed, contract laborers often faced abuses by their employers as well. 75

Given these working conditions many contract workers filed complaints, while others walked away from their work agreements. 76 Still others settled in Chicago, becoming the forerunners of the first large Puerto Rican migrant group to do so in the “windy city.” Within the next decade,

Puerto Rican workers migrated to Chicago and other parts of the Mid-West in increasing numbers.

Those who settled in Chicago, New York, and other parts of the U.S., during the early years of this post-war migration left Puerto Rico amid a climate of repression, resistance and confrontations. This included the 1948 passage of Law 53, known as the ley de la mordaza, the law of the muzzle or the Gag Law. Law 53 “made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States.” As noted by Ayala and Bernabe, the Gag Law was “aptly used after the Nationalist Insurrection of 1950.”77 The Nationalist insurrection, the attacks on

Blair House in Washington D.C in 1950 and the 1954 shooting in the Capitol building by

Nationalists, resulted in the arrest of thousands of pro-independence sympathizers. Additionally,

73 Toro-Morrn, “Boricuas en Chicago” in Puerto Rican Diaspora, 130; Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 65. Pérez states that men also arrived that year to work as contract laborers in factories. Toro-Morrn refers to the women only. She states that Puerto Rican newspaper coverage reported the arrival of a plane to fly the women to Chicago. Chicago area newspapers offered similar reports. Either the women arriving as domes tic workers were deemed to be more newsworthy, or the men followed in subsequent trips...

74 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 62.

75 Ibid.

76 Ibid, 62-70.

77 Ayala and Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century, 160. 86

it led to the imprisonment of many Nationalist leaders including Albizu Campus, head of the

Nationalist Party, and Lolita Lebron, a participant in the 1954 shooting. 78 While the events on the island were the same and the conditions that migrants left were similar, regardless of the U.S. location they settled in, the various receiving communities were quite different.

In her study of “migration, displacement, and Puerto Rican families in Chicago,” Gina

Pérez concludes that nativist anxiety, and racial tensions, stemming from the growing presence of Puerto Ricans during the post-World War II era, prompted the Migration Division of the

Department of Labor to “relocate and redirect Puerto Rican migrants away from New York and towards cities like Chicago.” Hence, the initial group of “single young Puerto Rican women…recruited by the Chicago-based employment agency [Castle, Barton and Associates] to remedy the city’s ‘maid shortage’,” and the men recruited to work in foundries, initially became the face of Chicago’s “desirable” migrant community. 79 The abundance of domestic, industrial, and agricultural work for men and women [in the region] further encouraged Puerto Ricans’ arrival.”80

Puerto Rican women, long established as needle workers in factories or in “homework” industries in Puerto Rico became desirable workers for the American post-war garment industry, whose prior immigrant workers were retiring and exiting the trade. Other Caribbean women also joined them in the factories. Although few in numbers at the beginning of the post-World War II era, Dominican and Cuban women worked alongside Puerto Ricans, the latter often acting as information networks and providing insight into how to best select and maneuver work

78 Lebron’s importance in YLO memory and iconography is discussed in a subsequent chapter. The leadership of Albizu Campos’ leadership of the pro-independence movement discussed in chapter one: his importance and symbolis m in the Young Lords’ movement is discussed in Chapter 4.

79 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 65.

80 Ibid., 6. 87

environments, schools, and neighborhoods. In conversations with Dominican women, family members who arrived in the U.S. between 1950 and 1963, many of them remember the camaraderie and helpfulness of their Puerto Rican co-workers and neighbors. Having worked decades in the garment industry their experiences point to a different sense of camaraderie among Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans; solidarity previously visible during the independence struggles of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Years later, a similar solidarity was visible among the ranks of Young Lords, particularly within the New York branches of the organization, where these populations shared spaces.

By 1970 the city’s Puerto Rican population had reached 817,712; the Young Lords already established in New York, were actively recruiting members. 81 At the same time, another population of Spanish speaking migrants from the Caribbean was growing in the city; this time from the migrants came, not from Puerto Rico or Cuba, but from the Dominican Republic. In spite of “the significant presence of Caribbeans in the United States” during the twentieth century, Dominicans had been absent from this grouping until the 1960s.82 In essence,

Dominican mass migration began two decades later than the peak period of Puerto Rican migration, with the greatest number of immigrants from the Dominican Republic arriving during the 1970s and 80s. By the time there were recognizable Dominican communities in New York

City; Puerto Rican communities had been established in the city for over half a century. 83

Dominican migration commenced after 1961, since, during the reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, there were a relatively small number of individuals who were able to

81 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Puerto Ricans in the United States: An Uncertain Future, 1976, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED132227.pdf

82 James, Holding Aloft, 8. 83 Here I stress the establishment of communities vs. individuals. There is evidence of individual Puerto Rican and Dominican travelers or settlers in the 18th century.

leave the island. Therefore, except for a trickle of individuals who obtained visas prior to this time, immigration documented or otherwise, did not begin until after Trujillo’s assassinatio n in

1961, The number of migrants able to leave the country increased after 1963, stimulated by the constitutionalist struggle in the Dominican Republic, the Revolution of 1965 and the subsequent

U.S. military intervention.84 Dominicans migrated for various reasons; some for economic, others for political reasons. This included middle class families who left the country between

1961 and 1965, many of them “fearful of the progressive Bosch regime.”85 Relaxed immigration policies and political maneuvering by U.S. officials also enabled leftists to leave the country, among them “progressive participants in the Revolution of 1965…members of left-wing and social-democratic parties, labor organizers, and dissident students from the University of Santo

Domingo.”86 Additionally, “the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic during the early

1960s advocated granting wider access to visas as a safety valve against political agitation and as a way to improve relations between the two countries.”87 Some of these political exiles would transfer their activism to the streets of New York, often in support of Puerto Rican independence.

In her study of Dominican immigration, Patricia Pessar notes that during the 1950s, “a yearly average of 990 registered [Dominican] immigrants,” appear in official records. These small numbers were the result of Trujillo’s extreme restriction on emigration from the island nation. Following the civil unrest of the early to mid-1960s, this number increased tenfold to

84 Patricia Pessar, A Visa for a Dream (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995), 2.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid, 3. Pessar notes that while some of these individuals left voluntarily, others were deported as a result of an agreement between the Dominican Republic and the United States.

87 Ibid.

9330 registered immigrants.88 During the following three decades, political, social, and economic change in the Dominican Republic, as well as US immigration policy modifications, prompted an increasing numbers of Dominicans to migrate. At the time that the Young Lords were established in New York, the Dominican community was growing, but remained under the radar, not yet visible as an established immigrant community. The few Dominicans who did join the

YLO represented the 1.5 generation, born in the Dominican Republic, but raised in the U.S. As indicated by the statistics listed above, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, members of the 1.5 generation were still few in number. Although there were increasing numbers of leftists coming from the Dominican Republic at that time, they tended to form, or join, Dominican-centered groups, such as chapters of the “14th of June Movement,” or the small but active, Juventud

Patriotica Dominicana (JPD), comprised of young, university-aged, immigrants who had recently arrived in New York.89 While these groups sought to recruit and organize Dominicans in the U.S., they maintained a political focus on events in the Dominican Republic, rather than on the growing Dominican community in the U.S. Additionally, they organized and conducted meetings in Spanish. Community organizing, focused on the emergent Dominican community in

New York would come a few years later, when Washington Heights became known as el barrio de los Dominicanos. In practice and ideology, these Dominican groups believed in international solidarity. While few Dominicans initially joined U.S. based movements during the late 1960s, many actively supported pro-independence events and organizations such as Movimiento Pro

Independencia (MPI) in New York. In addition to their membership in Dominican organizations, several also became members of MPI and recruited Dominicans and Puerto Ricans to the

88 Ibid, 2; Pessar cites Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, “One Country in Two Dominican Owned Firms in New York and the Dominican Republic,” (PhD diss., The John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1992) as the source of these statistics.

89 Personal knowledge. The Juventud Patriotica Dominicana held their meetings in our building in NYC. 90

movement. A few became Young Lords, joining a number of Cubans, Mexicans, Panamanians, and Colombians, as well as African Americans, the latter present in significant numbers. This blend of nationalities suggested a level of internationalism that was unique among Black and

Brown organizations of the era. The existence of a sizeable non- Puerto Rican contingent within the Young Lords is also indicative of their platform and ideology, one that promoted solidarity with African American, Chicano, Dominican, and other Latin American movements and causes.

The tacit acceptance of non-Puerto Ricans within the organization allowed members to transcend national divisions.90 The community activism and politics of the organization initially attracted these diverse members. Living in Puerto Rican and African American communities, their shared experiences of marginalization within the U.S., bound them together. Additionally, the migration experiences of members or their relatives and the squalid, living and educational conditions members witnessed in their neighborhoods allowed them to recognize the demands and programs of the Young Lords as common cause.

In Chicago, the Young Lords created intra-group alliances with Mexican, Chicano, and

African American members as well as externally, forming coalitions with other New Left organizations. The original Rainbow Coalition, formed in Chicago in 1968, united members of several organizations including the Young Lords, the Black Panther Party, and the Young

Patriots, the latter, white youths from Appalachia who lived in poor Chicago neighborhoods.

Brought together by Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, “Cha Cha” Jimenez of the

Young Lords, and Bill “Preacherman” Fesperman of the Young Patriots, this coalition was the first to call itself the Rainbow Coalition. 91 In addition to bringing together these emergent

90 This is applicable for most of the organizational life of the Young Lords. 91 Jacobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013). 91

organizations, the original Rainbow Coalition represented an amalgam of working class people with roots in the Caribbean, Mexico, the U.S. South, Southwest, and Appalachia.

In the photographic history compiled by the Young Lords of New York and photographer

Michael Abrahamson, an essay written by central committee members of the Young Lords Party, presents an oft-asked query about the founding of the Young Lords: “How did you begin?”

The response: the story of the merger of two community groups in New York, one working in El

Barrio, the other in the Lower East Side. “The two groups become one with the intention of getting recognition from [the Young Lords Organization in] Chicago.” They were joined by members of Sociedad de Albizu Campos, a student group from the State University of New York at Old Westbury. With the merger of these three groups, the New York chapter of the YLO was born. “This merger represented the uniting of the street people with students of working-class background.”92 This story illustrates the beginnings of the New York branch, and the diversity of its membership, one usually described as being made up almost entirely of students. However, a fundamental part of YLO history appears blurred between the lines of this narrative. The answer to the question, “how did you begin?” should have been: the Young Lords movement started in

Chicago. In New York, “street people “ and working class students followed their example of grass roots organizing and formed the second chapter of the Young Lords.

The Chicago chapter of the YLO forever bears the imprint of “founder” of what would become an innovative and highly visible organization of young Puerto Rican radicals across the country. Examining its beginnings leads us another question: Why did the Young Lords emerge in Chicago, rather than New York, the site of the largest population of Puerto Ricans outside of

During the 1980s, Jesse Jackson adopted the name, and called his emergent organization “The Rainbow Coalition,” thereby blurring the memory of the original, New Left, urban alliance created during the 1960s. For a detailed account of the history of the original Rainbow Coalition, see Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot.

92 Abramson and the Young Lords Party, introduction to Palante, not paginated. 92

San Juan? New York, a city of many “firsts” in Diaspora history, also maintained a strong activist presence during different eras, most significantly during the epoch of the pioneros.

Therefore, we could expect that a New Left Puerto Rican Organization, allied with the Black

Panther Party, and focused on U.S. communities as well as Puerto Rican politics, would emerge from New York, a metropolis whose Puerto Rican populace was almost ten times greater than that of Chicago. Between 1950 and 1970, the number of Puerto Ricans residing in New York and

Chicago grew exponentially. Additionally, in their respective states, the overwhelming majority of the Puerto Rican-born, and Puerto Rican-descended populations resided within the cities of

New York or Chicago. 93 The following table illustrates the population figures for the states of

New York and Illinois during 1950-1970. As illustrated in Table (2-1), the population differences between New York and Illinois were quite large. Beyond this disparity, what is perhaps more significant, is the population increase and the percentage of growth in each location, as shown in Table 2-2. In particular, the percentage of growth in Illinois, almost all in

Chicago from 1950-1970 represents an enormous amount of growth; one that would create tension between the newcomers and established communities.

93 Based on census figures. See: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future (Washington DC: GPO, Oct 1976). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED132227.pdf.

TABLE 2-1 Puerto Rican Populations, States: New York, 1950-197094 ______

1950 1960 1970

New York 252,515 642,622 878,980

Illinois 3,570 36,833 88,244

______

Source: 1950 and 1970 population figures: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future (Washington DC: GPO, Oct 1976). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED132227.pdf. Source: 1960 population figures: U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Populations: 1960. Subject reports, Puerto Ricans in the United States, Final report PC (2)-ID, Table 15. Note: All figures for population increase and percent of increase, calculated by author.

94 Note: figures include person who are Puerto Rican born and Puerto Rican parentage.

TABLE 2-2 Puerto Rican Populations, Increase, States: New York, Illinois, New Jersey, 1950-1970 ______

Increase % of Increase Increase % of Increase Cumulative Cumulative % 1950-1960 1950-1960 1960-1970 1960-1970 1950-70 1950-1970

New York 390,107 154.5% 236,358 36.7% 626,465 248%

Illinois 33,263 931.7% 51,411 139.6% 84,674 2371.8%

______

Note: Figures in Table 2-2 calculated by author, based on figures and sources shown on Table 2-1.

The infusion of islanders into New York and Chicago created new enclaves, communities, as well as conflicts. This was particularly true for Chicago. In comparing the environments of New York and Chicago during the 1960s, Juan Flores’ assessment of the two distinct migration periods in New York comes to mind. Although parts of Flores’ statement are not applicable to a Chicago-New York comparison, key elements warrant discussion. Flores states: “The [early New York] community was quite different. It was more cohesive, the threads of association with Puerto Rico clearer and more active, and relations to other nationalities in the

U.S. more solidly grounded.”95 The Puerto Rican community in Chicago during the 1960s could be described in a similar fashion. Therefore, Chicago Young Lords members and their parents entered an environment in many aspects similar to the one encountered by Jésus Colon and

Bernardo Vega in an earlier era. During the early part of Colon and Vega’s time of residence in

New York, the Puerto Rican community included a significant number of independentistas.

95 Flores, Puerto Rican Arrival in New York , 17.

Chicago has a similar identification, although it is not clear whether the presence of independentistas in the city was more pronounced during specific decades. Studies focused on the Puerto Rican community in Chicago do concur on the following: The migrant population in

Chicago included a large number of independentistas. Writing about Puerto Rican nationalism in

Chicago, Gina Pérez emphasizes this point.

“While the bridging of local and nationalists concerns is neither new nor exclusive to Puerto Ricans in Chicago, its pervasiveness in many grassroots organizations such as the Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center and the First Congregational Church, and the overwhelming understanding that committed community activists are almost always independentistas are particularly noteworthy.” 96

As a new migrant community, Puerto Ricans in Chicago faced different challenges than their contemporaries in New York. By 1960, New York City was home to Puerto Rican communities that had been growing for half a century or more, throughout the boroughs of the city. Additionally, New York was entrenched with organizations and community groups that spanned decades. In contrast Chicago’s Puerto Rican communities were newer and smaller, as were their organizations. The largest organization, Los Caballeros de San Juan, “had strong religious connections.” Founded as a fraternal and civic organization by lay persons and the

Catholic Church, many of the “programs and activities [of Los Caballeros] were linked directly with the parish church, church membership being a prerequisite to organization membership.”97

Described by Padilla as “assimilationist,” Los Caballeros served as a means to bring together

Puerto Ricans in social and religious events, and to assist community members in need. 98 To a degree, Los Caballeros served as a template for neighborhood organizing. Using the parish as the

96 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 85.

97 Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago, 126-27.

98 Ibid, 21.

base community, they conducted orientations for newly arrived migrants, offered leadership classes and taught others to organize. Los Caballeros de San Juan sought a degree of assimilation for Puerto Ricans similar to that of prior European immigrants. However, the racialization of Puerto Ricans, the class status of a majority of this population, as well as the influx of a large number of migrants within a short period of time, precluded this from occurring.

When the migrant population was still small in Chicago and contract laborers were actively being recruited, newer residents were touted in local newspapers and employment agencies as the “good Puerto Ricans,” not to be confused with their New York counterparts. 99

As shown in Table 1, between 1950 and 1960 the Puerto Rican population grew from 3,570 persons to a community of 36,833, representing an increase of more than 931 percent. Chicago’s

Puerto Rican population continued to grow through the 1960s and by 1970 reached the 80,000 mark. This rapid growth exacerbated problems with housing, police interactions, and increased hostility from white neighbors. While urban conditions in New York and Chicago were similar during this period of time, Chicago’s smaller more segregated Puerto Rican community was faced with additional problems. Their accounts of housing discrimination resemble those of early twentieth century migrants in New York. 100 Padilla presents a number of examples of blatant discrimination, including the account of a resident of a Puerto Rican neighborhood in

1952. “In those days it was difficult for Puerto Ricans to find decent size apartments [SIC]. You would find that the rental ads in the newspapers would indicate ‘for whites only,’ or ‘Puerto

Ricans are not allowed’ (No se admiten Puertorriqueños).”101

99 Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story, 72-77.

100 Jesus Cólon, A Puerto Rican in New York, passim; Vega, Memoirs, passim. In their accounts of life in New Yo rk during this period, both Jesus Cólon and Bernardo Vega detail experiences in housing discrimination.

101 Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago, 118.

Although discrimination in housing existed in 1960s New York, particularly in living conditions and maintenance of buildings, the existence of long standing Puerto Rican and multi- ethnic neighborhoods, meant that there were more options for housing . In New York, Puerto

Ricans and African Americans often faced discrimination when attempting to rent in higher priced neighborhoods or other ethnic enclaves. In Chicago, they were kept out of affordable housing and instead relegated to smaller housing units that had been subdivided and were more expensive. The housing practices in Chicago created other problems, among them, the worsening of race relations, as illustrated by Padilla.

From the onset, housing discrimination and police injustice were the leading forces responsible for fostering an antagonistic group relationship between Puerto Ricans and whites. Puerto Ricans were trapped in the most run-down residential sections in their communities not only because of poverty but also because of a stringent pattern of housing discrimination. The unwillingness of whites to tolerate Puerto Ricans as neighbors had far reaching results. Since Puerto Ricans were so limited in their choice of housing, they were forced to pay higher rents in those buildings that were open to them. Some landlords began to divide up large buildings into smaller “kitchenette units”…and increase their income substantially by renting to ten or twelve families rather than five or six.102

Inequality and injustice surfaced in other areas including employment, incidents of police harassment, and welfare policies such as the “[repatriation] of unemployed Puerto Ricans.”

Refusing to give public aid to jobless Puerto Ricans, in 1954 Chicago’s Public Welfare

Commissioner, “[repatriated] approximately one hundred unemployed Puerto Ricans. 103 A decade later, Puerto Rican neighborhoods faced destruction through gentrification and urban renewal projects. On June 12, 1966, the Division Street Riot, erupted in Chicago in response police actions in the neighborhood. The first was the shooting of twenty year old Arcelis Cruz,

102 Ibid., 117.

103 Perez, Near Northwest Side Story, 75-76.

the second involved the use of police dogs in the neighborhood. Both occurred on Division

Avenue in the heart of what was considered Chicago’s oldest Puerto Rican barrio.104

Ultimately, specific conditions in Chicago fueled community organizing and “influenced the accelerated growth of Puerto Rican consciousness [in the city].”105 Discriminatory practices in employment, housing, and policing, heightened community awareness and increased the level of activism in various sectors, particularly among youth. Chicago’s physical layout, an arrangement of small neighborhoods, initially with “segregated ethnic enclaves within the communities” increased the need to organize, given the resulting conflicts and discriminatory practices. 106 The relatively small size of neighborhoods facilitated the process of organizing, while a tradition of neighborhood-centered, grassroots involvement typified the work of social, religious, and political groups within Puerto Rican communities in Chicago.

The Young Lords Organization emerged as a political group within a year of the Division

Street Riots.107 Their transformation from a street gang to a political organization was informed by their neighborhood conditions, an emerging political consciousness that enveloped the era, and a host of individual, lived experiences that included migration, settlement, and community alliances. Several leading members of the Young Lords were born in historically significant cities and regions such as Lares, the site of Puerto Rico’s first armed struggle for independence, and Ponce, a city honored and remembered as Albizu Campos’ birthplace, a hub of pro- independence sympathizers and the site of the Ponce Massacre. A number of other members

104 Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago, passim.

105 Ibid, 21.

106 Ibid, 82.

107 The exact year of the founding of the Young Lords in Chicago is blurred by the fact that they existed first as a gang, and became politicized over a period of time. However, the date most frequently used is 1967.

originated in San Sebastian, Caguas and Aguadilla, rural cities located on the northwestern part of Puerto Rico; an area among those most impacted by emigration during the key migration periods. Whether their place of birth later influenced their political convictions is difficult to determine. However, those born in Ponce or Lares and its neighboring municipalities generally point to the historic significance of these locations. In broad terms, the experience of migration, whether their own or a family member’s, impacted the lives of the young men and women who joined the Young Lords. The places where their families settled, the neighborhoods they lived in, and the instances of inequality they witnessed or experienced contributed to the development of their political consciousness. David Perez was born in Lares, grew up in Chicago, and joined the

Young Lords in New York. In the following passage, Perez describes his impetus for becoming an activist.

Our cry is a very simple and logical one. Puerto Ricans came to this country hoping to get a decent job and to provide for their families; but it didn’t take long to find out that the American dream that was publicized so nicely on our island turned out to be the amerikkkan nightmare. 108

Following the Division Street Riots in Chicago, many residents of Puerto Rican communities such as Division Street, Logan Square, Lincoln Park, and the Near Westside shared sentiments similar to those of Perez. During and immediately after the Division Street Riots, newspaper accounts of the era illustrated the level of anger, discontent, and disillusionment felt by many.

The following comment, made during the riots, serves as an example of these sentiments.

[Tell the police] we are not supposed to be beaten up like animals. Til you show us you are going to do something to stop this, this thing can’t stop because we are human beings. (New York Times, June 14, 1966)109

108 David Perez, as quoted in Abramson and the Young Lords Party, introduction to Palante,, not paginated.

109 Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago, 147. 100

A pivotal moment for Puerto Rican Chicagoans, the Division Street Riots signaled the transformation of a local gang into a community organization. The dissertation chapter that follows focuses on the founding and subsequent growth of the Young Lords Organization in

Chicago. Additionally, it engages in a continued discussion of the neighborhood conditions that spurred action, the alliances made, and the Puerto Rican and U.S. organizations and events that impacted the Young Lords movement.

101

Chapter 3

Chicago: Rising Up Poor, Rising Up Angry

The emergence of the Young Lords as a grassroots political organization came on the heels of growing national dissent and the development of other community-oriented, civil rights, and New Left organizations across the United States during the 1960s. Amid a climate of vocal condemnation of conditions of poverty, racial discrimination and gender bias, as well as opposition to the War in Vietnam and its accompanying draft, youth groups formed in inner cities and on college campuses. Among them were the Black Panther Party (BPP), Young Lords

Organization (YLO) and the Brown Berets that organized in communities of color. The

American Indian Movement and a number of Asian New Left Groups such as I Wor Quen and the Red Guard also emerged during this time. It is critical to remember that the BPP and YLO fostered coalitions across racial lines, most prominently exemplified by the original Rainbow

Coalition. Moreover, as Manuel Maldonado-Denis says, the lives of Puerto Ricans on the island and in the Diaspora remained conjoined, an unbreakable link informed by colonial status. “The situation of Puerto Ricans in the United States cannot be seen as abstracted from that of those living in Puerto Rico.”1 A frequent question that surfaces in discussions of the multiple grassroots groups founded in the United States during the 1960s is: How and why were these groups formed? This chapter seeks to answer this question as it relates to the Young Lords

Organization and the Puerto Rican Diaspora in Chicago.

1Manuel Maldonado-Denis, “The Puerto Ricans: Protest or Submission?,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 382, no. 1 (1969): 26-31. 102

Chicago migrants Puerto Ricans coming to Chicago from the island represented a much later migration than that of those who settled along the Eastern seaboard. For much of the Puerto Rican migrant population, “home” became somewhat transient, as agricultural laborers followed the crops before settling permanently in Chicago. Women, in addition, entered into contracts to work as live-in domésticas. Gina Pérez aptly describes the transitory nature of this type of labor. “They

[domestic workers] exercised little control over their working hours, wages, and private lives,

[and] they were also subject to the whims of employers, who could send them to work elsewhere with less than a day’s notice.”2 Pérez further notes that they challenged these work conditions by relaying their complaints to government agencies, academics, and local and island media, or by walking off their jobs, often in violation of their contracts. 3 Similarly, agricultural workers left their jobs in the fields and sought other forms of work in the city. By the late 1960’s and early

1970s, Puerto Ricans in Chicago were a recognizable segment of the city’s population.

Chicago’s Latino population included Puerto Ricans, ethnic Mexicans, as well as a small number of Cubans and other Latin Americans.4 A study conducted by the Department of

Development and Planning, covering the years from 1960 to 1970, concluded that “Chicago alone among the six U.S. cities with large Spanish-speaking populations had a balance of nearly

2 Gina Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement and Puerto Rican Families (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 66.

3 Idid., 67. Pérez cites a 1940s study by Elena Padilla that illustrated the problems and abuses of domésticas in Chicago. The island newspaper El Mundo, referenced this study in a subsequent article.

4 I use the term “ethnic Mexican” following the lead of Maricela Chávez whose definition “follow[s] historian David G. Gutiérrez’s usage, [in reference] to those of Mexican ancestry or heritage and who live in the United States regardless of citizenship, generation, or immigrant status.” See: Marisela Rodríguez Chávez, “Despierten hermanas y hermanos!: women, the Chicano movement, and Chicana feminis ms in California, 1966-1981,” (PhD diss., Stanford University, 2004) 20. I use the terms Mexican, Mexican-American, or Chicana/o, in cases where a historical document use the terms or an individual self-identifies as such.

103

equal Mexican-American and Puerto Rican groups.”5 The ethnic Mexican population was spread across several communities, primarily in “the Lower West Side [sic]” and South

Lawndale, but also in New City and South Chicago. Puerto Ricans, in contrast to the more geographically dispersed Mexican communities, lived within a much tighter radius in the adjoining neighborhoods of Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and West Town of the Northwest

Side, and in the Lincoln Park neighborhood where the YLO was born. The concentration of

Puerto Ricans within specific neighborhoods and the geographic proximity of these locals, would aid and shape the identity of the Young Lords as a Puerto Rican organization. 6

As discussed in the last chapter, acclimation of Puerto Rican newcomers to Chicago neighborhoods was typically made easier through the efforts of family members, friends, acquaintances, fellow travelers, and community organizations. During the 1950s and early 1960s the church-based Caballeros de San Juan attempted to ease the path of those entering the burgeoning community through their early organizing efforts and social events. 7 In spite of its assimilationist and religious-centric approach, as an organization, Los Caballeros was important for initiating neighborhood-based services. Furthermore, Los Caballeros highlighted difficulties and injustices faced by Chicago’s Puerto Rican communities. Using Catholic parishes as hubs and as the geographic delineation of community, Los Caballeros applied organizing to a local level. This neighborhood-centered approach would also be used by more radical and politically motivated groups in Chicago such as the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and the Young

Patriots. As noted by Felix Padilla, the work of Los Caballeros and of community groups that

5 Harry Golden Jr., “City’s Latino Population Rises 125%,” Chicago Sun Times (Chicago, IL), Dec. 9, 1973, 36. Box 1-7, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

6 Ibid.

7 Felix M. Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987), 126-37. A more detailed discussion of the work of Los Caballeros de San Juan appears in the preceding chapter. 104

followed, was aided by the relatively small size of Puerto Rican neighborhoods and the ethnic and racial segregation of the city.

The concentration of Puerto Ricans in small size barrios influenced and reinforced continuing individual and group interaction and relationship. Further, this concentric residential pattern permitted community organizing, the listing of support and subsequent mobilization of individuals for community affairs, to be carried out more easily. It was significantly less difficult to organize a population that was concentrated in several blocks of a neighborhood than one which was geographically dispersed. 8

The city of Chicago was an immigrant hub and received more recent European immigrants than either New York City or the East coast more broadly.9 In the post-World War

II, mid-twentieth century process of community formation, Puerto Ricans came last but also overlapped with segments of the African-American community and Mexican migrations.

Relations with these groups, as well as white Appalachian migrants, helped shape the Puerto

Rican community.10 On the other hand, tension emerged within neighborhoods previously settled by ethnic Europeans. Newly arrived Puerto Rican families moving into these neighborhoods were often viewed as interlopers. Puerto Rican youth in Chicago thus entered into hostile territory in a city already segmented by ethnic divisions and neighborhood gangs. The subsequent organization of Puerto Rican youth into groups known as the Black Eagles, the

Paragons, the Young Lords, and the Latin Kings, resulted in clashes between Puerto Ricans and the “European gangs.”11 As the Young Lords grew in size, their conflicts and types of adversaries also expanded and included gangs of Italians, white Appalachians, and Latin gangs,

8 Ibid, 143.

9 Denotes the later European migration to Chicago as compared to New York or other East Coast cities.

10 These relations were not always positive. Initially there were tensions between Appalachian youth and Puerto Ricans. However, the late 1960s heralded cooperative efforts between them, as illustrated later in this chapter.

11 José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, correspondence with the author, September 2008.

105

each fighting “for control of hangouts, streets and turf.” 12 Yet, during this period, the community-based, social component of Young Lords remained ever-present. They organized block parties, picnics, and ran a coffee house named Uptight #2. 13 Prior to their emergence as a political organization, the Young Lords viewed themselves both as a group banded together for protection and as a social club that gathered in a local storefront and organized parties and celebrations.

Distrust between existing immigrant groups and newcomers was not unique to 1950s

Chicago. De facto segregation, racism, and ethnic claims to specific neighborhoods intensified intergroup hostility. Neighborhood gangs in Chicago that identified as European or Euro- descended included, Ragen’s Colts, Aylwards, Our Flag, Standard, Polish Black Spots,

Westsiders, Pojay Town, the Black Handers, and the Hamburgs. A young Richard J. Daley was a member of the Hamburgs, a gang implicated in the violence of a 1919 riot that lasted three days, claimed the lives of 38, and injured 537. The Commission tasked with investigating the riot found that most of those killed, injured and jailed were Black. They further stated that the “gangs whose activities figured so prominently in the riot were all white gangs or ‘athletic clubs’.”14

Small neighborhood gangs of white youth were active in Lincoln Park during the 1950s and early 1960s. José “Cha Cha” Jiménez identifies the “Romas” and “Oasis” among them. Jiménez further notes the following Puerto Rican gangs as being in existence during the 1950s, prior to the formation of the Young Lords gang in 1957: Hachas Viejas or Old Hatchets, Los Heraldos,

Latin Angels, and Lincoln Park. A distinct list of Black and Latino gangs during the 1960s

12 Hilda Vazquez Ignatin, “Young Lords Serve and Protect,” Young Lords Organization 1, no. 2 (May 5, 1969): 6. Box 5, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

13 Ibid.

14 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922), 12.

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mentions the Latin Kings, Hudsons, Latin Eagles, Black Eagles, North Parks, Mohawks,

Paragons, Vice Lords, Conservative Vice Lords, Egyptian Cobras, Devil’s Disciples, Black

Disciples, the Black Stone Rangers, Horsemen, and the Comancheros. Probably the last mentioned is the same group as the Young Comancheros, a Chicano gang, which offers an intriguing comparison to the Young Lords: it became politicized and took the name, the Young

Comanchero Organization. Jacobi Williams identifies the Black Disciples and the Black Stone

Rangers as the largest Black gang of the decade. 15

In short, throughout the twentieth century, gangs existed in the working class sectors of

Chicago, comprised of African American, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Appalachian, Polish, Italians,

Irish and other second and third generation Europeans. These Chicago gangs organized along ethnic or neighborhood lines, although the Black and Latino gangs at times blurred those boundaries. Among them, the Puerto Rican gangs were the last to form, reflective of their position in the migration chain. Young Lord leader “Cha Cha” Jiménez recounts stories of getting beaten up by members of “European gangs.” A light-skinned Puerto Rican, with reddish hair and named José Jiménez, his name and physical appearance also made him a target. These experiences led him and a number of neighborhood friends to form the Young Lords as a means of protection and survival. Jiménez would face increased harassment and violence from police officers as a result of his name, and later, due to his political activities. As a teenager and young

15 Jiménez, correspondence with author, September 2008; Jacobi Williams , From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), passim; James Alan McPherson, “Chicago’s Blackstone Rangers” [sic], The Atlantic, June 1969; James C. Howell and John P. Moore, “History of Street Gangs in the United States,” National Gang Center Bulletin, no. 4 (May 2010), www.nationalgangcenter.gov/.../Documents/History-of-Street-Gangs.pdf. A number of smaller gangs -- the Maniacs, the Four Corners, the Lovers, the V.I.P.'s, the Pythons, the Warlocks, the F.B.I., the Conservatives, and the Pharaohs joined the Black Stone Rangers -- during the late 1960s and collectively, they became known as the Blackstone Nation. The Horsemen, stand out as a gang of Puerto Rican bikers. The names of gangs and corresponding information were compiled from multiple sources shown above.

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adult, whenever police stopped him, they would invariably ask his name, to which he would respond: “My name is José Jiménez.” After asking him again, and receiving the same response,

“they didn’t believe me, so they would start beating me up.”16 Throughout the 1960’s, comedian

Bill Dana appeared on major television shows as a heavily-accented Latino, whose regular punch line was: “My name: José Jiménez.”17

Jiménez’ childhood friend and Young Lord member, Angie Adorno Navedo, witnessed one of these encounters with police. “I remember going to a dance at Immaculate Conception and we came out of [the] dance.… I don’t remember what happened or if someone had said something to Cha Cha. But I remember the police asking him his name.” Cha Cha answered, then the police “smacked him one. And said, ‘What is your name?’” When he stated his name again, Adorno Navedo notes, “they beat the shit out of him … and it happened often. Cha Cha had bad luck with the police.”18 She prefaces her comments with an indictment of the racism within the Chicago Police of the era.

You have to remember you are dealing with a racist police force at that time too. Again, take it from me, I am white. But you see it. Now remember [what] my background is and my father taught me that there was a lot of injustice going on. And things have got to be

16 Jiménez, correspondence with author, September 2008. Jiménez recounts this occurrence frequently at Young Lords’ reunions and social occasions.

17 Raúl Pérez, “Brownface Minstrelsy: ‘José Jiménez,’ the Civil Rights Movement, and the Legacy of Racist Comedy,” Ethnicities, September 1, 2014. This work provides a more in depth examination of this character and its place in the history of minstrelsy in the U.S. Dana performed as José Jiménez, in shows such as the Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show, and the Bill Dana Show, among others, attesting to the wide exposure this character received. Additionally, Dana performed as “José the Astronaut,” at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. Image available on line and in the Bill Dana Collection, Special Collections, Emerso n College. The Archivist of the collection notes that in the original script, José is “of Cuban descent.” The collection summary further states that the character was “of dubious ethnic origin,” but generally thought to be Mexican origin. However, Dana sta ted in a recent interview that he based the character on a Puerto Rican man he met. http://www2.emerson.edu/comedy/collection/upload/library-finding-aid-dana.pdf. http://www.bill- dana.com/pages/index.html.

18 Angie Adorno Navedo (now deceased), interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995. Young Lords Oral History Project, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library. 108

changed right.… So again we are dealing with a racist police force, there’s no question [,] there’s no doubt about it.19

Police harassment and excessive use of force ranked high among the complaints that young

Puerto Ricans living in Chicago articulated. For Jiménez, the existence of a cartoonish television character intensified his encounters with police.

Media played an important role in both disseminating information about Puerto Rico and

Puerto Ricans, and in creating an image relative to each. Media portrayal in the U.S changed over time, generally aligned with historical events, and political, economic, and industrial interests. Consequently, depictions ranged from the exotic, entertaining, infantile, simple- minded, industrious, and family-oriented, to criminal, hyper-sexual, fertile, welfare-dependent, drug using, dangerous, and terrorist. Even prior to the arrival of large numbers of Puerto Ricans to Chicago and other parts of the Midwest, more frequent news stories appeared about Puerto

Rico and Puerto Ricans in the English-language media. Particularly during the 1940s and to a lesser degree the1950s, varied articles in national dailies point towards a fascination with Puerto

Rican lifestyles and food, as well as socialites, performers, and athletes. 20 Typical news stories included announcements of marriages between affluent Americans and Puerto Ricans, or musical performances in prominent social events as in the case of “Puerto Rican pianist Rosita

Escullera,” whose upcoming recital at the Felicia Rybier Music Club was published in the

Washington Post.21 Bullfighter Conchita Cintron garnered extensive publicity that highlighted

19 Ibid.

20 In my sampling of Chicago and Washington DC newspapers of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the individuals born in Puerto Rico, or who were of Puerto Rican parentage, were identified as such, particular ly during the earlier decades. In several cases, the same individuals were later identified as Latin, Latin American, or Spanish.

21 “Notes of the Music World,” Washington Post, December 10, 1933, A3. I was unable to find additional references to Escullera in other U.S. print media, leading me to believe that she was not a well-known performer. She may have continued to perform under another name or in Puerto Rico. However, given Felicia Rybier’s status in music circles, 109

not only her unique position as a woman in a male dominated sport, but also as a skilled matador.22 Additionally, her birth in Chile to an American and a Puerto Rican, her upbringing in

Peru, and her competence and immersion in a southern European sport, elicited media portrayals of Cintron as a cosmopolitan, well-traveled woman, whose gender-bending performances placed her within the realm of “other.” Most of the articles on Cintron during the mid-twentieth century note her Puerto Rican parentage. 23

Diosa Costello, a dancer and actress known as La Diosa de Fuego, also became the object of frequent press coverage in national and Chicago papers. 24 In describing Costello, entertainment writers often employed phrases such as “a torrid Puerto Rican dancer,” or “a

Escullera would have had to be an accomplished musician. Rybier first performed as a concert pianist with the Warsaw Philharmonic and toured with the Berlin Philharmonic. She established the referenced music club and studio, as well as endowments for musical performances. While the news column makes specific reference to Escullera’s ethnicity, the other musicians are not identified similarly. For Rybier’s Obituary see: “Felicia Rybier - Borisow, 101, concert pianist,” Obituaries, The Washington Times, January 18, 1996, retrieved from HighBeam Research, September 26, 2014, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-56839746.html.

22 Retrieved under the following title and citation: Article 1, No Title, Chicago Daily Tribune, May 30, 1943, C4. This particular article follows Cintron’s training and performance in great detail. It includes a photo of Cintron on a horse, driving a barb into the bull. This is juxtaposed with a photo of a group of young women, some of them appear to be aghast. The photo bears the caption: “American college girls react to the kill.”

23 Most 1940s articles noted Cintron’s West Point educated, Puerto Rican father and referenced her blond, blued - eyed physicality, which they attributed to her American, Connecticut-bred mother. “Beauty in the Bullring,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 4, 1940, 6. By the late 1940s, article writers began to describe Cintron or as half- American and half-Peruvian, or as Peruvian, with no mention of Puerto Rican ancestry. “Camera overseas,” Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), August 31, 1947. http://search.proquest.com/docview/177363921?accountid=14509; Wire photo, A. P. “Woman Matador Thrown by Bull.” Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), May 28, 1949, A14. http://search.proquest.com/docview/177702883?accountid=14509; [No author], “Bull fighter (lady) marries a lion hunter.” Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), November 6, 1951. http://search.proquest.com/docview/178119902?accountid=14509;

24 Will Davidson, “Night Clubs Presenting Top Bands and Lavish Shows: Griff W illiams Wins Plaudits in Empire Room,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 14, 1941, G2. There were multiple news articles about Diosa Costello, particularly after her performance in the Broadway show “Too Many Girls.” For the purposes of this study, I focused on the Chicago print media. The Smithsonian identifies Costello as the first Latina to appear in a Broadway play, circa 1939. Joseph Stromberg and Diosa Costello, “Around the Mall: Q and A with Diosa Costello,” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2011, 36. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-with-diosa- costello-107545592/?all; Joseph Stromberg, “Legendary Performer Diosa Costello Donates Wardrobe to Smithsonian, Smithsonian Magazine, September 27, 2011. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian- institution/legendary-performer-diosa-costello-donates-wardrobe-to-smithsonian-90408368/. 110

spitfire,” and “an amazing Puerto Rican pixie.”25 Costello also known as the "La Diosa de la

Rumba", and "El Huracán del Caribe," and the bullfighting Cintron, “La Diosa de Oro,” or

Golden Goddess, negotiated their gender identities in differing ways, while stretching the limits of expected behaviors. Costello did so through her performances that were alternately described in the Chicago Press as “sparkling”, or “in completely poor taste.”26 Cintron challenged gender expectations through her costuming, and transgressive actions such as facing a bull on foot, and piercing the animal, both of which were illegal for women in Spanish bullrings. They also embraced ethnicity in different ways. While Cintron appeared to be rooted in a Pan-Latin

American, southern European identity, dictated by her class, upbringing, and passion for bull fighting, Costello embraced her Puerto Rican origins, even if the U.S. press and entertainment attempted to distance her from it. Jesús Colón provides an example of this. He narrates his experience of seeing Costello perform in Madison Square Garden, where the master of ceremony introduces her and the accompanying orchestra, as Cuban. Colón, the consummate storyteller describes what follows:

As if moved by an electric clock, Diosa waved both her arms in a sign for silence while all the big flashlights of the Garden were playing on her beautiful figure. In a deep clear, clamorous voice, she cried: “I am Puerto Rican and proud of it. Juanito Sanabria and his orchestra are also Puerto Ricans.” Long sonorous applause followed her words.

25 “Vaudeville,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 11, 1943, E6.

26 “Fallece La Actriz Diosa Costello,”El Nuevo Dia”, June 22, 2013, not paginated, in Farandula section. http://www.elnuevodia.com/fallecelaactrizdiosacostello-1536675.html; Stromberg and Costello, “Around the Mall,” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2011, 36. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-with-diosa- costello-107545592/?all

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Colón, praises Costello stating “Diosa was not only proud that she was Puerto Rican, but also proud of being a product of that that much maligned and misrepresented ‘El Barrio’ – Puerto

Rican Harlem.”27

Athletes also received a large amount of attention from the Chicago press, not only those with rising popularity or stature within their sport, but also college athletes and those performing in small venues. While most athletes were identified by their name, sport, and team affiliation, athletes of color were further identified as “Negro,” Puerto Rican, or Cuban. Among the press favorites was Herbert Lewis Hardwick, known as “Kid Cocoa,” and further categorized as “a

Puerto Rican Negro.”28 Written within the context of the “exotic,” these news items nonetheless brought Puerto Rico into the national lexicon. After the 1950s, the Puerto Rican birth or parentage of many of these aforementioned performers and athletes becomes blurred, subsumed in larger categories such as Latin, Spanish, or Hispanic. In the case of Kid Cocoa and Cintron, their degree of “Puerto-Rican-ness” was either forgotten or denied in subsequent years. 29

Island politics

Domestic and island news stories coalesced in the barrios of Chicago. The press addressed problems faced by migrants from Puerto Rico, and the perceived differences between

27 Jesús Colón, A Puerto Rican in New York, and other Sketches (New York: International Publishers, 1982), 156- 57.

28 “Joe Carter beats Cocoa in Baltimore 10 Rounder,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 30, 1945, 16.

29 Associated Press, “Conchita Cintron died at 86; one of the world’s first famous female matadors,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2009, http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me -conchita-cintron19-2009feb19-story.html. In Cintron’s obituaries she was described as Peruvian although born in Chile. A correct ion subsequently submitted, noted that she was a Portuguese citizen. There was no mention of her parentage. Unpublished work has been done by U.S. writer Springs Toledo, who has compiled documents and statistics about Kid Cocoa’s life and athletic record. Kid Cocoa was born to an African American soldier and a Puerto Rican woman according to Toledo. Some press coverage either stated that Kid Cocoa was African American, or that perhaps he was of Cuban descent, in either case denying his Puerto Rican parentage. The fact that a Cuban boxer known as “Kid Chocolate” was popular during the 1930s may be a contributing factor.

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settling in communities in the Midwest versus the east coast, particularly New York. While media coverage during the 1940s focused on island-based economics, soldiers, athletes and entertainers, by contrast in the decades that followed, there was more news of dissent on the island.30 Events during the decade of the 1950s served to catapult Puerto Rico onto the national news scene in the United States. Actions by members of the Nationalist Party and their subsequent imprisonment received lengthy coverage in the pages of Puerto Rican newspapers and by radio stations on the island. In October of 1950 a number of Nationalist rebellions took place throughout Puerto Rico in various towns and cities, including Jayuya, Penuelas, Ponce,

Arecibo, and Utuado, Mayaguez, and San Juan. With the exception of San Juan in the northeast and the coastal city of Mayaguez on the west, these rebellious locales cut a swath from north to south through the center of the island. The most widespread resistance occurred in the city of

Jayuya, where Nationalists maintained control for three days. 31 In the aftermath of these events hundreds of Nationalist Party members were imprisoned, including party leader Pedro Albizu

Campos. Tried under the Ley de Mordaza, the “Gag Law,” several Party members received sentences in excess of 400 years.32

A few days later, the attempted assassination of President Truman at Blair House by

Nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo became national and international headlines.

And in 1953, the designation of Puerto Rico as a “Commonwealth” rather than a colony garnered

30 As discussed later in this chapter, the Nationalist Party encouraged Puerto Ricans not to register for the draft dissent during World War II. U.S. papers generally covered the trials of dissenters. These were overshadowed by articles of Puerto Rican men and women in the military. During the 1950s, news stories of Nationalist Party members appear to be more frequent and more prominently placed.

31 Manuel Maldonado-Denis, ed., “Albizu Campos y el desarrollo de la conciencia nacional puertorriqueña en el siglo XX,” in collected speeches of Pedro Albizu Campos, La conciencia nacional puertorriqueña (México City: Siglo XXI, 1972), 9-36.

32 Ibid., 33.

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extensive news coverage. Critiques and opposition from the Puerto Rican Left accompanied this new “Commonwealth” label, since pro-independence forces viewed it as a change in nomenclature only, rather than an actual modification of the island’s political status. 33 But perhaps the most publicized episode that involved Puerto Rican Nationalists during the 1950s was the shooting at the U.S. House of Representatives on March 1, 1954. Images of the

Nationalist Party members involved in the event –Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andrés

Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodríguez– circulated throughout the United States and

Puerto Rico in print media and in newsreels before movie showings that replayed the events in theaters. Lebrón appeared prominently in images in the news. Photographs of Lebrón as she was being arrested were on the front page throughout the U.S. and on the island.

The Nationalist attack on Congress and the Blair House attempt have often been described as defiant or desperate acts, meant to expose the colonial status of Puerto Rico. Manuel

Maldonado-Denis, however, points to a convergence of grievances, and the expanding impact of

Puerto Rican status on everyday life. He quotes Albizu Campos regarding the attack on Congress when he highlights the drafting of Puerto Ricans into the U.S military as a consequence of the island’s colonial status: “Dicho acto – hecho con el propósito de dramatizar el problema del reclutamiento de las juventudes puertoriqueñas en el ejército estadounidense…” (which translates, “Said act, carried out for the purpose of dramatizing the problem of the drafting of

Puerto Rican youth into the U.S. army). Albizu Campos emphatically contests the perception of the Puerto Rican people as passive: “nos catalogaron entre los pueblos pasivos de la tierra…”

(“they catalog us among the passive people of the earth”), and this idea, he concludes, leads “to

33Central Committee, Communist Party of Puerto Rico, “The Case of Puerto Rico: Memorandum to the United Nations,” Internet Archive, University of Austin, Texas, https://archive.org/stream/TheCaseOfPuertoRicoMemorandumToTheUnitedNations/CPPR#page/n0/ mode/1up. Cited as a primary resource found online. 114

the outrageous practice of recruiting island youth into the military in order to serve the aims of imperialism”.34

Thus Puerto Rican migration to Chicago took place in the context of the imprisonment of large numbers of Nationalists on the island. As first hand news arrived from the island, both familial and political, it helped inform and mold the nascent Puerto Rican community of

Chicago. Recently arrived Puerto Ricans settled into a milieu where community represented both the old and the new, their island beginnings and new urban environs. And continued migration from the island brought first hand reports of militant organizing from Puerto Rico. The most publicized actions by the Nationalists would later become points of reference and examples of anti-colonial struggle for the Young Lords. During the 1960s and 1970s, the image of Lebron’s arrest was widely reproduced. Her semblance appeared in YLP newspapers and was displayed in branch offices. Lebron’s defiant image, as illustrated in the 1954 photographs, inspired posters and political art for decades to follow.

Puerto Rican Chicago and the era of civil rights

The decade preceding the founding of the Young Lords as a political organization was punctuated by benchmark legal battles in the United States, as well as several of the marches and protests currently identified as signposts of the Civil Rights era. Most civil rights chronicles emphasize the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of education. However Mendez v.

Westminster was an earlier case in 1947 in which the lead plaintiff was the daughter of a Puerto

Rican and a Mexican. It challenged legal school segregation in California, involving the right of

Mexican-descended and other Spanish-surnamed children in Westminster to enroll in white schools. While the Mendez case occurred prior to the time frame that impacted the Young Lords,

34 Maldonado-Denis, ed., “Albizu Campos,” 33. 115

it is important in illustrating the escalation of court cases that challenged discriminatory practices throughout the US.35 Puerto Rican neighborhoods in Chicago were neither immune nor unaware of the changes and challenges that emerged across the national spectrum. During the war years, for instance, the “Zoot Suit Riots” or days of attacks against people of Mexican descent in Los

Angeles was news nationwide and obviously impacted Chicano/Latino communities in Chicago.

Print and broadcast media also played a critical role in exposing the brutality that African

American communities lived with, particularly in the South, from the mid-1950s forward. A number of events in the 1950s within the continental United States were tipping points, signaling a time when home and homeland were permeated with violence, dissent, and contestation.

Several domestic news stories circulated among communities of color in Chicago during this era, among them the kidnap and murder of fourteen year old Chicagoan Emmett Till while visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955. Till’s murder became a catalyst for the civil rights movement.

On the heels of the murders of Lamar Smith and Reverend George Lee, two African-American

Mississippians who attempted to exercise their voting rights, the Till murder outraged the public.

Killed one month after his fourteenth birthday, Till’s age and the brutality of the crime, made visible by the published images of Till’s corpse, further incensed communities with long histories of legal and social injustice. 36 The public mourning of Till in Chicago gave the case tremendous exposure and acted as a building block for the civil rights organizing that followed.

Beyond the trial lawyers, Emmett’s mother Mamie Till Bradley deserves to be recognized as a national figure. Law enforcement authorities wanted to bury her son in

Mississippi and she demanded that he be brought home to Chicago. Law enforcement said that

35 Clayborne Carson et al., Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Right Years, A Reader and Guide (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 311. See for more information on the civil rights cases.

36 Ibid., 32-37.

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she could not open the casket but she insisted they open it. Then she insisted the casket remain open. On the day of the funeral she asked that the church not close its doors until everyone who wished to pay their respects had done so. Both she and her mother received death threats. 37

Reporting on the funeral services, The Chicago Tribune estimated that 2500 attended the funeral service and an additional 2000 waited outside the church. 38 Thousands more viewed his remains at the funeral home and later in the Temple of God in Christ Church. Over a four day period, an estimated 250,000 people “viewed and passed by the bier of little Emmett Louis Till,” in

Chicago.39 On a national level, it mobilized people across the country. This case would have had a very different impact had it not been for the mother’s firmness, her courageous stance, and her attempts to at least get the world to see what had been done to her child. Mamie Till Bradley challenges us to rethink gendered resistance in communities of color.

Together, the murders of Smith, Lee, and Till within a span of less than four months, made evident the high level of violence against African Americans in the U.S. South. And across the next ten years, threats and violence against African Americans would visibly escalate in the region. This heightened racist aggression was met with organized resistance, boycotts, and protest. Additionally, the de facto and de jure practices of discrimination and state sanctioned violence were exposed to the country as a whole and painted an ugly portrait of America abroad.

Horrific photographs of brutalized African Americans and, by the mid-60s, the televised images of sanctioned violence against civil rights protesters were seen constantly in homes and on the newsstands. In Chicago as elsewhere, the three television stations ABC, NBC, and CBS all

37 Ibid., 33, reprint of Chicago Defender, October 1, 1955. http://nuweb9.neu.edu/civilrights/year-end- reports/resources/, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-delayed-but-not-denied/.

38 “2500 AT RITES HERE FOR BOY, 14, SLAIN IN SOUTH,” Chicago Defender, September 4, 1955, 2. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1955/09/04/page/2/article/2-500-at-rites-here-for-boy-14-slain-in-south

39 “Hundreds Weep, Faint at Sight,” Chicago Defender, September 17, 1955, 2. 117

interrupted their scheduled programs to broadcast the images of civil rights marchers being beaten by Alabama State troopers and Dallas County Sheriffs, on what became known as

“Bloody Sunday” during the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965.

While there were many other examples of violence against black and brown during this period, these moments and cases are critical in Chicago for several reasons. I’ve included the

Emmitt Till case as a major event in Chicago civil rights history. This does not imply that the

Young Lords –then mostly toddlers and children– would have been aware of it when it happened. Many were simply too young, or were residing in Puerto Rico or in other countries.

However, because the Till murder signaled a critical juncture for African Americans, it became a part of the memory of Black Chicago activists who aided the radicalization of the Young Lords.

More broadly, it impacted the era of militancy ushered in by the Young Lords in Puerto Rican communities, and was a basis for anger and militancy among Chicago youth in subsequent decades.

A central argument and point of this study revolves around the work of the Rainbow

Coalition in shaping Puerto Rican organizing in the United States. The civil rights and black power movements were a major influence in the development of the Young Lords. This was true of other new left organizations as well. Before youth of that era began to learn Puerto Rican history, they learned African American history, which was what led them to learn about Albizu

Campos and other Nationalists.40 This stance of racial and international solidarity helps explain why, at its height, the YLO was capable of embracing so many different kinds of individuals

40 This refers to the influence of, and the dissemination of information by civil rights groups and leaders of the Black Power Movement. At the university level, Black Studies and Afro American Studies preceded the creation of Puerto Rican Studies courses or programs. For many urban youth, Black history and Black poets and writers, often became the gateway to learning Puerto Rican history. This is illustrated by the experiences of Cha Cha Jimenez as well as other Young Lords discussed in the subsequent chapter.

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committed to dedicating portions of their youth to work for social justice and independence for

Puerto Rico.

Thus the more immediate historical context of YLO’s origins included violence in the US

South against civil rights workers, leaders, and protesters, and the assassination of Malcolm X in

1965. For many YLO members, if there was one person they were most influenced by, one person who most politicized them, it was Malcolm X. 41In Chicago as elsewhere, the Young

Lords owe a great debt to the black power movement. This in no way diminishes the impact that

Puerto Rican Nationalists and Latin American revolutionaries such as Ernesto Che Guevara had on the Young Lords. Rather, the immediacy of the black power movement, the relative youth of its leadership, and the convergence of goals, spurred Young Lords to create their own movement.

YLO emerged within an environment of protest, community organizing and a heightened sense of justice alongside the Black Panther Party, Brown Berets and others, and the foundation for all of them was laid by the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC established a precedent for a more militant youth activism throughout the country. While other civil rights organizations preceded SNCC and employed direct action techniques, the latter’s emphasis on youth action and militancy attracted young men and women of different races and ethnicities, many of whom later became activists and leaders in various new left organizations.42

Frequently recognized for its participation in the early civil rights movement, SNCC is most remembered for its work in the U.S. South. However, their organizing in urban cities in the

North and on college campuses, provided a template for several organizations that followed.

41 The headline of a YLO newspaper article helps illustrate this point. It reads: “Malcolm Spoke for Puerto Ricans.” This statement resonated with many YLO members in different branches.

42 Carson et al., Eyes on the Prize, 311. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was established in 1942 as a “direct action,” multi-racial organization that organized boycotts, sit-ins, and an early “Freedom Ride,” prior to the 1950s. The NAACP led the charge in confronting discrimination in the courts.

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Many members and leaders of the Black Panther Party as well as present-day African American politicians were originally involved in SNCC. Likewise, several members of the Young Lords were SNCC activists. Iris Morales and Rafael Vieira, both part of the East Harlem branch, point to their affiliation with SNCC prior to joining the Young Lords. 43 SNCC also became the vehicle for many white activists who later founded or joined new left organizations. White college students, such as Robert Zellnor, credit SNCC for their involvement in the civil rights movement and subsequent leadership in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Clayborne

Carson prefaces an interview of Zellnor with the following observation.

The protest movement led by southern black students had a dramatic impact on white college students, for it offered them new and appealing models for political activism. Young white activists were particularly attracted to SNCC’s brash militancy and its distinctive style of organizing communities “from the bottom up.” SNCC’s example contributed to the emergence of a youthful new left and to the rapid growth of the largest student leftist group, Students for a Democratic Society. 44

The fact that this diverse group were drawn into activism through SNCC, speaks to the extent of

SNCC’s reach and influence, the importance of SNCC as an entryway, and their role as a training ground for organizers during that era. SNCC members became leaders in the Black

Power movement, most prominently Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown. In naming itself the

Black Panther Party for Self Defense, BPP founders adopted the symbol of the Lowndes County

Freedom Organization, a civil rights group formed by SNCC. The number of SNCC members who became Young Lords is miniscule, particularly in comparison to the equivalent numbers found in the BPP. Yet the impact of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee on the civil rights movement, as well as the subsequent movements it inspired, makes SNCC a pivotal

43Affiliation here used within the context of attending meetings, participating in SNCC actions, or being a member. Personal conversations with named individuals c. 1970.

44 Clayborne Carson, ed., “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961),” in Eyes on the Prize, ed. Carson et al., 93.

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piece in the history of the New Left groups that emerged throughout the 1960s, among them, the

Young Lords Organization.

The YLO and other emergent organizations were both influenced by their predecessors and acted as a stimulus for the birth of other movements. As articulated by Agustin Lao, the

Young Lords did not appear in a vacuum, but rather were part of a broader movement, that often operated in support of, or in solidarity with an array of New Left organizations that were founded or grew at a national and international level. 45 Historian Johanna Fernandez rightly places the

YLP within the context of the US civil rights movement. The Young Lords story also has to be viewed within the broader scope of Puerto Rican history, not to mention that of the Latin

American left – the tensions later experienced by some members in Puerto Rico notwithstanding, the Young Lords remain an example of such bonds.

Burgeoning national protest The impact of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements on urban youth and college students cannot be underestimated. Also critical during this time period was the mounting opposition to the war in Vietnam and the escalating numbers of young men drafted into the military. During the Vietnam War, a disproportionate number of draftees came from African

American, Puerto Rican, and Chicano communities. The greater level of injury and death among these soldiers also deepened discontent within these communities. College student involvement in the civil rights movement, and their subsequent organizing efforts on college campuses further fueled political organizing in communities of color. The televised images of demonstrators

45 Agustín Lao-Montes, “Forum, The Young Lords: 40 Years Later,” Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY, December 2, 2009. http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/about/events/forum-young-lords-party-40- years-later. This has been a central thesis of this dissertation and follows Lao’s arguments; see, for instance, his remarks on an academic panel that reviewed the history and impact of the Young Lords Party.

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during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (DNC) showed the country the rising level of discontent among youth. Although Young Lords members were not active participants in the protests, they were witness to that history.

The Anti-War Movement was not confined to the United States. Youth groups, high school and university students protested vehemently against the war, the draft, and the presence of ROTC programs on their campuses on the island. On several occasions, student protestors shut down the Rio Piedras branch of the University of Puerto Rico, which is its largest campus.

Student demonstrators were confronted by policemen, which resulted in multiple arrests and the deaths of several protestors and an ROTC cadet. Students also organized demonstrations on other campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), as well as in high schools in Rio Piedras and

San Juan. At the forefront of this organizing were federations of university and high school students (respectively called the Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia or FUPI and the

Federación Estudiantil Pro Independencia or FEPI. These student groups, present in schools and colleges throughout the island, in effect were the youth contingent of the pro-independence movement. Nationalists historically opposed the conscription of Puerto Ricans into the military and urged men to refuse service, particularly in wartime. During World War II, several

Nationalists went to jail for their failure to register for the draft. 46 By the late 1960s and early

1970s, pro-independence youth followed suit: they resisted the draft, and encouraged others to do the same through demonstrations and other protest actions. Several were jailed, including two

Young Lords members, present in Puerto Rico at the time.

46 Maldonado-Denis, ed., “Albizu Campos,” 9-36; “5 Puerto Rican Nationalists Get 5 Years as Draft Dodgers,” Washington Post, July 3, 1942, 3; “Puerto Rican Men Register for Draft,” Washington Post, November 21, 1940, 10; Retrieved under the following title and citation: “Legion Leaders Ask Uniform for New Guard,” Washington Post, November 21, 1940, 10.

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These challenges occurred on multiple fronts, and in multiple locations: throughout the

United States, in Puerto Rico and in the neighboring countries of Cuba and the Dominican

Republic as well as other parts of Latin America. While the transformation of the YLO from a

Chicago gang to a political organization had a local expression, their growing political consciousness had domestic, island and international underpinnings. Art served to educate and mobilize the local Puerto Rican community in alliance with anti-imperialist struggles. “Posters generally combine stylized visual messages with short, provocative statements. They mirror the conflicts simmering within popular culture and trace the evolution of mentalités.”47 Although this was written specifically in reference to the circulation of poster art in France during this era, the same holds true for its use by political organizations in Chicago. “The student revolts of

1968 sparked grassroots movements of solidarity and resistance in which the poster was used as a powerful vehicle for spontaneous and organized communication.”48 Cuban poster art, and visuals that developed and increasingly gained prominence and international circulation after the

Cuban Revolution, became political statements in their own right and set an example for images created in the United States and Puerto Rico. 49

Writing about the civil rights and New Left movements that emerged or expanded during the 1960s, Tom Hayden insists:

47Françoise Lionnet, “Immigration, Poster Art, and Transgressive Citizenship: France, 1968-1988,” in Borders, Exiles, Diasporas, eds. Elazar Barkan and Marie Denise Shelton (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 198.

48Ibid, 197.

49 Lincoln Cushing, Revolución!: Cuban Poster Art (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2003). Although there were much earlier precedents to the use of posters and imagery promoting political causes, the Cuban art of the mid 1960s and 1970s were a major influence in the proliferation of political messages by grassroots organizations in the US and Puerto Rico. Note the use of posters and printed broadsides in the United States during the American Revolution and the production of European, American, and Cuban lithographs during the mid to late nineteenth century. The prints and posters of José Guadalupe Posada chronicled early twentieth century Mexican politics, and served as purveyors of news and revolutionary fervor during the era of the Mexican Revolution. For a more expanded discussion and illustrations of Cuban poster art see above by Lincoln Cushing.

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New movements are based not simply on narrow interests or abstract visions, but on moral injuries that compel a moral response. The argument is a complicated one. A “moral injury” is deeply personal enough to elicit resistance from large numbers of people who share an experience of being violated. But it is concrete enough to be actionable… The civil rights movement began at lunch counters and bus stops. The antiwar movement began with draft notices. The farmworker movement began with short-handled hoes. The Free Speech Movement (FSM) began with the right to leaflet. The larger goals of independence or liberation evolved in the consciousness-raising process of a popular struggle.50

We might add, that the Young Lords Movement began with urban renewal projects in Chicago.

Beyond the national milieu of rising youth involvement in political causes, living conditions in Chicago’s communities of color led to organizing and protest. As articulated by

Tom Hayden, “original grievances arose from everyday life, allowing the resistance to be carried out by millions of people in their personal milieus.”51 Additionally, as a result of the Division

Street Riots, major complaints within Puerto Rican neighborhoods surfaced, the tone of organizing within the community shifted and its levels increased. A number of community organizations emerged in the aftermath of these riots, notably the Latin American Defense

Organization (LADO), formed in 1966, whose co-founders, Obed López and Omar later become

Young Lords. Omar also co-founded the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS), a year later.52 New groups were no longer content to only increase the visibility of Chicago’s

Puerto Rican community and provide cultural and social venues; they sought to address issues of poverty and discrimination in the city.

At the height of their popularity, the Young Lords attempted to redress pressing injustices facing Chicago’s Latino communities, utilizing the bold tactics for which they became known.

These included housing, education, childcare and health services. The Young Lords of Chicago

50 Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (Boulder and London: Paradigm Publishers, 2009), 9.

51 Ibid.

52 Omar López, e-mail message to author, March 12, 2008. Omar López is the brother of Obed. 124

successfully occupied, renamed, and acquired the long-term use of the Armitage Avenue

Methodist Church building, where they operated various programs including free breakfast for children, a day care center, a health clinic and an education program. There they maintained their national headquarters.

Housing and “urban removal”

Describing urban renewal as “urban removal,” the Young Lords identified housing as an early focus for neighborhood mobilization. According to Jiménez, many early YLO members were high school dropouts, unskilled in traditional organizing techniques, and angered by community conditions and injustice. Juan González, a Columbia University student leader who later became a YLO leader in New York expressed similar sentiments regarding the group’s impetus for organizing: “We knew that our families did not deserve to live under these conditions.” Thus, challenging structures that generated these conditions became their common cause. The story of a woman and children, evicted from their Chicago apartment illustrates the spontaneous and often unconventional methods used by the YLO. “The woman came to us for help, so we broke into an empty apartment next to the [Armitage Avenue Methodist] Church & moved the family in... basically we didn’t have skills but we responded to needs. Sometimes people came to us, often we went to them,” remembers Jiménez.

While many of the programs organized by the Young Lords followed the example of the

“survival programs” initiated by the BPP, the YLO placed their own stamp on community organizing. Urban renewal and the displacement of residents in poor communities became a rallying cry for neighborhood meetings and protests. Jiménez credits Pat Devine, a leading white activist in the Chicago area, for encouraging Young Lords to engage in anti-gentrification

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protests. Recalling their initial meeting, Jiménez remembers seeing Devine creating posters outside a community gathering place. In the course of the conversation, Devine invited Jiménez and other members to attend a planning meeting of the proposed urban renewal projects.

Jiménez initially rejected the offer, expressing the sentiment that perhaps the project did not directly impact them. At this juncture, the YLO was in its infancy, making the transition from a street gang to a viable political and civil rights organization. “This is happening to your community,” Devine stated to Jiménez and other YLO members, all of whom subsequently attended the meeting.53 At this pivotal meeting, the heated exchange between the local community redevelopment board and the YLO garnered newspaper coverage. The YLO went on to agitate and organize around issues of urban renewal as a central part of its ongoing work.

Housing actions taken by Young Lords members were not new for Chicago, as illustrated by the methods used by organizers of the Communist Party (CPUSA) during the 1930s. Christine Ellis recalled “organizing the unemployed” for the CPUSA, “in a black neighborhood on the West

Side of Chicago in 1931.” She stated: “If local marshals evicted a family from their dwelling, the unemployed council just moved all of their possessions back in from the street and took up a collection to pay the rent. Such actions won them the support of the local people.”54 Chicago neighborhoods of the 1960s remained largely segregated. Whether poor Black, brown, or white, each group identified key problems as poverty, poor housing, lack of services such as healthcare, and police brutality against youth within each of these communities.

53 Jiménez, correspondence with author, September 20, 2008.

54 Susan Ware, Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), 129; Mrs. Willye Jeffries, “Evictions, Arrests, and Other Running Sores,” in Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, ed. Studs Terkel (New York: New Press, 2005), 397-402.

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Housing renewal seemed to target Puerto Rican communities, and exacerbated their already transitory existence. Contesting the gentrification and “urban removal” of Puerto Ricans brought about by urban renewal projects would become a central piece of Young Lords organizing in Chicago. In describing their work, Felix Padilla says “the organization’s most notable activity” was their proposal to build “a ‘poor people’s’ housing project on an urban renewal site on the Westside of Lincoln Park.” Under this plan, the YLO called for the allocation of 40% of the residential units for poor families, with subsidized rents under Section 8 of the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 55 The work of the YLO in this arena developed into a contentious fight between the organization, on the one hand, and the Lincoln

Park Conservation Community Council, school officials, and representatives of redevelopment projects on the other. Urban renewal in Lincoln Park, which the Young Lords termed “Urban

Removal,” had multiple ramifications, for example the projects proposed by the city involved school expansions such as that of Waller High School, and the systematic elimination of dwellings occupied by the poor. Hence, the work of the YLO on housing rights represented an important shift. From this point the Young Lords emerge publicly and appear in the local print media. And their decision to occupy the stage, or “disrupt” meetings to prevent the break-up of their community, reflects the process of their politicization. They had already made the transformation from street gang to a recognized political group within the Puerto Rican community. At one of the first meetings they identified themselves as members of the Young

Lords Organization. The Chicago Tribune, not surprisingly, was inclined to share the perspective of Chicago’s elite. One newspaper headline read: “Lincoln Park Group Disrupted by Gangs.”

The reporter introduced the group in the local media using such language as “gangs,” and

55 Padilla, Puerto Rican Chicago, 122.

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describing what occurred as a “chair-throwing” and “fist-swinging melee” without reference to what might have caused these actions. Hidden in the article is the important detail that there are members on the planning committee who agree with the demands of the Young Lords, that is, “a member of the planning group had demanded the board give residents of the area more control over school planning.”56 Beyond the expression of community dissent, YLO actions included moving evicted families into empty buildings and paying landlords to keep families in their homes.57 The community would clearly view such actions as something more than gang disruptions.

On May 15, 1969 the YLO and members of the Concerned Citizens of Lincoln Park initiated their occupation of the McCormick Theological Seminary. Their numbers bolstered by the participation of other organizations, they remained there for almost a week. Through this action, they sought to force the seminary, a part of DePaul University, to partner with the YLO and others to “slow down urban displacement.”58 Although McCormick had previously declined to do so, the seminary agreed to meet the collective demands of the Young Lords as a result of the occupation. The agreement included a contribution of $50,000 for low-income housing and

$25,000 to be used for the establishment and maintenance of a legal aid office and two area health clinics. Additionally, the YLO called for “resources to open a Puerto Rican Cultural

Center.” In the end, however, these demands were not met. The YLO and Concerned Citizens hired an architect to design the housing, but the city refused to approve the plans. Decades later,

56 Carolyn Shojai, “Lincoln Park Group Disrupted by Gangs,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 1969, 2, section 1; Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 2 by Mary Martinez, February 8, 1995, Young Lords Oral History Project, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

57 Jiménez, correspondence with author, September 20, 2008.

58 Angel G. Flores-Rodríguez, “Interview with José ‘Cha Cha’ Jiménez,” Magazine of History, 26, no.1, 2012, 61- 64.

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the chancellor of DePaul University, John T. Richardson, remarked on the university’s missed opportunity to contribute to the surrounding community.

I think in some ways the Young Lords taught DePaul [University] a few things. They were a lot more conscious than we were of the social consequences of our actions, how our investing in the community made it tougher for the Puerto Rican community to stay there. With the advantage of hindsight, we probably should have formed some sort of partnership with the Young Lords to develop low-income housing. 59

Searching for collective spaces

The “People’s Church” was created by the takeover of the Armitage Avenue Methodist

Church on June 11, 1969, and arose from another clear community need: a day care center. This action and rationale would later be replicated by the New York Chapter of the Young Lords. The

YLO and other area organizations relied on the support of local pastors to offer needed services.

Many used church premises to set up offices and operate programs. For example, a Chicago

Times story on the activities of the S.D.S. and its youth section, the Revolutionary Youth

Movement or R.Y.M. II, reported that the Church of the Three Crosses was “one of the S.D.S. prime movement centers.”60 A Chicago Tribune article in 1970 shows the longevity of this issue.

It asserts the existence of a strategic New Left/church alliance. More importantly, the elites intent on carrying out urban renewal, who were represented by the Lincoln Park Conservation

Association, charged that the religious groups acted as a “parent organization” to the many community-based groups. According to this version, churches are the motivating factor behind the organizing that is taking place in Puerto Rican neighborhoods. “The North Side Cooperative

Ministry, a group of 26 churches” is specifically named as the entity responsible for community

59 Marc Spiegler, “Forever Young: Aided by an old enemy, the Young Lords emerge from obscurity” New City 10, no. 357 (April 6, 1995): not paginated. Box 1-8, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

60 Ronald Koziol, “1968 Rioters in City Aided by U.S. Pay,” Chicago Tribune, December 8, 1969, 1.

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mobilization. A grassroots group called the Concerned Citizens Survival Front was also singled out by the business community as an obstacle to urban renewal. Hugh Patrick Feely, the executive director of the Lincoln Park Conservation Association, was the face of urban renewal and he made alarming accusations in testimony before the U.S. Senate Internal Security

Subcommittee. He said that churches and New Left groups are closely allied in opposition to urban renewal, while also listing a number of gangs as part of this effort. His testimony specifically signals the Young Lords as “the most politically oriented in the area.” According to

Feely, “the North Side Cooperative Ministry has spawned all these children such as the Young

Lords, the Concerned Citizens Survival Front, and the Young Patriots.” The ministers “have acted as the funding agent from different church denominations in Chicago {for} specific movements within Lincoln Park and movements that have spread thruout [sic] the city.” In response, the accused religious leaders “denied the charges,” and countered with the observation that the Conservation Association intended to “create a white, upper income slice of corrupt suburbia in the Lincoln Park area.”61 Quite a few newspaper articles chronicle these battles. In a subsequent report, the ministers confirmed that they support “breakfast programs for the poor and legal programs,” as well as bail for “gang members,” who were most likely Young Lords and Young Patriots leadership. The churches did allow the use of their facilities for various community purposes. However, ministers believed that was only normal and part of their religious calling. In turn, they accused the Conservation Association of giving false testimony before the Senate, under the direction of Mayor Daley “because the ministry has opposed urban renewal projects in the Lincoln Park area.”62 Young Lords activities had entered the realm of

61 Russell Freeburg, “Church ‘Influence’ on New Left Told,” Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1970, 6.

62 “North Side Ministry Admits Some Aid Went to Street Gangs,” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 1971, B.

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both city and national politics. In the aftermath of the takeover, and with the support of the pastor, Bruce Johnson, the Young Lords continued to use the Methodist Armitage Avenue

Church building as a base of operation, and a site for various programs. The national church hierarchy was concerned. Only twelve people were active parishioners as of May 1970, no children attended the church school and only one adult class was functioning for religious education. An internal church report noted, “The Armitage Church is for practical purposes, in the control of the Young Lords. However, this is with the consent of the present members of the congregation.”63

Health care and the absence of medical services and facilities was another leading issue for the YLO. Among the programs they established in Chicago, the YLO neighborhood health clinic was the most ambitious, called the Dr. R. Emeterio Betances Health Center. 64 They were not alone in their attempts to provide services – they partnered with medical students and emergent radical health organizations to promote basic health rights. Radical doctors, nurses, dentists, and other health care professionals were a pivotal part of these activist health programs.

Members of the Student Health Organization (SHO) and the Health Revolutionary Unity

Movement (HRUM) served as visiting medical practitioners alongside their other organizing activities. Significantly, extensive news coverage was not really concerned with the health services that YLO provided the community. Instead, the articles questioned the use of government grants that seemed to be funding radical student organizations.

63 Robert L. Wilson, “The First Spanish United Methodist Church and the Young Lords, 1970,” Department of Research and Survey, National Division of the Board of Missions, the United Methodist Church, New York, 1970. This report quotes that parishioner numbers and church services sent in a report dated May 25, 1970, to Northern Illinois annual conference.

64 Judy Nicol, “Pediatrician sees crisis if city shuts Young Lords clinic,” in Newspapers and Journal Articles, nd, not paginated. Box 1-7, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

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The health clinic initiated by the Young Lords appears to have had some longevity as illustrated by press reports that it was still in operation several years later, though facing closure.65 Doctor Neil G. Aronson, one of the physicians who regularly volunteered at the clinic, stressed the importance of the free clinic to the community and he warned, “There will be a crisis if the clinic has to close.” Chicago health commissioner Dr. Murray C. Brown was threatening to shut down the clinic even though it was serving patients who had never before seen a doctor, including a 3-year old child. These patients were not being cared for by city health facilities. Dr.

Aronson charged the commissioner with “selectively harassing” clinics run by radical youth organizations such as the YLO. Aronson mentioned the inspection of the YLO clinic by an independent group, the Comprehensive Health Planning Inc., which found it to be “an innovative approach that should be encouraged.”66

In sum, the growing political consciousness of the YLO in Chicago translated into direct action that exposed and contested discriminatory actions and poor living standards. Their programs sought to remedy neighborhood conditions particularly in the areas of housing, child welfare, and medical care. This transformation from a street gang to a political organization was informed by an emerging political consciousness that imbued the era. It responded to existing neighborhood conditions and a host of individual, lived experiences that include migration, settlement, and community building.

Grassroots leaders

José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, who later became the General Secretary of the Young Lords

Organization, often referenced experiences as a youth in Chicago barrios as a catalyst for the

65 Marc Spiegler, “Forever Young: Aided by an old enemy, the Young Lords emerge from obscurity,” New City, vol.10, no. 357, Apr 6, 1995, not paginated. Box 1-8, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

66 Judy Nicol, “Pediatrician sees crisis,” not paginated. 132

formation of the Young Lords, first as a gang and the group’s transformation into a political organization. Specifically, Jiménez cites living in substandard housing, neighborhood conflicts with other ethnic groups, encounters with local police, experiences in jail, and exposure to emergent leaders in the African American and Chicano communities of the city as key factors informing his political consciousness and that of other Young Lords’ leaders.

The child of migrant camp workers, Jiménez’ early years illustrate an itinerant existence that led his family from poor communities in Puerto Rico to what he called the “rat -and roach- infested apartments” of the Water Hotel of Chicago. The migratory experiences of the Jiménez family, their settlement in poor communities and subsequent displacement from substandard housing, represented a trajectory taken by many of the Puerto Rican families who settled in

Chicago during the 50s and 60s.67 During those decades, the Jiménez family moved, along with many other Puerto Rican families, from Chicago neighborhoods such as “La Clark” and “La

Madison,” displaced by urban renewal projects and gentrification, the family moved into the area known as Lincoln Park, where groups identifying as “European gangs” lived, and claimed particular sections as their own territory.

Meeting Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and Chicano leader Corky Gonzalez proved to be pivotal for Jiménez and the Young Lords, who viewed their leadership and actions within their respective communities as examples of effective organizing. Jiménez’ life, while similar to that of his neighborhood friends and subsequent members of the Young Lords Organization, also exemplified the politicization of many urban youths during the 1960s. Along with other politically aware members, Jiménez led the Young Lords’ transformation from a street gang to an organization focused on civil rights. Prior to their formal affiliation with the BPP, the YLO

67 See Rachel Rinaldo, “Space of Resistance: The Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Humboldt Park,” Cultural Critique, no. 50 (W inter 2002), 135-174. 133

created a host of their own programs that resembled social services and emergency assistance.

They prepared food baskets, organized toy drives during holidays for neighborhood children, and in some instances provided rent assistance. To raise funds, they partnered with the Black Sto ne rangers, a Black gang that was known for having good parties. They termed these joint fundraisers, “Soul Dances.”68 Like many of the emergent community organizations of the era, the YLO set up community services such as clothing drives and health clinics.

The political transformation and leadership position of Jiménez, alongside the politicization of many urban youths during that era, led to the gang’s conversion into a militant organization. Positioned against white gangs in Chicago, Jiménez’ experiences in Lincoln Park helped solidify his Puerto Rican identity, while his prison self-education – a blend of African-

American and Puerto Rican political history, led Jiménez and other leading members to reorganize and transform the defunct Young Lords gang into a political organization. Jiménez states in an interview that a Muslim trustee in prison began giving him “political books,” among them, the works of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, thus nourishing his interest in history and politics. These books, he says, “led me to want to know about my history...to want to know

Albizu and Che,” referring to Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the pro-independence leader of Puerto

Rico’s Nationalist Party, and the revolutionary Che Guevara. 69

Following the lead of historian Robin DG Kelley, we can see that the emergence of the

Young Lords in Chicago as a street gang was, intrinsically, a young urban male response to specific conditions that both challenged and enveloped them. Kelley has commented, “I wanted

68 Ignatin, “Young Lords Serve and Protect,” YLO, 6.

69 Correspondence with author, September 20, 2008. Additionally, Jiménez talks about his prison experience in multiple interviews and articles, including Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez, “The Young Lords, Puerto Rican Liberation, and the Black Freedom Struggle,” interview by Angel G. Flores -Rodríguez, OAH Magazine of History 26, vol. 26 issue 1 (2012): 61-64. 134

to find out what black working people chose to do to survive and fight back under the specific circumstances of their own time and place.”70 The Young Lords’ emergence as a neighborhood gang was an organic process, as was their transformation into a political organization. They were a neighborhood group comprised mainly of young men who had grown up together; their beginnings as a street gang and social club served to protect them from neighboring street gangs and as a way to socialize in an independent setting. The Young Lords’ use of a storefront as a hangout and a place to take dates and party, highlights the social aspect of their formation. 71

During the gang period and also the political period, the Young Lords viewed their chosen path as a method of survival. The initial appeal of the Young Lords rested on the homegrown quality of the organization and their attention to issues that visibly impacted the immediate community.

While the leadership at first grappled with changing their identity as a neighborhood gang, when their membership grew, they attracted individuals who did not necessarily share that experience.

Chicago YLO programs arose from longstanding community needs and in this process, the grassroots organization collectively arrived at a new political consciousness. As Robin Kelley concludes, “…to be effective, social movements must develop their own leaders and build agendas around people’s actual needs and grievances, irrespective of whether or not they fit the logic of a particular analytical framework.”72

70 Robin D. G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 230 (italics by Kelley).

71 Carlos Flores Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library. Photographer Carlos Flores captured many of the existing images of the Young Lords during their gang days in Chicago. From his collection we are able to witness the social aspect of the gang. Rather than male-centered imagery, the portraits that Flores presents, showcase the young men and women of a community setting. Without identifying them as members of the gang, it would be difficult to deduce that they were gang members from these portraits.

72 Kelley, Race Rebels, 230.

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The YLO examined various ideological paths that included cultural nationalism and socialism, yet their organizing drives always revolved around specific local issues. Leaders who risked arrest to disrupt urban renewal meetings and who mounted large protest actions such as the McCormick Seminary takeover, habitually received media attention in Chicago. A number of community problems relative to housing, medical care, and unemployment also appeared as leading stories in citywide newspapers and gave credence to YLO demands. While not necessarily favorable to the work of New Left groups such as the Young Lords, news coverage focusing on medical care, housing, and welfare recipients underscored the need for the targeted work of these organizations. Low-income communities clearly suffered the scarcity of medical clinics and health care providers, substandard housing, the displacement of families due to gentrification, and the life of welfare recipients.

The original Rainbow Coalition

The original Rainbow Coalition was initially conceived in 1968 by Bob Lee, Field

Marshall of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, Chairman of the

ILBPP.73 Described as the “vanguard of the dispossessed” and “a revolutionary spearhead,” the

Rainbow Coalition consisted of the unification of several distinct groups in Chicago: the Black

Panther Party, The Young Lords Organization, the Young Patriots Organization (YPO) that claimed roots in Appalachia, and Rising Up Angry (RUA) who were working-class whites.74

73 Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, “The Fire Next Time: The Short Life of the Young Patriots and the Original Rainbow Coalition” and “Pedagogy of the Streets: Rising Up Angry” in Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power (Brooklyn, New York: Melville House Publishing, 2011), 66-100 and 101-129. See note 14, Jacobi W illiams makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Rainbow Coalition in From the Bullet to the Ballot. Amy Sonnie and James Tracy further the discussion with their in-depth study of white, working class radicals of the sixties.

74 Michael T. Kaufman, “Black Panthers join Coalition with Puerto Rican and Appalachian Groups,” New York Times, November 9, 1969, 83. 136

Collectively, this union represented groups of Black, Puerto Rican, and white poor urban youth in Chicago. While the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Young Patriots organized in other cities, and the Rainbow Coalition spread to other parts of the country, Rising Up Angry was specific to Chicago. Consequently, RUA is often forgotten in discussions of the coalition. The

Rainbow Coalition was most cohesive in Chicago, its birthplace, where the representatives of the various organizations met regularly and partnered in organizing attempts and events. Under the leadership of Fred Hampton, the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers initially led the drive to unite the various segments of poor communities in Chicago. Bob Lee’s first meeting with the

Appalachian Young Patriots was a fortuitous encounter, as historian Jacobi Williams narrates:

Black Panthers and Young Patriots had never shared the same space until they were accidently slated to speak together at a community meeting at the Church of Three Crosses. 75 The audience was made up of both white Appalachian migrants and congregants described as “upper-class whites,” who listened to a presentation on police brutality by members of the Young Patriots.

Lee, the ILBPP Field Marshall, was on his first speaking engagement to introduce the newly formed chapter of the BPP, and he was shocked by the “intense hostility and class dialogue between the two white groups” present at the meeting. 76 Lee states: “Coming from the South, it was a culture shock for me, I had never seen that before, because in the South, whites were united around race… I had never seen whites attack poor whites before. I had never seen poor whites having to explain themselves to other whites before.”77 During this meeting, the first alliance of the Rainbow Coalition came together. Film footage shows Bob Lee effectively

75 The Church of Three Crosses appears in multiple sources as one of the churches that provided a space for community engagement and discussion.

76 Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, 132.

77 Ibid., 133.

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linking the complaints of police brutality, poverty and joblessness voiced by white Appalachian migrants, to the similar grievances of African Americans. 78

The formation of the Rainbow Coalition stands out in the history of the New Left for having created effective interracial unity. It successfully brought together poor youths from different parts of Chicago. While Hampton was a leading force in encouraging the leaders of the various organizations to come together, Lee laid the groundwork for the alliance and helped the other organizations set up survival programs modeled on those of the Black Panthers. These included free breakfast programs, clothing drives and medical clinics. Under the leadership of

Hampton and Lee of the Black Panther Party, José Cha Cha Jiménez of the Young Lords,

Michael James and Steve Tappis of Rising Up Angry, and William “Preacherman” Fesperman of the Young Patriots, the Rainbow Coalition became a “truly diverse force that organized in communities throughout the city.”79 Hampton’s vision and organizing skills led to a grassroots alliance that many groups had hoped to achieve. His plan of action included the conversion of gang members into political actors. Street-savvy and astute, Hampton hoped to expand the

Panthers in Chicago through the recruitment of entire gangs, particularly the largest. Both Cha

Cha Jiménez and Hampton were able to negotiate truces among feuding gangs. 80 In addition, members of the respective organizations provided highly visible examples of cooperation and assistance between African Americans, Latinos, and poor whites on a day-to-day basis.

78 Howard Alk and Mike Gray, American Revolution II, Film, directed by Howard Alk and Mike Gray (1969; Chicago: Facets Multimedia), VHS.

79 Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, 128.

80 Ibid., 161.

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“According to its leaders, the Rainbow Coalition was the ‘the best living proof of a new revolutionary class-less society in the making’.”81

Police harassment and intimidation from the authorities was the context of these histories.

Manuel Ramos died on May 4, 1969, shot by an off-duty policeman named James Lamb. Ramos was at “a Young Lords party on the Southside,” celebrating the birthday of a YLO member. 82

Lamb was painting an apartment across the street. Angie Adorno Navedo recounts the course of events:

I don’t know if they got too loud.… [Lamb] came over to complain… But he had all this paint, he didn’t say I am a police officer… [and] they got into an argument from across the street… They were exactly in the doorway, and this guy, James Lamb, I will never forget his name, said that Manuel pulled a [gun] out of his pocket … anyway, [Lamb] ended up shooting, he killed Manuel.… Ralph ended up getting shot in the neck. 83

Navedo insisted that Manuel Ramos never carried a gun. “Why is [Lamb] carrying his [gun] when he is painting anyway?” Four Young Lords fought with Lamb and were subsequently arrested, charged with assault. They became known as Los Quatros Lords [sic]. Lamb remained on the force, fueling community protests. “It became political … it became an issue of racism.…

This white cop was allowed to get away with shooting him.”84 In her interview, Adorno Navedo links the later killing of Fred Hampton that same year to the death of Manuel Ramos, not necessarily in the way they were killed or the possible reasons, but in the fact that white policemen got away with killing a young man of color.

81 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, 71.

82 Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, 147; Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995.

83 Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995.

84 Ibid.

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Reverend Bruce Johnson and his wife Eugenia, both of them white, were killed on

September 28, 1969, their bodies found by the neighborhood postman who noticed an open door and heard their children crying. Upon entering their house, he found the bodies of the Johnsons.

Press reports indicated that the Reverend and his wife had been stabbed sixteen and eighteen times respectively.85 The murders deeply disturbed the surrounding community, both because of who they were and the level of violence inflicted upon them. The loss of Bruce and Eugenia

Johnson represented a tremendous blow to the Young Lords. Socially conscious and young,

Reverend Johnson had become an ally. He allowed the YLO to convert the Armitage Methodist

Church, the church he pastored, into an office and a de facto community center. From that site the YLO operated their free breakfast program and health clinic. Reverend Johnson liked to ask:

“Where do you place yourself in the world?” The Johnsons openly supported the work of the

Young Lords as well as that of Concerned Citizens, the group that initially headed the fight against urban renewal in Lincoln Park. No one was ever charged with these murders. A fellow minister said, “I don’t believe anyone really investigated.” He further noted that police were visibly absent from the church premises on the day of the Johnsons’ funerals. “They basically let the Young Lords do their work … [to] handle the cars and the parking.” 86

On December 4, 1969, BPP leader Fred Hampton was killed by Chicago police as he slept in his home. Pointing to contradictions in the chain of events as presented by the police department, organizations on the Left leveled accusations of sanctioned murder. The death of

Hampton created a void in the leadership of the BPP and greatly impacted the work o f the

85 Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, 149; Randall Monaco, “The Garden Walk of Protest,” Documentary, writer and producer Randall Monaco (2013). José Cha Cha Jiménez, Pat Devine, and DePaul University provided interviews and materials for the making of this film. The two sources give a different date for Ramos’ death. Williams says September 28, 1969 was the date of death, while the documentary reports it as September 30, 1969.

86 Randall Monaco, “The Garden Walk of Protest,” 2013.

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Rainbow Coalition that he had so zealously brought to fruition. Jiménez, a pallbearer at

Hampton’s funeral, felt the personal pain and collective loss of his death. “I remember Jesse

Jackson speaking and trying to hold back my tears. I tried to be a man but I could not do it. Not just me but a lot of people got afraid and it had a big effect on the movement in Chicago.”87

The Red Squad and Hoover’s FBI

Like most grassroots and New Left organizations of the era, the Young Lords became the object of continual surveillance and intimidation. 88 This meant that the YLO was subjected to the tactics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as well as the “Red Squad,” a team of

Chicago police officers assigned to investigate groups they perceived to be Leftist. Given Mayor

Daley’s strong-arm tactics and J. Edgar Hoover’s directive to infiltrate, disrupt, and eliminate these organizations, Chicago’s Red Squad was able to act with impunity. Hoover’s designation of the Black Panther Party as “the most dangerous group in America,” placed the YLO, a close ally, under a magnifying glass. Historically, FBI surveillance of Puerto Rican Pro-Independence groups had been conducted since the early twentieth century. 89 The leadership of the YLO became prime targets. YLO members dealt with the day-to-day effects of this intimidation which included getting arrested, having to raise bail, and appearing in court for cases that were often dropped or had the charges reduced. Requested bail often exceeded stipulated amounts for the alleged offenses. YLO member Angie Adorno Navedo recalled the constant scrutiny. “They

87 Angel G. Flores-Rodríguez, “Interview with José Jiménez,” 61-64.

88 Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's secret wars against dissent in the United States (Boston: South End Press, 2002). FBI Files, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY, passim.

89 FBI Files, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY, passim.

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knew him,” she said, speaking of Cha Cha Jiménez: “the police [,] and I guess rightly so in their minds, they got to know who is who and try to curtail certain problems.… But I think probably because they knew he was the president at that time [,] … they wanted to make sure that he knew who was running the show and it was definitely the police.” Adorno Navedo stressed the element of racism in police interactions. “Again, it was a real racist police department … [and] even older people [,] …if you got stopped, and [you] weren’t white, they probably got beaten up or at least hit or something if you didn’t answer correctly. But then again, that was the time of Ed Hanrahan and Mayor Daley Senior…. That was the mood at the time.”90

“We joined with people who were poor” 91

In essence, the Young Lords’ transformation from a local gang to political activists, the programs they created, and the subsequent impact of their actions, represents a remarkable achievement. “Our main focus was the neighborhood but also self-determination for Puerto

Rico,” Cha Cha Jiménez stated. “We brought the colonial issue to Chicago on a massive scale.

We did not know words like ‘diaspora’ or anything like that but we always knew that we were connected to Puerto Rico. We saw ourselves as part of a shuttle culture, going back and forth all the time.”92 From their beginnings in the storefronts of Lincoln Park, the Young Lords expanded and quickly attracted more experientially diverse members such as Obed and Omar López, student leaders and, as previously mentioned, the co-founders of the Latin American Defense

Organization (LADO). Alberto Chavira was a third year medical student who ran the Young

90 Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995.

91 Teresa Puente, “Latinos battle for a place in history,” Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1996, not paginated, quoting Young Lord and photographer Carlos Flores. Box 1-8, Young Lords Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University Library.

92 Flores-Rodríguez, “Interview with José Jiménez,” 61-64. 142

Lords’ health clinic. Angie Navedo helped organize a women’s group called Mothers and Others

(MAO). Histories of gender are clear from the depth of community support for the Young

Lords. Among the women’s voices of the Chicago Lords, Hilda Vasquez Ignatin emerges as an early chronicler of the political organization. No longer, “Lordettes,” as they had been known during the gang years, women such as Adorno and Ignatin represented the group of strong, active women who joined the YLO, worked in different ministries, and operated various programs.93 As suggested by the role of Mamie Till Bradley, women of color in working class communities stood their ground against Chicago authorities that were denying their rights and literally destroying their neighborhoods and families. Assessing the impact of women within the organization, Jiménez observes, “They did the work that made us look good in the community,

[they subverted] the gang image, [and] stabilized what we were doing.”94

The local press minimized the work of the Young Lords, often in a demeaning manner.

Long after the YLO had transformed themselves into a group with political purposes, the mainstream media continued to deride them as a “gang.” However publications on the left increasingly spread the news of their existence. With the formation of the Rainbow Coalition in

Chicago, articles in the Black Panther Party newspaper further disseminated news of the activities of the Young Lords. YLO expansion outside Chicago first occurred with the establishment of the New York chapter in El Barrio. Subsequently, a chapter also operated in

Milwaukee. Initially, both of these regional chapters came under the leadership of Chicago, with

Cha Cha Jiménez as the chairman of the national organization. Within a year, the New York chapter separated from the Chicago YLO. Keeping the Young Lords name, and remaining a part

93 Ignatin, “Young Lords Serve and Protect,” YLO, 6. The term “Lordettes’ is from the gang era of the Young Lords and was not used to refer to women who were members when they transformed into a political organization in any of the branches. The term never existed within the New York chapter of the YLO nor in the YLP.

94 Jiménez, correspondence with author author, September 20, 2008. 143

of the Rainbow Coalition, the New York group organized and expanded under the name of the

Young Lords Party (YLP). While the split was amicable, the two chapters cited differences in discipline and direction. Agreeing to work independently yet in solidarity, they continued to organize as Young Lords. The proliferation of Young Lords chapters served to fill the void for

Puerto Ricans, as well as other Latinos and African Americans seeking to join grassroots movements that wed nationalist sentiment to local organizing. Although the international underpinnings of the Chicago organizing was further developed by the New York branches, that subsequently became the Young Lords Party (YLP), the politics of the island are also evident in the work of the Chicago founding branch. The Young Lords emerged in Chicago at a time when particular events spurred the growth of international protest movements and dissent. Opposition to the war in Vietnam resulted in protests worldwide as well as across the continental United

States and Puerto Rico. The anti-colonial struggles in Africa – in Senegal, Guinea and Ghana, in

Kenya, Congo and beyond – prompted calls for solidarity by the Young Lords. Their turn to internationalism was part of who they were. Manuel Maldonado-Denis elaborates on the similarity between advocates for Puerto Rican independence and Black power proponents in the

United States. He articulates a position made popular by Franz Fanon: the existence of the colonized mind, and the need to adopt “decolonialized” thinking and behaviors in conjunction with struggles for liberation. “In this respect, [the] goal [of pro-independence groups] is similar to that of the Black Power advocates of the United States, because both groups are faced with a similar situation. Only when Puerto Ricans have achieved decolonization, both psychologically and politically, will they be able to come of age as a true protest movement. Otherwise they run the risk of a total destruction of Puerto Rican nationality, and cultural assimilation by the United

States.”95 Influenced by the work of Fanon, the Black Panthers and the Young Lords

95 Maldonado-Denis, “The Puerto Ricans: Protest or Submission?” 26-31. 144

incorporated these ideas into their political ideology and rhetoric. “For us, it was simple,” explained Cha Cha Jiménez. “It was not anything theoretical. It was just like what we saw at

Lincoln Park. Other people came to take over the neighborhood and the U.S. did the same thing in Puerto Rico. The whole issue of housing displacement, then, served as a way to explain the issue of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and vice versa.”96

96 Flores-Rodríguez, “Interview with José Jiménez,” 61-64. 145

CHAPTER 4

New York and Beyond

I am two parts/a person boricua/spic past and present alive and oppressed given a cultural beauty . . . and robbed of a cultural identity

I speak the alien tongue in sweet boriqueño thoughts know love mixed with pain have tasted spit on ghetto stairways . . . here, it must be changed

we must change it. - Sandra Maria Esteves 1

By the time that the Young Lords emerged as a political organization on the streets of

New York, the East Harlem community known as El Barrio had long been established as the social, cultural and political hub of the Puerto Rican community on the east coast. It was the place where young organizers from the island converged as early as the 1800s and throughout the early to mid-twentieth century. Prominent Puerto Rican activists Bernardo Vega, Jesús

Colón, Arturo Schomburg, Rufa Concepción Colón, Luisa Capetillo, and many others made their

1Sandra Maria Esteves, Yerba Buena: Dibujos Y Poemas (Greenfield, New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1980); Democracy Now!, “Sandra Maria Esteves Performs ‘Aguacero’ at the Young Lords 40th Anniversary Celebration,” Democracy Now!, September 11, 2009, http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/9/11/sandra_maria_esteves_performs_aguacero_at_the_young_lords_40t h_anniversary_celebration. Sandra Maria Esteves is one of the founders of Nuyorican poetry movement. She performed at the Fortieth Anniversary Celebration of the Young Lords in New York. http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/9/11/sandra_maria_esteves_performs_aguacero_at_the_young_lords_40t h_anniversary_celebration http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/ei_poetry_esteves.html

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way to El Barrio at different times of their lives. While Puerto Ricans also took up residence in other parts of the city, most prominently Brooklyn, as well as in the Lower East Side of

Manhattan and the Bronx, the community of East Harlem symbolized the growing presence of this population. The importance of East Harlem among Puerto Ricans appears explicitly in the chronicles and memoirs of sojourners. It is also woven into their personal correspondence throughout the early and mid-twentieth century.2 In a letter to his wife Rufa “Concha” Colón in

1948, Jesús Colón notes that Puerto Ricans could be found living in all parts of New York, regardless of the location’s distance from Harlem. “No hay barrio ni distrito por lejos que sea de

Harlem en donde no hayan Boricuas viviendo.”3 While the main point of this statement is to highlight the spread of the Puerto Rican population, within that observation we see the centrality of Harlem, specifically the sector known as El Barrio which had become a point of reference, a point of arrival and of departure.

As discussed in chapter two, during the early twentieth century Puerto Ricans founded and joined organizations, both social and political, as a means of navigating their new environments, and in many cases as a continuation of their political activism in Puerto Rico. 4

While advocates and leaders emerged among Puerto Ricans, they also established allies, largely within leftist organizations. Among their supporters, Puerto Ricans found a surprising yet

2 Jesus Colón, A Puerto Rican in New York and other Sketches (New York: International Publishers, 1980); Jesus Colón, The Way It Was and other Writings, ed. Edna Acosta-Belén (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993); Bernardo Vega, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega, ed. Cesar Andreu Iglesias (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984) Evidence is found most prominently in the chronicles of Jesus Colón and Bernardo Vega.

3 Jesus Colón, letter to Concha Colón in Jesus Colón Papers, October 8, 1948, http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/prwriters/docs/jc-ltr3.html.

4 Winston A. James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia (New York: Verso Press, 1999), passim; Colón, A Puerto Rican in New York, passim; Vega, Memoirs, passim. The tabaqueros/as were prime examples, as were Socialists and Anarchists who continued to organize and seek out kindred spirits in various clubs and organizations. The writings of Colón, Vega and James present evidence of these gatherings. 147

steadfast advocate for social justice and independence for Puerto Rico in Vito Marcantonio, an

Italian American Congressman representing Harlem who was elected to that position seven times. Relentless in his attacks against Puerto Rico’s colonial status, Marcantonio, an avowed socialist, introduced a total of five bills calling for the independence of Puerto Rico. 5 In addition, he fought for other island causes within the realms of economics, civil liberties, and social justice. Among his efforts, Marcantonio urged government funding for emergency relief and increases to the minimum wage, on the island, in the conviction that his constituents possessed transnational claims. He opposed attempts to institute English as the language of instruction in

Puerto Rican schools, and decried the violence against protestors, spectators, and passersby in the 1937 Nationalist demonstration that became known as the Ponce massacre. Amid an atmosphere of increasing political repression on the island, Marcantonio called for academic freedom at the University of Puerto Rico during a time when the rector banned all forms of

Nationalist expression on campus, including speeches, writings, meetings or attire that could be interpreted as supportive of independence for Puerto Rico. 6 As Albizu Campos’ attorney during his trial for treason, Marcantonio further solidified his reputation among those allied with Puerto

Rican independence. To his Puerto Rican constituents in East Harlem, he represented a neighbor, a Harlem born and bred activist politician who called for justice and equal rights both on the island and in their “island in the city.”7 In a speech made to congress in 1939, Marcantonio asserted his concerns.

5 Annette T. Rubinstein, ed., I Vote My Conscience: Debates, Speeches, and Writings of Vito Marcantonio. (New York: Vito Marcantonio Memorial, 1956), 378.

6 Ibid.

7 Dan Wakefield, Island in the City: Puerto Ricans in New York (New York: Corinth Books, 1959). I borrow “the island in the city” phrase from Wakefield, whose book by the same name, described the socio-economic environment of mid twentieth century Puerto Ricans in New York.

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“….My interest in Puerto Rico is due not only to the fact that I represent the largest Puerto Rican constituency, of which I am proud, but also to my desire as a progressive to defend the most exploited victims of a most devastating imperialism. I have no right, nor any interest in the politics of the island. That is the business of no one but the people of Puerto Rico. I have a right however to defend the people of Puerto Rico against exploitation, tyranny, and betrayal.”8

In his analysis of the considerable popularity for Marcantonio among Puerto Ricans, historian

Gerald Meyer underscores the reasons for this popular support. “As citizens who were poorly housed, badly paid, and subject to discrimination, they responded to Marcantonio's advocacy of public housing, civil rights, and labor legislation. His demand for social change on behalf of the disinherited corresponded to the needs and desires of this community of poor immigrants.”9

Additionally, as noted by Bernardo Alba and other chroniclers of early twentieth century Puerto

Rican migrants, El Barrio developed on leftist terrain, with large numbers of socialists, anarchists, and communists among those who would christen the eastern sector of Harlem with the name El Barrio.10

The importance of East Harlem, as a central site for organizing, shaping and moving new ideas, cannot be underestimated. Beyond the early 20th century organizers working in New York such as Schomburg, the Colón brothers, Rufa Colón, and Bernardo Vega, the immediate predecessors of Young Lords activists included several individuals who worked within mainstream, reformist social service programs. Although their political trajectory and organizing modes differed, it is important to recognize these earlier activists, who forged early civil rights struggles for Puerto Ricans. These included Antonia Pantoja, whose work with education programs led many Puerto Ricans to U.S. colleges, often as the first in their families to finish

8 Rubinstein, I Vote My Conscience, p. 374. Cites a speech by Vito Marcantonio to congress on May 11, 1939.

9 Gerald Meyer, "Marcantonio and El Barrio." CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 4, no. 2 (1992): 82. It should be noted that the Movement Pro Independence (MPI) in New York City was named after Marcantonio, further proof of the Marcantonio’s support, particularly among Puerto Rican Nationalists and Leftists.

10 Vega, Memoirs, 47. 149

high school and pursue post-secondary education. As the founder of Aspira Pantoja not only stimulated students to graduate and continue their educations, she also helped create a cadre of students who learned to how to organize, and who were compelled to examine their history and culture. Digna Sanchéz joined Aspira as a junior at Seward Park High School and founded the

Juan Morel Campos Aspira club in her high school. Given the fact that Campos was a Puerto

Rican composer of plenas, and the uncle of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos, the selection of this name suggests some knowledge of popular culture as well as pro-independence history. Sanchéz describes her involvement in Aspira as “a life changing experience,” one that empowered her and guided her work in later years. 11 While the structure of Aspira clubs encouraged students to work within the educational system, there were members who would later challenge structures of power. Sanchéz, for example, describes her entrance into more confrontational politics: “political activism became the overriding priority in my life. My work in the Puerto Rican independence movement, first in the MPI [Movement Pro Independence] and later the PSP [Partido Socialista Puertoriqueño], and on women’s issues, was the core of my efforts for over 20 years during the 70’s and 80’s.”12

Another important predecessor, Manny Diaz, a contemporary of Pantoja, helped form early coalitions between African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York. Diaz, a social worker, was employed in a gang prevention program in the Lower East Side. His efforts in this arena tested his coalition-building skills as he worked with Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican and

African American gangs. On a broader scale, his leadership proved to be instrumental in

11 Digna Sánchez, “Aspira, the Sixties and Growing Up Puerto Rican,” Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference , Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 1–4, 2008, 1-9, http://www.drantoniapantojafellowship.org/Other%20Postings/Aspira,%20the%20Sixties.pdf.

12 Ibid, 8.

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persuading Puerto Rican parents and students to support a citywide boycott of schools in 1964. 13

Denouncing the deplorable conditions and de facto segregation of schools in the predominantly

African American and Puerto Rican neighborhoods of New York City, a coalition of civil rights groups and activists came together to call for a day of protest and boycott. Among those who were at the forefront was Manny Diaz. The boycott is historically significant both for its magnitude and for the alliances it forged. Bayard Rustin, a key spokesperson for the coalition, hailed the boycott as “the largest civil rights protest in the nation’s history.” The New York Times headline read: “BOYCOTT CRIPPLES CITY SCHOOLS… NEGROES AND PUERTO

RICANS UNITE.” The Times reported almost half, or 44.8 percent of the city’s 1,037,757 students joined the boycott, as did more than 3500 teachers. Of the 464,361 pupils absent, the largest number of boycotting students came from predominantly African American and Puerto

Rican schools and neighborhoods. The schools in Central Harlem, East Harlem, and Bedford-

Stuyvesant reported absences as high as ninety-five percent.14 The Wall Street Journal publicized similar findings. Although both periodicals reported the same number of absence and enrollment figures for February 3rd, the Wall Street Journal’s headline the following day suggested lower participation in the boycott, using figures provided by New York’s Board of

Education: “One-Third of Pupils in New York City Miss Classes in Race Protest,” stated the

Journal.15

13 Sonia S. Lee and Andre Diaz, “‘I Was the One Percenter’: Manny Diaz and the Beginnings of a Black-Puerto Rican Coalition.” Journal of American Ethnic History (2007): 52-80.

14 Leonard Buder, "BOYCOTT CRIPPLES CITY SCHOOLS; ABSENCES 360,000 ABOVE NORMAL; NEGROES AND PUERTO RICANS UNITE," New York Times (1923-Current File), February 4, 1964, http://search.proquest.com/docview/115663250?accountid=14509. 15 News Roundup, "One-Third of Pupils in New York City Miss Classes in Race Protest," Wall Street Journal (1923 - Current File), February 4, 1964, http://search.proquest.com/docview/132962834?accountid=14509.

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The boycott was significant for a number of reasons. During the protest itself, many students were involved beyond the act of not going to school. Some attended “Freedom Schools” held in churches or other neighborhood spaces. Others joined the picket lines, in some instances giving instructions to the teachers who were also demonstrating. For many students, parents, teachers, and clergy, the experience undoubtedly signaled their entrance into direct action and protest. Some picketers carried signs in Spanish, a critical expression of a Puerto Rican presence, but also suggestive of support for bilingual education and Spanish-speaking teachers.16 As seen in quotes in the New York Times, several students expressed an awareness of the injustice of racial and educational disparity, as well as critiquing the poor physical condition of many schools. Equally significant, the coming together of the two largest communities of color in New

York was cause for celebration. More important than the numbers, stated Bayard Rustin, was the fact that African Americans and Puerto Ricans had “joined together to work for common objectives.”17 While there were earlier connections on social and cultural levels, in schools, workplaces, dance halls, orchestras, sports teams and neighborhoods, the boycott represented an early political alliance on a large scale. Historian Sonia Song-Ha Lee and her co-author Ande

Diaz, note the importance of Manny Diaz’ coalition building efforts:

He chose to form friendships and alliances with Black Americans and adopted their political strategies because he found Puerto Ricans’ best allies among [African

16 Congress of Racial Equality, “Statement by New York CORE Chapters on School Integration,” CORE National Convention, 1964, http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,624. Box 1, Folder 6, Congress of Racial Equality. Milwaukee Chapter: Records, 1963-1964, W isconsin Historical Society. Several demands specific to Puerto Rican and other Latino students appear on a document dated January 16, 1964, presented at the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) national convention and prepared by the New York CORE members. Demands include the hiring of more Spanish speaking teachers, Spanish language education for existing teachers, and an end to the practice of eliminating teacher candidates with accents, including Spanish and southern U.S. accents. Other demands geared towards both African American and Puerto Rican students are the inclusion of culturally relevant social studies and history courses. The document also contains descriptive and numerical data regarding the age and conditions of schools, teacher training, rationale for the boycott, and planned activities on boycott day.

17 Buder, "BOYCOTT CRIPPLES CITY SCHOOLS,” New York Times.

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American] civil rights activists. By doing so, he shaped Puerto Ricans’ positioning within the terrain of US politics, which would affect many generations to come.”18

Upon Diaz’ death, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez described him as an “abuelo [grandfather] of the revolution,” citing his participation in the civil rights movement, as well as “on behalf of gang prevention, and [his] advocacy for higher education.”19 His solutions to poverty fell within the realm of social service programming, yet he also recognized radical thinkers and activists.

Diaz, for example, expressed great “admiration, reverence, all of those things,” for Malcolm X, at a time in Malcolm X’s life when his expressions were the most fierce and confrontational. 20

Diaz’ esteem for Malcolm X again points to Malcolm X’s importance as an inspirational and motivating figure among many Puerto Rican activists.

Another prominent figure among organizers in New York, Evelina Antonetty, became a radical presence and a driving force for educational reform and community control of schools.

The founder of United Bronx Parents (UBP), Antonetty concentrated her efforts in that borough.21 However, her fierce advocacy resonated in other parts of the city. 22 Alternately remembered as the “Hell lady of the Bronx” and “The mother of the Puerto Rican community,”

Antonetty’s work inspired young community activists such as Richie Perez, a teacher who would

18 Lee and Diaz, “I Was the One Percenter,” 54.

19Nydia Velasquez (Democratic Congresswoman for New York), quoted in Lee and Diaz, "I Was the One Percenter," 74.

20 Lee and Diaz, “I Was the One Percenter," 58.

21 United Bronx Parents, Inc., “Our History,” United Bronx Parents, 2012, http://www.ubpinc.org/lang1/home.html. UBP focused on these educational issues during its early years. As additional problems plagued the Bronx community most served by the group, they branched out to provide additional services such as drug rehabilitation, housing for homeless women in the drug program and their families, HIV services, emergency food programs, day care, adult education and bilingual programs. Additionally, they have established a medical clinic in the community. The UBP also established alliances in other parts of New York City and other parts of the country.

22 Sonia Song-Ha Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in New York City (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press Books, 2014).

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later become a leading member of the YLO and the YLP, and remain a lifelong activist for social justice.23 In addition to Antonetty’s fight for community control of schools, her expressed affinity with Nationalist leader Albizu Campos also resonated with Young Lords’ position on

Independence for Puerto Rico. Taking on the presentation of Puerto Ricans as a “maladjusted” segment of society, Antonetty turned the characterization into one that denoted valor, having the mettle to take a stand. “I am sure history has a place for those who have the moral courage to be maladjusted… Maladjusted like Don Pedro Albizu Campos who believed that [if] even b irds are free, why not Puerto Ricans.”24 From Jesús Colón and Bernardo Vega to Evelina Antonetty, these earlier activists paved the way for the coming of the Young Lords; El Barrio was the most logical place to establish the first East Coast chapter of the Young Lords.

East Harlem represented not only an area that activists were drawn to, it was also the stage on which writers, musicians, poets and artists performed and perfected their craft. 25 Among the literary greats who lived in and wrote about East Harlem, Julia de Burgos stands out as one whose work was admired and celebrated both in Puerto Rico and its Diaspora. Writing during the

1940s and early 1950s, Burgos lived in various parts of Harlem. As her poetry attests, her New

York surroundings became a source of inspiration and depression. Ultimately, El Barrio became the place of her death, her unidentified body temporarily placed in an unmarked grave. A lifelong nationalist, Burgos’ poetry spoke of pro-independence yearnings as well as the realities of life in the Diaspora. Burgos would become a source of inspiration for the poets who, two decades

Iris Morales, “¡ Palante, Siempre Palante!, Interview with Richie Pérez,” Centro Journal 21, no. 2 (2009): 143-157. Richie Pérez died in 2004. His reference to Antonetty is found in this article.

24 Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 1.

25 Urayoan Noel, In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2014). See above for a discussion of the intersection of poets and other literary artists and the militant politics of New York Puerto Ricans during the 1960s and 1970s.

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after her death, flourished alongside the Young Lords movement. Pedro Pietri and Felipe

Luciano would have the greatest affinity with the Young Lords. Luciano, a member of the Last

Poets which was an early spoken word group, would become the New York YLO’s first chairman, Pietri, its “poet laureate.”26

The YLO branch that emerged in New York did so amid a community in crisis: deteriorating housing, poor or understaffed medical facilities, the proliferation of drugs, schools unwilling or unable to serve the educational needs of a Spanish-speaking population and other poor communities. As a result, issues such as conditions in neighborhood schools and the placement of large numbers of Puerto Rican and African American students into vocational rather than academic tracks, led to a growing number of parents and students organizing to achieve control over education during the early and mid-1960s. Within a few years, the Young

Lords would position community control of schools as a goal and a demand within their Thirteen

Point Program.

The conditions that led founding members to seek affiliation with the Young Lords of

Chicago were similar to those in the Midwest. Yet the sheer size of Puerto Rican communities in

New York, and the longevity of these communities, marked a real difference. The YLO’s subsequent exposure in the media and perhaps more strategic use of the press was also aided by the more liberal environment of New York. Chicago’s Young Lords certainly had constant mainstream press coverage, yet most of it was negative, and they did not benefit from the media’s prejudices that favored university students or artists while disparaging organic

26 Matthew Gandy, “Between Borinquen and the Barrio: Environmental Justice and New York City's Puerto Rican Community, 1969–1972.” Antipode 34, no. 4 (2002): 730-61. Matthew Gandy uses term poet laureate to refer to Pietri in relation to the Young Lords.

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intellectuals such as José Cha-Cha Jiménez.27 Under the governance of John V. Lindsay, New

York was a far cry from Daley’s Chicago. That is not to say the New York chapter did not experience violence during different times of their history. Rather, the heavy-handed, more open forms of repression, overt violence, and coercion exhibited in Chicago were less visible in New

York.28 The existence and reported practices of the Chicago police department’s infamous “Red

Squad,” the killing of Fred Hampton, the trial of the “Chicago Seven” and images of bound and gagged Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, serve as examples of the city’s blatant and unapologetic tactics in its treatment of dissidents. 29

Both New York and Chicago had a tradition of leftist organizing reaching back to the early 20th century. However, the persecution and jailing of leftists during the McCarthy era diminished the membership and visibility of many progressive political organizations. The 1960s represented an era of resurgence of political activity and popular movements. By the end of that decade, NYC became a major site for escalating protests against the war in Vietnam. Resistance

27 Some of the members who frequently spoke to the press during the major offensives were Pablo Guzman, Denise Oliver, and Juan Gonzalez, all college students. Additionally, Felipe Luciano, a poet and performer was also a frequent spokesperson.

28 Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate, “The Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization: A Staff Study” (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1976); The Richie Pérez Papers, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY (At the time of my review, the Pérez collection was still being processed.) This does not mean that the Young Lords in New York were not under surveillance. Numerous files illustrate that they were indeed followed, categorized as subversives, and several members were jailed under various charges. The files and reports include a Congressional report from the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. Records of surveillance under the COINTELPRO program also illustrate surveillance as do the FBI records of Puerto Rican Pro Independence groups. There few members, such as Richie Pérez have included copies of individual FBI files in archived collections. 29 Brian Rubinsky, “Working Class Internationalism: The American Communist Party and Anti-Vietnam War Activism 1961-1971.” (Master’s thesis, Rutgers University-Graduate School-Newark, 2014); Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines, eds., “Takin’ it to the Streets”: A Sixties Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995); Judith Clavir Albert and Stewart Edward Albert eds., “The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade,” (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishers, 1984). There are significant restrictions regarding the disclosure and publication of material contained in the Chicago Police Department, Red Squad Collection, at the Chicago History Museum. These court-ordered restrictions go beyond the usual prohibitions against disclosing the names of police officers or informants, as these were already redacted prior to museum acquisition of the files. As noted in chapter three of this dissertation, YLO members such as Jose Cha-Cha Jimenez and Angie Adorno describe Red Squad tactics in oral interviews. Additionally, newspapers of the era referenced the Red Squad in their reports.

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to the war emerged on multiple fronts; opposition grew in high schools, colleges, neighborhoods and military barracks. The case of the Fort Hood Three in 1966 became one of the first signs of dissent within the military.30 Dennis Mora, James Johnson, and David Samas, three soldiers who refused orders to go to Vietnam upon completion of basic training, became the early faces of resistance. Flyers bearing the names and pictures of the three soldiers – one black, one white, and one Puerto Rican – provided a tangible image of the multi-racial opposition to the war.31 “We have decided to take a stand against this war, which we consider immoral, illegal, and unjust…

[W]e represent in our backgrounds a cross-section of the army and of America.”32 The Fort Hood

Three were also leftists, their cause championed by the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, a youth affiliate of the CPUSA.33 Mora publically acknowledged his membership in the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, while the statements of Johnson and Samas, published after their arrests, noted that they were not affiliated with any organizations other than the military, at the time. However, the language used in their public statements and the rationale for their opposition to the war, suggest a leftist ideology. The three maintained a united front in their public appearances and a consistency in

30 In spite of their importance in the history of military opposition to the War in Vietnam, there has been limited attention paid to the case of the Fort Hood Three. One of the works that pays focused attention to the case is master’s thesis by Brian Rubinsky. In this study, Rubinsky examines the anti-war movement and C.P.U.S.A., and W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, of which Dennis Mora was a member. Bloom, Breines, Judith and Stewart Albert’s work also include references or documents relating to the case.

31 Participant observation in rallies, fora, and anti-war demonstrations.

32 Fort Hood Three Defense Committee, “The Case of the Three G.I.’s Who Said ‘No” to The Vietnam War” (brochure, The Fort Hood Three Defense Committee, July 1966). Memorial University of Newfoundland, Digital Archives: http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/radical/TheFortHoodThree.pdf. Also located in the following archive that contains documents and photographs relating to military opposition to the war. It was established to house primary sources used in the making of the film “Sir No Sir.” http://www.sirnosir.com/archives_and_resources/galleries/gi_papers.html

33 Fort Hood Three Defense Committee, “The Case of the Three G.I.’s.” http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/radical/TheFortHoodThree.pdf.

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their voiced opposition to U.S. involvement in the war. “Ballad of the Fort Hood Three,” composed in their honor by Pete Seeger, encapsulates similar sentiments.

We three have talked it over, Our decision now is clear, We will not go to Vietnam, We’ll fight for freedom here.34

Visually, and in terms of their backgrounds and neighborhoods, Mora, Johnson and

Samas represented a cross-section of working class families in the United States. Mora and

Johnson were both raised in East Harlem by parents from the Caribbean: Mora’s from Puerto

Rico and Johnson’s from the Virgin Islands. Samas, from Chicago, the son of Lithuanian-Italian parents, completed the trio. They were described as “men of conscience” by their supporters. “I will never regret what I have done. It is the best thing I have done in my life,” stated Johnson in a rally at Columbia University. A writer for the college newspaper described the event where

Johnson made this statement and Seeger sang his “Ballad of the Fort Hood Three” as follows:

With this declaration the ordinary anti-war gathering took on new significance. It became part of a crisis in the lives of three intelligent young men of conscience. Such a positive and simple affirmation of belief in oneself and one’s world offered the listener a wonderfully refreshing and uplifting sensation; one not often experienced at protest meetings.35

A brochure published by the Fort Hood Three Defense Committee in July 1966 contained a portrait and a statement of the three dissenting soldiers, which was collectively written but delivered by Mora. Mora, who grew up in East Harlem, attended Brown, then CUNY. Mora says: “I was active in the peace movement before I was drafted. The army knew this and took me

34 Lyrics see: http://www.peteseeger.net/balladforthood.htm. Reference to one of Seeger’s performances of the Ballad see: Oren Root, “Moving Tribute to the Fort Hood Three”, Columbia Daily Spectator CXI, no. 13, (October 14 1966), http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19661014-01.2.16&e=------en- 20--1--txt-txIN-Albert+zonana-----. Reference to one of Seeger’s performances of the Ballad. For lyrics see: http://www.peteseeger.net/balladforthood.html.

35 Root, “Tribute to the Fort Hood Three.”

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anyway…. Contrary to what the Pentagon believes, cannon fodder can talk.” A New York Post article of July 9, 1966, labeled them “the Anti-Viet GIs: Rebels With a Dream.”36 The above- mentioned brochure illustrates the broad movement support received by the Fort Hood Three.

This included scholars and university professors such as Dr. Herbert Aptheker, Noam Chomsky,

Eugene Genovese, Donald Kalish, and Staughton Lynd. The list of civil rights, ecumenical, and pacifist activists included Stokely Carmichael, Roy Innis, Floyd McKissick, Tom Hayden, and

Dave Dellinger and Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement. Additionally, the civil rights organizations CORE and SNCC made statements of support. The War in Vietnam established a community of protest that extended across racial lines in such examples as the Fort

Hood Three and a few years later, the Chicano Moratorium.

During the course of the War, as opposition within the military grew, approximately 245

GI underground newspapers were born. Some were handwritten, others typed and illustrated with caricatures and drawings, but all were embedded with messages to refuse deployment or protest the war in various ways. Within months of the Fort Hood Three, an African American soldier refused to go to Vietnam; using Mora, Johnson and Samas as examples, he stated, “I follow the

Fort Hood Three. Who will follow me?”37

Opposition to the war and dissatisfaction with the structures of academia further fueled student protests in universities and colleges, and the large City College system (CUNY) became a battleground calling for open enrollment. Conditions in aging neighborhoods and urban renewal projects exacerbated this protest and dissent among urban residents. On a national level,

36 Bernard Bard, “Anti-Viet GIs: Rebels With A Dream,” New York Post, July 9, 1966. News clipping and brochure located in Memorial University of Newfoundland, Digital Archives: http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/radical/TheFortHoodThree.pdf.

37 Personal recollection.

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the Civil Rights Movement and Free Speech Movement (FSM) during the early sixties set the stage for the increased participation of students in social causes. 38 This burgeoning nationwide student movement began to develop first among college students, and shortly thereafter reached the high schools. Causes such as the struggle of farm workers to form a union along with opposition to the poverty draft for the war in Vietnam motivated high school students to engage in various movements. At the secondary school level, students also began to organize around and demand an education that was culturally relevant and equitable to that of predominantly white communities. These demands were clearly articulated in the East Los Angeles Blowouts of

March 1968, when 15,000 students walked out of their classes in seven area high schools. 39

Coordinated and led by students, the East L.A. walkouts further stimulated the growth of the

Chicano Movement. High school students on the east coast organized around similar issues. To a degree, student members of Aspira had been organizing since the early sixties. While less confrontational than the Black, Puerto Rican and Third World Clubs that followed, Aspirantes attempted to teach themselves the history that subsequent, radicalized student groups demanded be included in school curriculums and university course offerings. They shared in common certain goals such as a relevant, culturally sensitive education that included Puerto Rican history.

The voices of the student movement became louder, non-apologetic, focused, and more militant.

There was an immediacy to their demands, and the development of an ideology in which structural as well as individual change was deemed necessary.

38 Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2009), 38. Tom Hayden notes that students participating in the voter registration drives in the South were radicalized by this experience, among them Mario Savio.

39 In addition to Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools, students also walked out of Belmont, Jefferson, Venice, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson High Schools.

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During the late 1960s, New York also witnessed the formation of Black Studies and

Ethnic Studies programs, as well as many identity-based, politically oriented student groups in high schools and on college campuses. Following the lead of San Francisco, the site of the first

Black Student Union (BSU) in 1968, Black, Chicano, Puerto Rican and Third World clubs emerged on campuses in major cities throughout the country. 40 The Albizu Campos Society on the Stoneybrook campus of the State University of New York (SUNY) emerged as one of these groups that was both identity-based and politically focused.

The Young Lords of New York, A Beginning

Unlike Chicago, the origins of the Young Lords of New York cannot be linked to a single neighborhood. Most credit its formation to the Sociedad de Albizu Campos (SAC), a politically active group of college students, several of them from the Old Westbury campus of SUNY.

Members of this group would later have leadership positions in the Young Lords, including

Miguel “Mickey” Melendez, David Perez, Pablo Guzman, then known as “Yoruba,” Denise

Oliver, and Juan Gonzalez. Seeking to strengthen ties with the Puerto Rican community, the group often met in El Barrio. At the same time there were two other groups of young Puerto

Ricans with similar goals, one meeting in East Harlem, and the other in the Lower East Side.

Among this latter group, Jose Martinez, an SDS member from Florida, met Cha Cha Jimenez while at an SDS convention in Chicago in May, 1969. While there, Martinez conveyed his desire to start a Young Lords chapter in the New York area. This was followed by a merger with the group from El Barrio, led at the time by a young man known as “Pickle.” Weeks later, this blended group merged again, this time uniting with the students of SAC and collectively calling

40 Personal recollection. In the New York area, BSUs existed at Columbia University, New York University and CUNY. New York University had a Puerto Rican Student Union by Fall 1969. 161

themselves Young Lords. Regarding the roots of the New York chapter, its leaders would later refer to this union as one that brought together “the street people with the students of working class background.”41

On July 26th 1969 the Young Lords of Chicago officially recognized the New York branch of the Young Lords Organization, whose members announced the birth of the chapter at a rally held at Tompkins Square Park, commemorating the Cuban Revolution. Miguel “Mickey”

Melendez remembers the event: “Felipe [Luciano] took the microphone and announced that the

Young Lords were in New York ‘to serve and protect the best interests of the Puerto Rican community.’ Without an office, platform, or program, we went back to El Barrio to start the revolution.”42 Some of the founding members of the New York branch were already politically active as illustrated by their membership in SDS, SAC, and the Real Great Society (RGS); others were just entering the arena. Their paths were different: it was a group made up of neighborhood youths, gang members, and campus activists that came together from East Harlem, the Lower

East Side, Brooklyn, and the outskirts of New York.

Like their Chicago counterparts, members of the nascent chapter were influenced by the political activism of the era, in which multiple movements developed, often with parallel or intersecting goals and ideology. This set the stage for the emergence of politically active Black and Brown youth in the city. The birth of the Black Panther Party in 1966, and their grassroots organizing, innovative programs and coalition building efforts in places like Chicago, became models for many emergent organizations during the sixties. As discussed in the previous chapter,

41 Young Lords Party and Michael Abramson, Palante: Voices and Photographs of the Young Lords, 1969-1971 (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011), no page number.

42 Miguel Melendez, We Took to The Streets: Fighting for Latino Rights with the Young Lords (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 87.

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some of the methods for organizing developed by SNCC made their way into the BPP and consequently, other organizations. The BPP newspaper, titled The Black Panther, became an alternative news source, a vehicle for disseminating news within the New Left, and was readily available in communities of color, as well as many college campuses, alternative book stores and newsstands. In cities where they had an office, BPP members sold The Black Panther on street corners, in parks, at rallies – anywhere people gathered. Several Young Lords members expressed a desire to join the BPP or something like it. Years later, Richie Perez would recall that sentiment. “Man I wish there was a Puerto Rican Panthers,” he stated. 43 Several members of

Sociedad Albizu Campos independently articulated a similar desire before they joined the YLO.

When a story about the Rainbow Coalition and the work of the Young Lords appeared in the

BPP newspaper, it piqued the interest of the members of SAC. 44 The politics, rhetoric, and militant attitude of the Chicago Lords, independently attracted the groups in New York that

Martinez, Pickle, Guzman and Melendez were a part of. Pablo “Yoruba” Guzman would later recall their excitement when SAC members first heard of the Young Lords in 1969.

[In] the June 7 issue of the Black Panther newspaper there was an article about the Young Lords Organization in Chicago with Cha Cha Jimenez as their chairman. Cha Cha was talking about revolution and socialism and the liberation of Puerto Rico and the right to self-determination and all this stuff that I ain’t never heard a spic say. I mean, I hadn’t never heard a Puerto Rican talk like this – just Black people were talking this way, you know. And I said ‘Damn! Check this out.’ That’s what really got us started. That’s all it was, man.45

As illustrated by this quote, the founding unit of the Young Lords Organization in Chicago helped plant the seeds of activism that would flourish with the Young Lords Party (YLP) in New

43 Morales, “¡ Palante, Siempre Palante!,” 145.

44 As discussed in the previous chapter, original Rainbow Coalition was brought together and developed in the late 1960s by Fred Hampton and Bobby Lee of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. The term was later appropriated by Jesse Jackson during the 1980s. As cited in Chapter 3, a number of scholars have produced work on the history and accomplishments of the original Rainbow Coalition.

45 Pablo Guzman, as quoted in Young Lords Party and Abramson, Palante, 69. 163

York. The protests, community programs, and alliances of the Chicago YLO and the BPP would serve as models for the students and community activists who established the New York chapter of the YLO. The latter would also create their own innovative modes of protest, in the process mobilizing many and developing a cadre of individuals who with youthful enthusiasm demanded social justice.

In the spirit of the words of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the YLO of New York chose July

26th as the day when they would announce their presence as a militant organization in the city.

As is well known, the exact date of the beginning of the revolutionary struggle — which would culminate in January 1959 — was July 26, 1953. A group led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada barracks in Oriente Province on the morning of that day… the people, the still sleeping mass that had to be mobilized, and its vanguard, the guerrillas, the motor force of the mobilization, the generator of revolutionary consciousness and militant enthusiasm. This vanguard was the catalyzing agent that created the subjective conditions necessary for victory. 46

The first appearance of the Young Lords in New York signaled the dramatic mode of protest that the group would establish, when Felipe Luciano took center stage, recited poetry with ease, and spoke of revolution. He was one of several individuals in New York who took the name “The

Last Poets,” a group closely identified with Black Nationalist and Afro-centric poetry.47 He would enter the leadership of the YLO in New York as its first Deputy Chairman.48

46 Ernesto Che Guevara, Socialism and Man in Cuba (New York: Pathfinder, 1989).

47 Urayoán Noel, In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2014); Peter H. Wood, Jack D. Forbes, Virginia Meacham Gould, and Susan D. Greenbaum, The Afro- Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States, eds. Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), passim. The group closely identified with African American culture and is often credited as foundational to the development of hip-hop and rap. Luciano’s poetry is also included as part of the Nuyorican poets of the 1970s. Luciano left the performance group to work with Young Lords. He and two other members of the Last Poets recorded an album Right On, under the name of The Original Last Poets.

48 The position of chairman would later be eliminated.

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“We knew our people deserved better”

One day after the founding of the Young Lords chapter in New York, the group made local headlines with bold actions that drew attention to a community problem: the substandard service given to poor and marginalized communities by New York’s Sanitation Department. 49

The Young Lords introduced themselves to the community of East Harlem by sweeping the streets of the neighborhood on Sundays. 50 When members of the community joined them in this effort, the Young Lords asked the Sanitation Department to supply them with additional brooms.

After two different offices of the Sanitation Department refused to give them additional brooms, the organization mounted its first “offensive”; several of the protests of the Young Lords that targeted specific issues were known as offensives. On July 27, 1969 the Young Lords blocked streets in East Harlem with the garbage they had collected, leaving it in the middle of the street requiring that the Sanitation Department “was forced to clean it up so that traffic would get by.”51 The widely publicized “garbage offensive” shamed the Sanitation Department in a public airing of dirty laundry, which led to improved city services for the community. During this stage of the YLO, one of the trademarks of the offensives was to dramatize a community problem, create exposure through the use of media, and force a response from official sources, in this case, the Department of Sanitation.52 As illustrated by the changes generated by the garbage offensive, the radical approach served to highlight and often alleviate specific community problems. In addition, the Young Lords’ ability to recognize and respond to pressing community problems

49 Young Lords Central Committee, introduction to Palante by Young Lords Party and Abramson. The introduction states that on July 26, 1969, the Young Lords of Chicago formally recognized the New York group as the New York State Chapter of the Young Lords Organization.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 The next chapter furthers the conversation on organizing tactics and provides a lengthier discussion of the garbage offensive. 165

generated support for the group, attracting new members as well as thousands of local supporters.

As the New York chapter grew, other offensives followed, and importantly, each protest garnered greater participation from women. The Young Lords in subsequent months continued to capture the attention of the media, the police, local officials, and the community with actions that included the takeover of the First Spanish Methodist Church, later known as “the People’s

Church,” the takeover of a “TB x-ray truck,” and perhaps the boldest and most effective action, the takeover of Lincoln Hospital. In planning each of these actions, the Young Lords sought to call attention to specific problems that affected Puerto Rican communities in New York.

Alfredo Lopez in The Puerto Rican Papers: Notes on the Re-Emergence of a Nation, opens with a narration of the takeover of the First Spanish Methodist Church, the “People’s

Church,” by members of the Young Lords Organization in New York. Lopez describes this

1970’s episode as emblematic of the “growth of Puerto Rican nationalism in the United States,” thereby situating the Young Lords at the center of Puerto Rican activism in the diaspora. The events leading to the takeover of the People’s Church have been well chronicled, both by the newspapers of the day and in studies of Puerto Rican movements in the U.S. At first, the YLO’s interaction with the pastor and parishioners of the Spanish Methodist Church was not meant to be confrontational. Rather, the YLO sought to use the Church’s large, multi-level facility during the week as a space from which they could operate various community programs. Modeled after the BPP’s survival programs, the YLO requested use of the church to operate a breakfast program, distribute free clothing, and offer health services. Additionally, in a letter sent to the church, the YLO requested space for a “Liberation School where children and adults can be taught black and Puerto Rican history, and subjects such as English, Math, Spanish, and Political

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Science.”53 The national office of the YLO was operating similar programs out of the Armitage

Methodist Church in Chicago. However, the latter church had a small congregation and a supportive pastor, committed to social programs. In contrast, the church in East Harlem was led by Pastor Humberto Carrazana, a Cuban, who was exiled shortly after the Cuban Revolution. In a report published by the research division of the United Methodist church, its author Robert

Wilson noted the differing circumstances between the Methodist churches occupied by Young

Lords.54 “The Armitage Church building is for practical purpose, in control of the Young Lords.

However, this is with the consent of the present members of the congregation.”55 The Spanish

Methodist Church by contrast denied their request for space. The Young Lords started attending the services on Sunday. Wilson described the YLO presence and tactics as follows.

Sometimes the militants came into the church during worship services and sat together as a body; other times they mingled with the congregation. It was the practice of the congregation to have coffee hour after the service. The Young Lords attended and talked to the members of the church, to persuade them to agree to the use of the facilities… One Sunday the Young Lords came to the church service carrying posters showing a picture of Christ with a rifle slung over his right shoulder. They sat together and displayed the posters. At some services the Young Lords stood up when the congregation was seated and sat down when the congregation stood. 56

Several Sundays later, on December 7, 1969 following the lead of several parishioners, Luciano and several Young Lords approached the altar area to address the congregation. As choir members blocked their approach, New York police, already on the premises, began to arrest

YLO members. As the organist played the Hymn “Firmes y Adelante” to the tune of “Onward

53 Felipe Luciano, letter on behalf of the Lords Organization, New York Chapter, October 22, 1969, quoted in Robert Leroy Wilson, “The First Spanish United Methodist Church and the Young Lords,” (Department of Research and Survey, National Division of the Board of Missions, United Methodist Church, 1970), 10.

54 Wilson, “United Methodist Church and Young Lords,” title page. The title page lists the author Robert L. Wilson as “Research Professor of Church and Society, The Divinity School, Duke University.”

55 Ibid., 50.

56 Ibid., 11-12. 167

Christian Soldiers, the Young Lords were handcuffed, and several were beaten, resulting in various and injuries.57 Newspapers and television reporters captured the event and interviewed

YLO members. In his report to the leaders and members of the Methodist Church, Wilson chastised the press for their favorable portrayal, and the church hierarchy for its leniency and perceived support of the YLO. “The Young Lords were in the main portrayed as idealists being thwarted by a callous congregation. T.V. cameras were present at several services during

December. Members of the Young Lords were interviewed. The events were carried in New

York papers and by the wire services.”58 The church hierarchy paid the bail of YLO members in custody. The following Sunday, over 500 supporters of the Young Lords attended the services of the First Spanish Methodist Church. The numbers increased each Sunday. By December 28th, the Young Lords and their supporters nailed the doors of the church shut, and reiterated their demands. They renamed it “the People’s Church,” and offered the free breakfast, clothing education and health care programs. The occupation lasted eleven days in the presence of film and local and national television crews.59

This encounter between these young radicals and a Methodist Church in East Harlem thrust the Young Lords into a media spotlight that expanded their visibility. As a result, ever- larger numbers of young men and women joined the ranks of the organization by then established in East Harlem. Although previous activities such as the garbage offensive inserted the name of the Young Lords into the public’s vernacular, it was the 1970 takeover of the

“People’s Church,” that stimulated an increase in the membership of the New York chapter.

57 Ibid., 8.

58 Ibid.,12.

59 Participant observation; Wilson, “United Methodist Church and Young Lords”; Melendez, We Took to the Streets, 112-29. 168

Becoming the Young Lords Party

After its establishment in East Harlem in July 1969, the New York chapter expanded quickly and established additional chapters along the East Coast. With the opening of the New

Jersey chapter in October of 1969, New York became the headquarters of the East Coast Region.

Its leadership transitioned from “Central Staff” to “Regional Central Committee” with regional ministers. Also in October of 1969, they produced their first news organ, in the form of a newsletter, and named it Palante. By May, 1970 it became a newspaper with an editorial staff responsible for its production. Both leadership and cadre members wrote articles for the newspaper and sold it on street corners, subway entrances, high school and college campuses, and at social and political events. The East Coast Region of the YLO continued to expand and by April, 1970 another office opened in New York, this time in the Bronx. Within this period the national leadership in Chicago opened an office in Haywood California, thereby establishing a West Coast Regional center. At this point the YLO had representation on both coasts and in the

Midwest. With the founding of the chapter in the Bronx, there were at least three chapters under the regional leadership of New York.60 Hence, the YLO’s East Coast Region had established more branches and represented a larger membership than Chicago. Citing a number of differences with the National YLO, the East Coast Regional leadership expressed concerns about the direction of the organization.

“It was felt that the vague relationship with Chicago would have to be cleared up. We went deeply into what we felt were the responsibilities that Chicago was not fulfilling…We went out to Chicago. After a series of meetings, we felt that we had to split from the YLO and move ahead with the work that was urgently needed. We had now become the Young Lords Party.”61

60 Most sources indicate that the branch in Bridgeport Connecticut opened sometime in 1970. My personal recollection places the opening shortly after the opening of the Bronx branch. However, since the Bronx, Bridgeport, Philadelphia, and Lower Eastside, New York branches were all opened in 1970, the exact order of their opening remains unclear. 61 Written by the Central Committee of the YLP. See, Abramson, Palante, introduction. 169

The decision to split from the national YLO headquartered in the Chicago and form a separate group that operated as the Young Lords Party, was presented as an amicable separation; two chapters once united that agreed to travel separately but along parallel paths. The split, was publically described as the result of differences in the way each operated and divergent ideas about how to move forward. While the split may have been argued contentiously among the leadership of the two leading branches, Chicago and New York, the manner in which this development was presented to the cadre, the bulk of the organization, was one of respectful disagreement.62

As the Young Lords Party, the influence of the expansion of organization continued. By the end of 1970, the Young Lords had established two new branches in New York: one in the

Bronx, the other in the Lower Eastside as well as branches in Bridgetown, Connecticut, and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An outgrowth of a group calling themselves Young Revolutionaries for Independence, the Young Lords opened an office in Philadelphia in August, 1970. Carmen

Teresa Whalen notes the commonalities and differences between this branch and their New York counterparts. The founders of the Philadelphia branch pointed to the roots of their political development to an “emerging sense of Puerto Rican identity and the poverty and racial discrimination that affected themselves, their families, and the entire Puerto Rican community.”63 Family, church, and community also heightened their perception of social justice and commitment to service. “[Their] sense of injustice was combined with a sense of responsibility that was fostered by their families, the community, and the Casa del Carmen, a

Catholic social service agency,” states Whalen. Young Lords Juan Ramos and Wilfredo Rojas

62 Participant observation.

63 Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” 1 08.

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concurs with this assertion. “We were part of that system over at Casa del Carmen, we participated in sports, we cleaned up, so we were into giving a little something back.”64 Rojas explains the connection he and other early members felt with the work of the YLP: “‘being involved in the Young Lords was an extension of us wanting to do things’ for the community.”65

Another Philadelphia activist, Rafaela Colón, experienced a similar awareness of need to change an unjust and unequal system. Although not formally a member, Colón became an “active supporter” of the Young Lords as did others in the community, including several nuns and priests.66 Additionally, “for Colón, unequal gender relations were another dimension of what was

‘wrong with the picture’ and another dimension that sparked and informed her political activism.”

A Feminist Vision

From its inception, the New York chapter of the Young Lords recruited both men and women to the organization. Initially, men outnumbered women. “When the Party got started, there were few sisters,” affirmed Denise Oliver.67 Sonia Ivany became the first woman to join the New York chapter.68 Denise Oliver and Iris Morales, vocal members who subsequently held leadership positions in the Young Lords, were also among the early members. Oliver recalled the beginnings of the organization as a time when the Young Lords women were held back in terms

64 Juan Ramos, as quoted by Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” 110.

65 Wilfredo Rojas, as quoted by Carmen Teresa Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” 110.

66 Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” 112.

67 Denise Oliver, as quoted in Young Lords Party and Abramson, Palante, 50.

68 Iris Morales, Palante, Siempre Palante: The Young Lords (1995; New York: Public Broadcasting Service), videocassette.

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of leadership and political development. “We didn’t have a chance to contribute politically, we weren’t growing or developing, we were not in leadership positions at all. We were relegated to doing office work, typing, taking care of whatever kids were around, being sex objects.”69

As membership grew, there were a number of women, in addition to Oliver and Morales, who not only demanded the inclusion of women in leadership positions, but also agitated for change, both on a personal and an organizational level. Collectively, the women mounted an internal campaign for gender equity. Their arguments were multilayered. They argued that equality was a requisite. “Most of the people we’re organizing are women with children, through the free breakfast program and through the free clothing drive and through the health care programs.”70 Not only was it the “revolutionary” thing to do, it was a necessity for effective organizing.

Amid the discussions of sexism, women pushed for changes in the organization and situated women’s equality within the framework of larger goals. The initial inroads can be classified as inclusionary: women assumed leadership positions, and were represented in all ministries including the defense ministry. 71 The struggle for gender equity was ongoing. As membership grew, both men and women worked on the daily tasks of selling newspapers, participated in community outreach, and took part in protests, marches, and offensives. Members of both sexes operated the front desk and performed tasks such as greeting visitors and potential members, assigning work, and answering phones. In addition, men and women shared the duties of serving food in breakfast programs and cooking meals. On the surface, there appeared to be an

69 Oliver, as quoted in Young Lords Party and Abramson, Palante, 51.

70 Ibid., 53 . 71 Judy Klemesrud, “Young Women Find a Place in High Command of Young Lords,” New York Times, Nov. 11, 1970, 52. 172

erasure of gender specific work. Ongoing discussions within the Young Lords accompanied these visible changes. The creation of a women’s caucus, followed by the development of a men’s caucus, each with the express purpose of discussing sexism, signaled deeper transformations.

The women’s caucus originated as separate political education classes for women in which discussions of gender took center stage. These women’s meetings were held in addition to regular education classes. The women’s caucus gave the women a safe space within which to discuss the ways that sexism affected their personal development, their relationships, and their work as organizers. It allowed them to strategize and effect change within the organization. The woman’s caucus also gave rise to the gay caucus, further broadening the YLP’s interpretation of

“oppressed peoples.” These two caucuses were deeply connected, as all the original members of the gay caucus, self-described as “lesbian sisters.” The men in the organization also began to have separate meetings, as a means to analyze the ways that male chauvinism impacted them as individuals and as activists and in society at large. The establishment of both men’s and women’s caucuses was a strong statement affirming the women’s commitment to change; it also made clear the group’s intent to work towards gender equity. Ultimately, both caucuses united. “After several months of having separate caucuses, we’re now having brothers and sisters meet together at each branch to discuss sexism, because we were tending towards a separation that we didn’t want.”72 Thus, the collective voice took precedence.

The Young Lords used the language of “women’s oppression,” instead of “women’s liberation.” By doing so, they tied discrimination against women to other forms of oppression. In the “Position Paper on Women,” issued by the central committee in May 1971, the YLP

72 Oliver, as quoted in Young Lords Party and Abramson, Palante, 52.

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delineated their belief in the triple oppression of women. Clearly stating the need for unity among the sexes, they cast a wider net and enveloped Puerto Rican and Afro-American men in the systems of exploitation based on race, thereby establishing an image of a joint struggle. 73 In their struggle for gender equality, as the YLP grew, members continued to formulate policies and practices that reflected a feminist perspective. Internally, the women challenged language and behavior deemed male chauvinist or homophobic. They opposed the sexual objectification of female members as well as that of women within the larger society, as evidenced by newspaper articles and essays written by women leaders and rank and file members.

One of the most visible examples of the impact of women’s struggle is reflected in the changes made to the YLO/YLP manifesto: The Thirteen Point Program. Initially, point number ten in the program stated: “We want equality for women. Machismo must be revolutionary...not

Oppressive.” Following the political education campaign against sexism, this point was changed to read: “We want equality for women, down with machismo and male chauvinism.”74 The new statement reflected a deeper understanding of feminism. Even more striking, it was moved from the tenth to the fifth stated principle, following “we are revolutionary nationalists and oppose racism.”75

The feminist ideals of the Young Lords in New York went far beyond statements and publications. The various ministries were integrated with both men and women, immediately impacting the Ministry of Defense, and the Central Committee, the highest level of leadership within the organization, both previously all-male enclaves within the organization. These

73 Young Lords Party, “Position Paper on Women,” Author’s collection.

74 13 Point Program of the Young Lords Organization (original), Author’s collection.

75 13 Point Program of the Young Lords Party (revision). Author’s collection.

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changes signaled the YLP commitment to work towards gender equity within the organization as well as in the broader community. This ideal was also reflected in the direct actions of the YLP.

Many of the “offensives” they launched dealt with issues that directly affected women, children and families. For instance the first publicized protest of the New York chapter focused on the daily living conditions of El Barrio. During the “garbage offensive,” Young Lords members swept the streets of East Harlem as a way to highlight the New York sanitation department’s neglect of the community. Uncollected garbage, the group surmised, was an abuse of children, families and the community as a whole. “We knew our people deserved better,” stated Juan

Gonzales, a founding member of the New York chapter and a member of the central committee of the organization.76

In a similar vein, the lead detection program aimed towards safeguarding the health of children and highlighted substandard housing in Black and Puerto Rican communities. This campaign received intense media attention and resulted in the mandated removal of lead paint from buildings across the city. News of the near death of an African American toddler as a result of severe lead poisoning inspired the YLP-led campaign. In this tragic case, the child, Gregory

Franklin sustained “permanent, severe brain damage. 77 Franklin, the Young Lords argued, was not an isolated case. Garnering support from the medical practitioners and workers of the East

Harlem hospital where Franklin was treated, the Young Lords rallied the surrounding community under the slogan “help save your children.”78

76 Morales, ¡Palante, Siempre Palante!

77 Johanna Fernandez, “Between Social Service Reform and Revolutionary Politics: The Young Lords, Late Sixties Radicalis m, and Community Organizing in New York City,” in Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980, eds. Jean Theo Harris and Kamozi Woodard (New York: Palgrave, 2003), 270.

78 Ibid, 271.

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The death of Carmen Rodriguez, a young Puerto Rican woman, during an abortion sparked the takeover of Lincoln Hospital. 79 From this point forward the YLP advocated for safe abortions as well as community control of health services. This decision was reflective of their ability to position women’s oppression within broader structures of oppression. The Young

Lords established a position regarding reproductive rights that was distinctive, growing out of

Puerto Rico’s histories of mass sterilization. 80 They advocated the right of women to have as many children as they wanted while also adopting a position in favor of women’s right to safe abortions.81 By focusing on the health issues affecting women and children, the Young Lords placed a spotlight on the violence of poverty and the gendering of that violence. Although they did not always call themselves feminists, their platforms and organizing efforts were necessarily gendered as such.

The life and death of Julio Roldan

The life of the organization was thus deeply marked by the near death of a child, the death of a young woman, and also the October 1970 death of Young Lord Julio Roldan in the

Manhattan Detention Center. Julio’s death, the first passing of a member of the Young Lords of

New York, caused a groundswell of grief and rage. While YLO members in Chicago had experienced the death of Manuel Ramos and Fred Hampton, Roldan’s passing was the first time that Young Lords in New York lost one of their own. That he died in a prison in the aptly named

79 Nelson, “‘Abortions Under Community Control’: Feminism, Nationalism and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City’s Young Lords,” Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 1 (2001): 157.

80 Nelson, “Abortions under Community Control”; Annette Ramirez de Arrellano and Conrad Scipp, Colonialism, Catholicism, Contraception: A History of Birth Control in Puerto Rico (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 51-55.

81 Oliver, as quoted in Young Lords Party and Abramson, Palante, 50-51.

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“Tombs,” Manhattan’s House of Detention for Men, magnified the anger and sense of loss felt by those of us who knew Roldan. He had been the cook in an apartment rented by the Young

Lords. It was an unofficial position that he held with pride; appreciative YLP members came for food between organizing, office duty, school, work, meetings, and events. Along with another

YLP member, Bobby Lemus, Roldan was arrested in front of the building where he lived, practiced his culinary skills, and fed a multitude of young activists. I saw him a few days prior to his arrest and subsequent death when he presented me with soup, his creation of the day. I remember his pride in being able to concoct a savory, inexpensive meal for many. Although older than a majority of Young Lords, at age thirty-four his commitment and passion for Puerto

Rican independence, and his appreciation of the camaraderie of like-minded activists, made him an esteemed and respected member of the organization. Julio’s death marked a critical period for the Young Lords, one that ushered in organizational changes that would define the YLP during the next period of their history. The first change was the public display of weapons during Julio’s funeral, which shifted the public persona of the Young Lords. This symbolic gesture also made more explicit the organization’s position on armed struggle, and presented a decidedly more defiant membership.

Julio Roldan was buried in Puerto Rico in a cemetery in Aguadilla, the place of his birth, a city with a long history of pro-independence organizing. Julio’s death and burial in Aguadilla received wide attention from the media. Newspapers in Puerto Rico carried photos of the graveside gathering, the large crowds accompanying his casket through the streets of Aguadilla.

They also published articles about “Julito” Roldan and about “Los Young Lords.” The YLP presence in Puerto Rico attracted more visible, and likely heightened scrutiny from the FBI and

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local law enforcement. The opening of several branches in Puerto Rico, one of them in

Aguadilla, followed shortly thereafter.

Island Bound

When the Young Lords made the decision to shift their organizing focus to Puerto Rico, they decided on three locations as the best sites for their island branches: Aguadilla, Ponce, and the community of Caño de Martin Peña in San Juan. The locations held historical significance and were symbolic as well as strategic choices. Aguadilla, the birthplace of Julio Roldan, had active pro-independence organizations. Ponce, a prominent site Nationalist struggles including the Ponce massacre, was also the birthplace of Albizu Campos. The third prospective location,

Martin Peña, was among the poorest communities of San Juan. This community relatively hidden from tourists, but well known among the Puerto Rican poor.

In the move to Puerto Rico, the Young Lords entered a political milieu that was immersed in protest. Well organized and long standing student groups such as FUPI, a pro- independence federation of college students existed on campuses throughout the island. Along with FEPI, the affiliated high school organization, FUPI engaged in protests and shutdowns, especially on the University of Puerto Rico campuses. Additionally land rights and squatters movements staged invasiones de terrenos (land invasions) in different locales. The fight to eject the U.S. military from their testing grounds on Vieques and Culebra, Puerto Rico’s smaller islands was escalating. These were the types of civil rights and social justice battles that the

Young Lords were familiar with. Yet, they were in unfamiliar territory, unacquainted with the leading political figures and organizations that constituted the pro-independence movement and the long standing parties of the Puerto Rican Left. The Young Lords opened two branches in

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Puerto Rico, one in Caño de Martin Peña in San Juan, the other in Aguadilla. Although they recruited members living on the island, the leadership of the organization was still one that was heavily representative of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the U.S. The Aguadilla branch closed within a year when all of its members resigned on the same day.

The move to Puerto Rico by the Young Lords illustrates a major challenge faced by the organization. YLP members entered a different reality when they attempted to move their base and focus from urban cities in the United States to the island. The limited Spanish language skills of some members, their attire, hairstyles and inner city experiences, led to perceptions of Young

Lords as “Americanized,” calling into question their status and sense of “belonging.” The Young

Lords’ difficulty in establishing strong alliances with the Left in Puerto Rico further hindered their ability to effectively organize and grow outside of the continental United States.

The combined effect of police actions, political repression and infiltration by agents proved to be the greatest challenge to the Young Lords, contributing significantly to their demise. The constant surveillance and jailing of Young Lord leaders in Chicago prompted the group to go underground for a period of time, inhibiting growth and halting community projects.

Local politics determined the extent of scrutiny and repression. Hence, interactions between

Young Lords and public officials, media, and local police in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New

York were markedly different under the respective leadership of Mayors Richard Daley, Frank

Rizzo, and John Lindsay. Chicago’s Red Squad frequently, followed and harassed members, while the FBI conducted surveillance of the Young Lords and other radical organizations under the COINTELPRO program. Upon their arrival in Puerto Rico, several YLP members describe being met by FBI agents and advised that they would be monitored at every turn. 82

82 Multiple documents support this. See: United States Congress, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, “The Puerto Rican Workers Organization, A Staff 179

Upon opening these island branches, the YLP shifted their organizational base and moved key leaders to Puerto Rico, creating confusion and dissent among many of their members.

As expressed by Richie Perez: “For myself personally, I understood it intellectually, but in my heart, I’m from the Bronx. In my brain, I understood the issue of Puerto Rican independence, and

I was willing to die for it. But I didn’t really want to go to Puerto Rico. I wanted to stay here; couldn’t I die for it here?” In the move to Puerto Rico, the Young Lords traded the well-known neighborhoods of their childhood and young adulthood for locations on the island that they were unfamiliar with. With smaller numbers of cadres left in the states, many of the programs they instituted, the demands they had turned into realities, began to fade.

Study.” Also see: FBI: http://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/puerto-rican-groups which contains numerous files relating to pro-independence groups in general as well as specific Young Lords files. Given the voluminous files on the pro- independence movement, diaspora-island coalitions seemed to invite added scrutiny. Also see: Churchill and Vander Wall. The COINTELPRO Papers, passim. 180

CHAPTER 5 The Young Lords Movement Dreams, Demands, Platform and Vision

When the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church became the headquarters of the nascent

Young Lords Organization in Chicago in 1968, it also grew into the base of operation for community programs initiated by the group. Through the painted images of revolutionary leaders from Latin American history, the YLO announced their presence in the community and signaled both the ideological leanings and the internationalist perspective of the Young Lords, one that was present from the early beginnings of the organization and throughout their most popular era.

This chapter examines the ideology, platform, demands, and visions of the Young Lords.

I position much of the analysis on the shoulders of both textual and visual sources, and posit that the images contained in this history speak as powerfully as the written evidence. The artwork, photographs, buttons, and posters that the Young Lords produced, illustrate their positions as much as the leaflets, articles, position papers, and the political platform they published. Much of the print media produced by the Young Lords is in itself laden with visual images; some of it original; others borrowed and adapted to support the group’s ideology and political platfo rm.

Independence: a central issue

From the inception of the YLO, Puerto Rican independence emerged as a fundamental position. It remained so throughout its history and that of the YLP. As illustrated by the Young

Lords platform, their newspapers, as well as banners carried at rallies and marches, independence for Puerto Rico, stood as a central part of the ideology, and placed them within the realm of nationalist, pro-independence groups. During mobilizations and community events “Puerto Rico

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Libre” and “Free Puerto Rico” were frequent rallying cries, as was the chant “Despierta Boricua, defiende lo tuyo.”444 Through the various offenses and protests, the Young Lords viewed community control of services and institutions as the local expression of seeking independence for the island. As discussed in Chapter three, through the words of Cha Cha Jimenez, the

Young Lords of Chicago viewed urban renewal and gentrification as internal colonialism, the work of outsiders “tak[ing] over the neighborhood.”445 They further linked this loss of community and neighborhood spaces to the loss of the island through colonialism.

The YLO and the YLP, also embraced struggles that extended beyond their immediate neighborhoods and the island. Seeing commonalities with other poor and marginalized communities in the U.S., the Young Lords movement was able to forge strong alliances across ethnic and racial lines, as illustrated by the Rainbow Coalition and the alliances with groups such as Rising Up Angry (RUA), White Lightening, American Indian Movement (AIM), I Wor Kuen, the Brown Berets, and CASA. Although the group developed in the U.S., the Young Lords also visualized and expressed a link to rebel movements throughout Latin America. They saw commonalities with leftist movements in the Caribbean and Latin America, in particular, they maintained a view of Cuba as the site of a successful modern day revolution. These stated commonalities were reflected in Young Lords literature, newspaper articles, and proclamations.

Though largely made up of Puerto Ricans, the Young Lords Movement also attracted African

Americans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Cubans, Panamanians, and Colombians. The platform, demands, and vision of the Young Lords embraced and reflected this diversity. The Young Lords focused on local issues throughout most of their organizational life, yet also maintained a

444This phrase translates as “Wake up Boricua, defend what is yours.” Boricua is an indigenous term for Puerto Ricans and one that is used contemporaneously to self-identify.

445 Angel G. Flores-Rodríguez, “Interview with José ‘Cha Cha’ Jiménez,” p.43. 182

broader internationalist perspective. This included the YLP branches in Puerto Rico. This outlook and direction became evident, not only in their literature, but also in various acts of solidarity. For example, during its infancy, the YLO in Chicago sent a number of members to the

Venceremos Brigade in Cuba.446 Additionally, Angie Adorno of Chicago represented the YLO at a Women’s conference held in Canada, expressing solidarity with Vietnamese women. 447

Articles in the Palante newspaper, published in New York contained multiple articles that signaled solidarity with international movements.

Throughout most of their organizational life, they focused on local issues, while also maintaining a broader internationalist perspective. Through their protests, programs, and literature, they presented a platform that embraced civil rights, equality for women, independence for Puerto Rico, and socialism. While the YLO and the YLP followed differing trajectories in their later years as active organizations, during their peak periods of successful campaigns and growing membership, the original YLO (which included the Chicago and New

York chapters) and the post-split YLO and YLP, blended U.S., urban-based organizing tactics with ideology inspired by Puerto Rican nationalist history, Black liberation and Latin American leftist struggles.448 The earliest evidence of this amalgamation can be found in visual and written evidence.

446 Jimenez indicated that there are Cuban newspaper accounts of the Young Lords’ visit. However, they may have been recorded in perhaps a smaller, regional periodical. Correspondence with Cha Cha Jimenez, September 20, 2008.

447 Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995.

448 As noted earlier, the designation YLO or “original YLO” refers to the Young Lords Organization prior to the split between the Chicago and New York chapters. After the split in April, 1970, the New York chapter adopted the name Young Lords Party (YLP) and subsequently opened other branches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, as well as in California, and Puerto Rico as YLP branches. The YLO, Chicago later added a branch in Milwaukee and Haywood, California. They self-identified as Young Lords, national. Hence, “post-split YLO,” Young Lords - national, or YLO national refers to the Chicago/Milwaukee/Haywood branches while YLP refers to the post-split branches mentioned above, which were organized by the Young Lords of New York. 183

YLO/YLP button/ 13 point program

During the life of the YLO and the YLP, perhaps the most widely circulated and recognizable symbol was the Young Lords button with its imprinted image and slogan.

Conceived in Chicago, the illustration and motto that came to represent the Young Lords featured an upraised arm holding a rifle superimposed on a bright green map of Puerto Rico. In bold letters arched above this image, stood the proclamation, “TENGO PUERTO RICO EN MI

CORAZON.” This iconographic representation, reproduced on buttons, posters, leaflets, and the

Palante newspaper, clearly placed Puerto Rico at the center of Young Lords ideology. Whether as a memory, an identifier, or a point of reference, members combined their ideal of an independent Puerto Rico with their belief in community control of schools, hospitals, and other neighborhood institutions.

The Thirteen Point Program and Platform clearly illustrates this coalescence. First developed in October of 1969 and inspired by the Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program, the

YLO Program and Platform articulated the guiding principles of the organization. While the various points link local, island and international movements, the document opens with a call for independence.

1. WE WANT SELF DETERMINATION FOR PUERTO RICANS- LIBERATION ON

THE ISLAND AND INSIDE THE UNITED STATES. For 500 years, first spain and

then the united states have colonized our country [SIC]. In every way we are slaves of

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the gringo. We want liberation and the Power in the hands of the People, not Puerto

Rican exploiters. QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE. 449

Subsequent points of the Program and Platform emphasize self-determination. The second point illustrates both an internationalist perspective and YLO attempts to bring together various sectors of Latino communities in the US. Additionally, it points to the demographics of Chicago’s

Latino population during the 1960s and the inclusion of Chicanos as leaders and members of the

Chicago chapter.

2. WE WANT LIBERATION FOR ALL LATINOS. The Chicano people built the

Southwest, and we support their right to control their fight against gringo domination

and its (puppet) generals. The armed liberation struggles in Latino America are part

of the war of Latinos against imperialism. QUE VIVA LA RAZA!”

In a revision of the program and platform in November 1970, the Young Lords continued to highlight the importance of the Chicano Movement, while also positioning the Dominican

Republic as a site of struggle for self -determination. Alluding to the US military intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, the Young Lords’ position also underscored continued U.S. influence in the country and US support of the presidency of Joaquin Balaguer, the former Vice

President under the infamous Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. “The people of Santo Domingo continue to fight against gringo domination and its puppet government.”450 This revision, published by the Young Lords of New York also spoke to changing demographics and reflected the presence of a growing Dominican population on the east coast. The ending statement in point number

449 Palante Newspaper & Abramson. The thirteen Point Program was reprinted in each issue of Palante. In their print media, Young Lords symbolically diminished colonial powers by not capitalizing their names. Therefore, Spain, U.S., United States, America, or American appear in lower case letters in all their literature. In addition, the “c” in America and American was substituted with “kkk,” Thereby highlighting the history of racis m in the U.S.

450 Young Lords Party, “Thirteen Point Program and Platform.” 185

two: “The armed liberation struggles in Latin America are part of the war of Latinos against imperialism,” mirrors the coalescence of local, U.S.-based issues and international struggles.

Other points of the Program and Platform also linked Puerto Rico with broader struggles. Calling for an end to the US war on Vietnam, in point number eight, the Young Lords also demanded “the immediate withdrawal of u.s. military bases from Puerto Rico, Vietnam, and all oppressed communities inside and outside the u.s. [SIC],” thus weaving domestic and global issues into their political positions. In demanding “freedom for all political prisoners,” the Young

Lords raise the issue of Puerto Rico’s colonial status. “No Puerto Rican should be in jail or prison, first, because we are a nation, and amerikkka [SIC] has no claim on us…” While the focus of this particular platform point is the liberation of political prisoners and “prisoners of war” in American jails, the Young Lords claim both colonial status and nationhood. Analysis of the Thirteen Point Program and Platform of the Young Lords, reveals a particular inclusiveness of the organization in terms of its political positions. While focused on Puerto Rico and Puerto

Ricans, the Young Lords claimed a place in local, national, and international struggles. Agitating for control of resources and institutions within a local, urban context, and calling for an end to racism and male chauvinism, Young Lords also cast a broader net, claiming nationhood, and demanding independence for Puerto Rico, and autonomous governments in Latin America.

Among the major strengths of the YLP was their ability to address racism broadly as well as within their community. Through their print media, the Young Lords created opportunities for discussions of race, and sought to stimulate ethnic and racial pride. This excerpt from a pamphlet produced by the YLP illustrates their affirmation of African descent.

We must study true African history of the civilization of Mali and Songhay, for this history is part of our history. The Young Lords Party is a Party of Afro-Americans and Puerto Ricans. Both have the same roots in the past, similar culture and the same types of ‘colonized mentality.” Because of the Black Power and Black Pride movement inside of

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the united states [sic], American Blacks are now able to hold their heads up high and be proud of their past. It is necessary that we understand and study Puerto Rican history, much of which is African history so that we can move on ridding ourselves of the barriers that exist between Afro-Boricua and jibaro.451

Posters and Photographs

The images, symbols, and slogans that Young Lords included in newspapers and leaflets, and pasted on the walls and windows of branch offices, also served as expressions of their ideological beliefs and political platform. Posters displayed in branch offices or reproduced in newspaper often said as much as their writings. Other times, these visual statements served to support or amplify the written evidence. For example, posters of Lolita Lebron and Blanca

Canales supported the Young Lord platform regarding the role of women within the organization, and ultimately, as revolutionaries. Lebron and Canales projected images of strong women, unafraid to use force in their quest for island independence. Their semblances appeared regularly in Young Lord print media; posters of them frequently visible in branch offices. Visits to the various chapters also revealed posters of urban figures such as Malcolm X, Bobby Seale,

Huey Newton, and Angela Davis, displayed prominently alongside island figures such as Pedro

Albizu Campos, Emeterio Betances, Lebron, Canales, and other Nationalist Party members and independence leaders. Cuban posters produced by OSPAAL and sketches by BPP artist Emory

Douglas were also posted on walls; Douglas’ sketches often included in the Young Lords newspaper.452

451 Pamphlet, “Colonized Mentality and Non-Conscious Ideology,” Ideology of the Young Lords Party, reprinted in The Young Lords: A Reader, Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., 22-23.

452 OSPAAAL, the Organization in Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia, and Latin Amer ica, or Organización de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina (OSPAAAL). As part of an artistic and literary movement in post- revolutionary Cuba, OSPAAAL produced and disseminated these posters beginning in 1966 were widely circulated by organizations on the Left, world-wide. In the US, Art Historian Lincoln Cushing has been the leading scholar in the study and preservation of this Cuban art form. Several leading universities in the US, 187

Photographs emerge as some of the most salient memories, chronicling campaigns, protests, and major events and everyday occurrences in the life of the organization. Many of the photographs record material conditions in which Puerto Ricans, ethnic Mexicans, Chicanos, and

African Americans lived in urban centers of the 1960s and 1970s. The photographs of YLO member Carlos Flores captured images of Chicago’s Lincoln Park and Humboldt Park, both organizational centers for the Young Lords. 453Additionally, Flores documented the activities and protests of the YLO in Chicago. Through his efforts, images such as the long-gone murals on the

Armitage Avenue Methodist Church have survived in photographic form. 454 “I consider

Armitage Avenue to be the main artery of the heart of the community,” states Flores. As such,

Flores conserved the image of Cabito Cruz, the piraguero, whose presence on the corner of

Armitage and Bissell became one of the signposts of Flores’ generation. 455 The young faces of members of local gangs such as the Paragons, Latin Kings, Armiboys, and Young Lords also emerge in his photographs. Flores captured images of YLO leaders Jose Cha Cha Jimenez and including UCI, maintain archival collections of these posters. The UC Irvine Special Collections and Archives collection describes the posters as follows: “The posters reflect political solidarity among various countries. Posters were designed by various artists, including Cuban artists Gladys Acosta, Alberto Blanco, Rafael Enríquez, Andrés Hernández, Olivio Martínez, René Mederos, Rafael Morante, and Ernesto Padrón. Most of the posters are in color, produced by either a silkscreen or offset printing process. The poster captions and titles are multilingual. OSPAAL is a non-governmental publisher of political literature and propaganda based in Havana, Cuba. OSPAAAL was founded in 1966 during a conference in Havana attended by delegations from 82 Asian, Latin American, and African countries. OSPAAAL advocates social justice and works toward solidarity with various countries, particularly third world countries. It strongly opposes capitalism, "neoliberal globalization," and "preventative war." OSPAAAL published its multilingual Tricontinental magazine from 1966 to 1990, which included color posters in most issues.” OSPAAAL Poster Collection, MS-M023. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

453 The Carlos Flores Collection also contains a number of photographs taken by unknown artists. Flores gathered these throughout the years and included them in his collection, hence safeguarding this visual history. Similarly, Michael G. James of Rising Up Angry (RUA) gathered the photographs of artists chronicling RUA and Chicago’s original Rainbow Coalition.

454 Carlos Flores Collection, Special Collections, DePaul University Library.

455 A piraguero is a snow cone vender. They manually shaved ice from a large block and sold the flavored ice from a mobile cart. Most Puerto Rican neighborhoods had a local piraguero. This image appeared in Dialogo Magazine, Center for Latino Research, DePaul University, Spring 1996.

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Omar Lopez addressing crowds, as well as YLO members and supporters in protest marches, community meetings, and neighborhood gathering places. 456 Beyond the imagery, the photographs contain social and radical histories of predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhoods in

Chicago. The photos of members of various Puerto Rican youth gangs in 1960s Chicago suggest the social and recreational aspect of their formation, as well as neighborhood links that inevitably bound them together. Early group leaders like Cha Cha Jimenez state that the formation of the

Young Lords during its gang years was prompted by the need for neighborhood youths to protect themselves from “European gangs” in their vicinity. While there were indeed violent encounters between these gangs and the established white gangs and the newer Puerto Rican gangs, the neighborhood locales that the Young Lords and other Puerto Rican youth gangs of the era inhabited, were also social, recreational, and cultural spaces. Flores’ photographs suggest neighborhood gatherings of young men coming together for social events and parties. Jimenez’ recollections and Flores’ photographs also signal strong fraternal ties and neighborhood loyalties.

Following the political transformation of the Chicago Lords, the subsequent photos capture, not only neighborhood conditions and local events, but also point to the YLO’s platform and ideology. The YLO’s pro-independence stance, prominent in their printed materials, was made visual by protest banners, posters, the YLO button and the inclusion of the pro-independence flag in political gatherings and events. Hence, in the March 22, 1970 photo of Omar Lopez speaking at the “People’s Church” in Chicago, two Young Lords members with berets flank Lopez, each holding a Puerto Rican flag: one the official Puerto Rican flag, the other the flag of Lares, the latter commemorating the nineteenth-century uprising and declaration of independence in the town of Lares.

456 Photographs, Carlos Flores Collection, Dialogo Magazine, Center for Latino Research, DePaul University, Spring 1996. 189

Organizing:

Much of the remaining visual history of the Young Lords in Chicago, features large marches, neighborhood sites, and well publicized actions such as the takeover of McCormick

Seminary.457 In New York, the YLP combined text, in the form of essays, interviews, and poetry, with the photographs of Michael Abramson. The latter captured the semblances of individual members as well as marches and collective actions. Years later, Iris Morales used photographs, interviews and archival film footage to capture the history of the YLO/YLP in the documentary film Palante, Siempre Palante. Together these produced a condensed yet powerful history of the organization. While Abramson directed his camera towards the work of the Young

Lords, another photographer, Hiram Maristany, cast a wider net. Like Flores, Hiram Maristany also photographed and preserved images of Puerto Rican communities, the latter focusing on

New York during the 1960s and 1970s. Yet, the Young Lords occupy a central place in

Maristany’s large body of work from that era. 458 As the posters and slogans that lined the offices of the Young Lords, suggest the ideological leanings of the organization, Moristany’s photographs illustrates some of the major campaigns and offensives that the New York chapters engaged in. One of Maritany’s published photos depicts the “garbage offensive,” conducted during the summer of 1969. This particular photo shows garbage and trash cans blocking the intersection of an East Harlem street. A crowd lines the two block area that is visible in the photograph and several people stand in the middle of the street, on either side of the garbage.

The stated intention of the garbage offensive, to block main thoroughfares in East Harlem, in

457 Discussion of the McCormick protest and the YLO demands included in chapter 3. 458 The scope of Maristany’s photographic collection is based on his own assessment. His collection remains private. He has published a number of photos and displayed a select number in exhibits in various venues such as El Museo del Barrio and De Paul University. Based on this, and the length of time he has been photograp hing community events, I would estimate a relatively large collection.

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order to call attention to inadequate garbage collection in the community, proved to be successful as evidenced by the absence of cars and buses in this photo and the subsequent collection of garbage.459 As the first public action by New York chapter of the Young Lords it received wide media coverage in the city, thus placing the group in the public spotlight. The YLO further publicized the event though articles in the YLO newspaper.

In a display of community strength and support of the YOUNG LORDS ORGANIZATION, the people of East Harlem (El Barrio), and the YLO closed the streets of Third Avenue, from 110th, across to 112th and down to Second Ave. on Sunday July 27. For two weeks previously, the YOUNG LORDS had been cleaning garbage from the streets and into garbage cans to show that people that the department of garbage (Lindsay’s department of sanitation), or D.O.G. does not serve them. 460

The YLO’s rendition of these events illustrates the community-centered organizing methods that they became known for; their language, a reflection of a verbal combativeness that sought to highlight and eradicate abuses to their community. As in other protest actions, the Young Lords positioned themselves within the immediate community, in opposition to broader structures such as the department of sanitation. In publicizing this offensive, their stated message stressed service to the community amid a climate of official neglect. The following passage from the same article also illustrates the purposeful inclusion of African American and Puerto Ricans as a target audience.

At first, communication with people was slow. Then, as the barriers broke down and everyone got their thing together, the people saw that even a nothing department like D.O.G. looks upon Puerto Ricans and Blacks as though they were something lower than garbage. These dogs at D.O.G. have forgotten that that they must SERVE THE PEOPLE. And it all blew up on Sunday. 461

459 Photo by Hiram Maristany appears in an insert following p. 160 in The Young Lords: A Reader, Darrel Enck- Wanzer, ed. (New York and London: New York University Press, 2010). 460 Lindsay was mayor of NYC at the time. Quote from Pablo Guzman “Young Lords Block Street with Garbage,” Young Lords Organization newspaper, 1969, volume 1, number 4. In the original, article was signed: Yoruba, Dep. Minister of Information, New York State YLO.

461Pablo Guzman “Young Lords Block Street with Garbage,” Young Lords Organization newspaper, 1969, volume 1, number 4. In the original, article was signed: Yoruba, Dep. Minister of Information, New York State YLO. 191

Another article in the Young Lords Organization, the newspaper of the YLO in 1969, gives a fuller narration of the events of Sunday, August 17, 1969. The article titled “El Barrio and YLO

Say No More Garbage in Our Community,” also describes Young Lords sweeping community streets, and collecting garbage during the preceding weeks. This article opens with a moving description of El Barrio, defining it as “New York’s worst Puerto Rican slum.” The un-named author continues:

There are others [slums], but El Barrio is the oldest, biggest, and filthiest of them all. There is glass sprinkled everywhere, vacant lots filled with rubble, burnt out buildings on nearly every block, and people packed together in the polluted summer heat. There is also the smell of garbage, coming in an incredible variety of flavors and strengths. 462

This description seeks to provide a rationale for the events that followed. Expressing frustration over their unheeded requests to the New York Sanitation Department to supply the necessary brooms and garbage cans “so they could clean up the streets and sidewalks of El Barrio,” YLO members and supporters dumped garbage in the middle of East 110th street. On the next block, at

111th and Lexington Avenue, the article reports, “The people turned over several abandoned cars and set them afire.”463 The arrest of a local resident, Ildefenso Santiago, on suspicion of burglary, led to an impromptu march immediately following Santiago’s arrest. 464 The YLO estimated that close to 300 people participated in the march to the 126th Street police station. Amid the chants of “Power to the People,” and “Off the Pig,” the rallying cry “Que Viva Puerto Rico” also emerged. The YLO account suggests that Santiago was arrested without justification, perhaps as a means to diffuse the protest or for the purpose of neighborhood intimidation by the police.

Santiago’s swift release, within half an hour of the arrival of protesters to the police station,

462 Unknown author, “El Barrio and YLO Say No More Garbage in Our Community,” Young Lords Organization newspaper, 1969, volume 1, number 4.

463 Young Lords Organization newspaper, 1969, volume 1, number 4.

464 Ibid.

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added fuel to this contention. Upon his release, “the crowd carried [Santiago] back to his car on their shoulders” thereby providing a potent image of success for the YLO and their tactics. 465

This particular article illustrates the blend of island and urban sensibility that the YLO utilized as part of their organizing methodology in the United States. 466 In describing the events of August

17, 1969 the YLO publication reminds us that beyond this urban history lies a migration story, linking New York to Puerto Rico. Felipe Luciano, then chairman of the New York State YLO, expressed the following: “When our people came here in the 1940s, they told us New York was a land of milk and honey. And what happened?” Citing some of the problems plaguing the community, Luciano elaborates: “Our men can’t find work…our women are forced to become prostitutes. Our young people are hooked on drugs. And they won’t even give us brooms to sweep up the rubbish on our streets.”467

The “garbage offensive” culminated in a set of demands from the YLO to the Department of Sanitation. The first two demands were expected: regular trash collection by the city and the availability of brooms and trash containers for residents, specifically “ten brooms and trash barrels per [city] block.” The remaining demands illustrate the working class affinity of the organization. They called for the employment of more Puerto Ricans in the Sanitation

Department, and an increase in the entry level wage of sanitation workers. Mayor Lindsay responded by appointing a task force to facilitate these changes. 468 The garbage offensive has been described in various ways; the stories surrounding the protest re-told by participants,

465 Ibid.

466 While this proved to be effective in the US, it was less successful on the island.

467 “El Barrio and YLO Say No More Garbage in Our Community,” Young Lords Organization newspaper, 1969, volume 1, number 4.

468 While there was visible improvement regarding the collection of garbage, it remains unclear whether there were changes relative to wages and employment practices. 193

observers, and public media. The images, captured by neighborhood photographers like

Maristany, deepen the history.

Other photographers close to the Young Lords captured images of their activities and surroundings. Many of these photographs suggest particular beliefs; others explicitly state their ideology by combining images with written language. In Chicago, Michael James, a member of

Rising Up Angry (RUA), gathered photographs of various groups organizing locally during the

1960s and 1970s. These images, some created by anonymous photographers, capture the various coalitions working in Chicago. Among the many striking images, James’ collection includes the portrait of various leaders from the Young Lords, Black Panther Party, Young Patriots and RUA, at a press conference aimed at reducing neighborhood tensions on the one year anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. This collaborative effort, one of many in Chicago, illustrates attempts by African American, Latino, and White working class groups to politically move beyond the boundaries of their largely segregated neighborhoods.

While much of the early YLO iconography has a decidedly Latin American focus, it was necessarily blended with US urban point of reference. Hence, the murals painted on the walls of the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church, combine revolutionary figures from Puerto Rico and

Mexico, with the international revolutionary, Che Guevara representing the rest of Latin

America. As the Young Lords developed their political ideology, they continued to articulate slogans and images of worldwide solidarity, the importance of Puerto Rico, as an identifier and a political anchor took center stage, while familiar neighborhoods served as a starting point, local bases with conditions ripe for organizing. This shifts in the later years of the YLP, first with the move to Puerto Rico, where they emphasized organizing on the island, overshadowing their work in stateside urban communities. The greatest change occurs when the YLP becomes the

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Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization (PRRWO), completely altering their organizing focus and political trajectory.

Membership

The membership of the Young Lords was largely drawn from the areas in which they organized. The Chicago branch represented a mixture of, ethnic Mexicans, self-identified

Chicanas/os, Puerto Ricans, and other Latin Americans. 469 Neighborhoods in Chicago during the

1960s were strongly identified along ethnic lines. Originating in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in

Chicago, early membership in YLO organized around a strong Puerto Rican identity; hence they adopted the motto: “tengo Puerto Rico en mi Corazon.” However, they also attracted other Latin

Americans. Had the Young Lords originated in the ethnic Mexican, neighborhoods of Halstead, they probably would have emerged as a Chicano organization. Much of the early literature coming out of Chicago varies in terms of the self-identification of the organization. Hence, in some of the leaflets of the era, the YLO self identifies as a “Latin American organization in

Chicago,” perhaps accurately reflecting the diverse membership of the founding branch, but also more significantly, reflecting the Latin Americanist unity present in Chicago. 470 As historian

Gabriela (Arredondo 2008) posits, “the presence of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans,

Nicaraguans, Colombians and Brazilians within Chicago’s Mexican colonias” contributed to the

“Latin Americanist orientation” of Chicago’s long standing Mexican communities. 471 Yet from

469 I use the term “ethnic Mexican” following the lead of Maricela Chávez whose definition “follow[s] historian David G. Gutiérrez’s usage, refers to those of Mexican ancestry or heritage and who live in the United States regardless of citizenship, generation, or immigrant status.”

470 Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations, PE.036, BOX 115, Young Lords Organization folder, undated.

471 Gabriela F. Arredondo, Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity, and Nation, 1916-39 (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2008) 153. 195

the perspective of neighborhood demographics, the local press, and other organizations on the

Left in Chicago, the Young Lords was primarily a Puerto Rican organization. Hence, the

Chicago branch effectively embraced the strong sense of identity in the growing Puerto Rican population of Chicago and the expediency of an expansive base for political organizing. The east coast branches, spearheaded by New York, had a similar approach but its base included a significantly larger percentage of African American members. 472

While subsequent Young Lords branches had a degree of ethnic diversity, the founding branch in Chicago appears to be unique in terms of membership and contiguity coalitions.

Reflective of the demographics of the city, the core of this branch included Puerto Ricans,

Mexicans, and Mexican Americans; the cadre also included African Americans. Angie Adorno, the child of working-class Italian-American parents, represented an anomaly in the YLO. Her memberships and subsequent position in the organization signaled the fluidity of borders and the importance of neighborhood. Adorno grew up in the then Puerto Rican neighborhood of Lincoln

Park alongside Jimenez and other YLO founders. She later married José “Pancho” Lind, a Young

Lord killed by a white gang member. Both of these factors positioned Adorno as an integral part of the YLO. As a community activist who grew up poor, had lifelong ties to Lincoln Park, and had been married to a YLO cadre, Adorno remained a trusted member of the Young Lords, eventually becoming a leader of the organization when Jimenez and other central committee members went underground. 473

In Chicago the YLO made their transformation into a political organization literally on the same streets and neighborhoods that members had grown up in. New York members came

472 Generally, the statistic most frequently given for the African American members of the YLP is 25%. 473 Angie Adorno Navedo, interview 1 by Mary Martinez, January 27, 1995.

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from various neighborhoods reflective of the multiple Puerto Rican communities in existence throughout the city, the east coast organizational hub was understandably in the East Harlem neighborhood known as El Barrio. As the oldest settlement of Puerto Ricans in continental

United States, and the area with the highest concentration of this migrant population, El Barrio had a rich history of community organizing and pro-independence mobilizing. 474 In New York, initially, prospective members who lived in other parts of the city joined the East Harlem office, since it was the only East Coast branch of the Young Lords. However, as new offices opened in communities such as New Jersey, Lower East Side and the Bronx, new members joined those neighborhood offices. A portion of YLO members in the New York areas came from affiliated organizations such as the Puerto Rican Student Union (PRSU) and the Health Revolutionary

Unity Movement (HRUM); the former composed of students, the latter comprised of health workers primarily from Lincoln, Metropolitan, and Groveneur Hospitals and NENA Health

Center. Another segment of the Young Lords, the Inmate Liberation Front, organized in prisons, most notably in Attica Prison. These various parts of the YLP worked within their respective community sectors.475

While largely Puerto Rican, The membership of the New York branches also reflected the demographics of other disenfranchised communities in the city. Additionally, it revealed the convergence of urban lives, island migrations, and ideological connections. A 1970 photograph

474 New York has long been identified as the earliest site of a concentrated PR migration to the United States. However, César Ayala and Rafael Bernabe argue that migrants to Hawaii between 1900-1901occupy that position. They further note that for approximately a decade, Hawaii continued to have the largest number of Puerto Rican migrants in the US. However, it should be noted that this population of migrants was relatively small in comparison to New York’s. See: César Ayala and Rafael Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007) 41.

475 Although these organizations were considered to be a part of the YLP, not everyone was a member of the Young Lords. However, this organizational structure changed with the transition to PRWWO.

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of a Young Lord standing in front of the Bronx office, aptly illustrates this. 476 In this photo, Che

Ja-Ja, an older, Afro-Panamanian member is flanked by various posters and sketches, most prominent among them, a poster of Malcolm X and a large Puerto Rican flag. Also visible are posters featuring Betances and Albizu Campos, an Emory Douglas sketch of a Black Panther holding a rifle, and a Cuban poster with the message: Primero Dejar de Ser, Que Dejar de Ser

Revolucionario.477 Hence, this image brings together intertwined histories and illustrates the proximity of African American and Puerto Rican communities in New York, their borders often shifting and porous. Significantly, at this historical moment, when radical groups sought linkages and points of convergence, the Young Lords recognized the intersectionality of these two communities.

The Young Lords entered the political, activist arena following the emergence and growth of various movements during the late 1960s which sparked the political conversion of many youth. Media coverage of expanding anti-war and student contingents, as well as their presence across the American spectrum also served to shepherd many into political activism.

This era bore witness to growing numbers of Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Chicanos entering college. Programs such as Upward Bound and Aspira, and the development of Ethnic

Studies departments led to the matriculation of increased numbers of students of color, many of them radicalized by their exposure to previously marginalized writers and thinkers, and to their participation in community based movements. Many of these radicalized students became members or founders, of a number of organizations. 478 As an organization peopled by youth, various chapters of the Young Lords had strong student contingents. The New York chapter of

476 Published photo by Michael Abramson, Palante p. 108-109. 477 Translation by author: First, I would stop being, than stop being a revolutionary.

478 The founding of the Black Panther Party, originating in Merritt College, a community college in Oakland, California is a key example of this heightened student activism. 198

the Young Lords is often described as a group comprised largely of students. While there were certainly a large number of students among the membership at the high school and college level,

“street brothers,” high school dropouts and unemployed youth also swelled the ranks. Often this perception of the New York branches as being composed mainly of students, stems from the pivotal work of a core group who were part of the Sociedad Albizu Campus (SAC) at the

College of Old Westbury, SUNY. As illustrated in the previous chapter, it was largely through the initiative of the SAC members that the first chapter outside of Chicago was established on the east coast.479Among them, Pablo “Yoruba” Guzman, Denise Oliver and David Perez become leaders of the chapter in El Barrio and subsequently part of the Central Committee of the YLP.480

Guzman and Oliver, remain among the most frequently quoted and photographed members of the YLO and YLP. Juan Gonzalez, a student leader at Columbia University, Mickey Melendez from Old Westbury, and Iris Morales, a student at City College prior to joining the Young Lords, also remain prominent voices and guardians of Young Lords history. Hence these names, faces, and their college affiliations have been translated into the portrayal of the Young Lords of New

York as “largely students,” subordinating the fact that members and leaders came from other sectors of the community. While there were some members who had experience in community organizing or had been exposed to different ideologies, most of the cadre and some of the leadership was not. Perhaps more significant, they overwhelmingly came from poor families.

With few exceptions, Young Lords members were the sons and daughters of laborers in agricultural fields and urban factories, the children of service workers in hotels and restaurants, of low-wage hospital workers, maids, custodians, and welfare recipients. The lived realities of

479 Now SUNY, State University of New York, College of Old Westbury.

480 Denise Oliver was also at Old Westbury and a member of SAC with Mickey Melendez. Although not at Old Westbury, Juan Gonzalez, a student at Columbia University, and Felipe Luciano were also affiliated with SAC. 199

their childhoods and their presence in deteriorated neighborhoods surface continually as the impetus for organizing and their eventual involvement in the Young Lords.

The portrayal of the New York chapters as one made up of students focused on ideology rather than action belies the accomplishments of these chapters. Referencing the splintering of chapters in 1970, “The Chicago people feel that the New Yorkers were pre-occupied with ideological refinement whereas they [Chicago YLO] neither had the time nor the educational background to concentrate on theoretical work. ‘Here in Chicago, we’re more concerned with the immediate needs of the people, but we still understood that the real struggle is not a local one,’” states Chicago leader Omar Lopez. 481 In reality, the various chapters of the Young Lords were deeply “concerned with the immediate needs of the people,” as evidenced by the various community programs they created. Throughout most of their years of operation as the Young

Lords Organization and the Young Lords Party, the members of this movement repeatedly referenced their mission to “serve the people.” Most of the neighborhood programs they initiated operated under that slogan.

Housing, Health and Education

Many of the campaigns or offensives targeted community conditions, most frequently around the areas of housing, health, and education. Chicago, with its on-going gentrification and redevelopment programs initially focused on housing. Pointing to the dissolution of neighborhoods via these programs as discriminatory and disruptive to their communities,

Chicago Young Lords mobilized around this issue, often physically blocking the eviction of families or surreptitiously moving families back into empty apartments. Puerto Rican

481 Frank Browning, “From Rumble to Revolution: The Young Lords,” Ramparts, Oct. 1970, p. 25.

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communities in Connecticut faced similar problems, with urban renewal projects often eliminating entire neighborhoods. Describing the establishment and subsequent destruction of these communities, Ruth Glasser states, “…the bulldozers that ‘cleaned up’ neighborhoods often destroyed the emblems of a whole way of life slowly and painfully built up by these migrants.

What prior immigrant groups had put together over generations disappeared almost overnight in

Puerto Rican neighborhoods.”482 Chronicling the work of the Young Lords in Bridgeport,

Glasser notes their success in organizing a rent strike in the building that housed their office.

“For six months in 1969 and 1970, the Young Lords and the other tenants withheld their rent to protest lack of repairs, garbage collection, and heat,” Like their counterparts in Chicago and New

York, the Young Lords of Bridgeport also established free breakfast programs. Following New

York’s lead, they initiated lead testing programs. While they were similarities in the programs of the various branches, they each targeted specific problems affecting their local communities. In

Bridgeport, this was evident in the successful rent strikes as well as their efforts to mobilize around the “discriminatory consumer and employment practices” of their local gas company. 483

In New York, the Young Lords’ actions during the “garbage offensive,” and the campaigns against lead poisoning served to highlight other community problems relative to housing. The latter also helped broadcast key medical concerns of poor children in Puerto Rican and African American communities living in unhealthful conditions throughout the city.

Organizing around health issues, the Young Lords followed the mantra of “serving the people.”

As previously noted, the Young Lords established a health clinic in Chicago, while the New

York branches orchestrated a number of health related offensives. The takeovers of Lincoln

482 Ruth Glasser, “From ‘Rich Port’ to Bridgeport: Puerto Ricans in Connecticut,” in The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives, Carmen Teresa Whalen and Víctor Vázquez-Hernández, Ed. (Temple University Press, 2005) p.191-192. 483 Glasser, “From ‘Rich Port’ to Bridgeport, p. 193.

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Hospital and of a city operated TB- testing truck stand among the most publicized actions orchestrated by the Young Lords. While these singular events were newsworthy, on a day to day basis, the New York branches’ community outreach included preventative health care. Together with members of HRUM, activist doctors and other supportive health care workers, Young Lords also provided tests and information for lead poisoning, tuberculosis, anemia, and diabetes. Health activist Cleo Silver, a member of HRUM who took part in the takeover of Lincoln Hospital, illustrates the depth of organizational planning that it took to offer free health care. “We started a program that covered the whole city, every week we would cover a different section of New

York City. Forty or fifty people would meet up with doctors and equipment and we would go door to door. It was an incredible program.”484

The YLP also developed specific ideological positions focused on reproductive health.

Their position relative to abortion, sterilization, and sexuality sought to promote equality for women and bring attention to the social and medical ramifications of these issues. The establishment of a Health Ministry and the YLP’s work in the Health Revolutionary Unity

Movement (HRUM) further stressed their commitment to improving community health care. The incursion of YLP members into labor organizing via HRUM appears to be singular among youth organizations of the New Left.485 While organizations such as the Black Panthers supported the efforts of radical doctors and were active in facilitating access to medical care, providing transportation to doctors’ offices and hospitals and establishing free clinics, the work of HRUM

484 Chu, Carolyn. “Tomar el hospital para servir al pueblo: transcripción de una entrevista video grabada a la activista Cleo Silvers.” Medicina Social 4, no. 1 (2009): 86-90. Quote on page 89.

485 Older organizations on the Left such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party were very active in labor organizing, and had members with long term affiliations in trade unions. Their focus on the recruitment of workers spanned decades. What I argue here is that the YLP, as a part of the New Left, was different from its counterparts in this respect. HRUM, which was integrally connected to the YLP, operated openly within Grosvenor and Lincoln Hospitals.

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within hospitals and their recruitment of health workers to demand workers’ rights and improved patient care suggests a multi-pronged approach to improving health care in poor communities. 486

During the early years of the YLO and YLP, community organizing centered on specific neighborhood issues. Guided by some of the more prominent programs of the BPP, free breakfast programs were early additions. However, for both the Chicago New York branches, the need to have a locale from which to operate programs emerged as a tool for mobilization. In New

York, the garbage offensive served as the first vehicle used to expose a community problem, and make known the group’s existence. This was followed by the highly publicized account of the take-over of the First Spanish Methodist Church in East Harlem. In Chicago programs and protests focused on housing, healthcare, welfare rights, and breakfast programs, while in New

York, the emphasis was on exposing and mending the disparities in healthcare, education, the availability of childcare and in city services such as garbage collection. Chicago’s efforts to gentrify and “redevelop” specific communities sparked the early protests and disruption of neighborhood meetings that were intended to sell the benefits of these redevelopment initiatives. The displacement of whole communities and destruction of long standing ties intensified the sense of community and belonging of Young lords, marking their entrance into radical politics and protest.

486 There were a number of activist doctors who supported the efforts of the Young Lords and the Black Panthers in New York. Dr. Steven Levine was instrumental in his support of the Young Lords at Lincoln Hospital and assisted in the establishment of drug treatment programs. William Bronston was one of several doctors active in these movements. Bronston maintained close ties with the BPP and the YLO in New York City. While Dr. Bronston was more closely involved with the BPP, often acting as personal physician for members, his support of YLO causes was also significant. A large collection documents the work, primarily of Dr. Bronston but also documents some of the work of Dr. Levine and other activist doctors. See: William Bronston Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, active in the reproductive rights movement was also at Lincoln Hospital. I would like to thank Virginia Sanchez Korrol for reminding me of the presence of Dr. Rodriguez-Trias at Lincoln Hospital during the 1970s.

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The leaflet described in the following passage illustrates the sense of belonging in particular communities that both the YLO and the YLP espoused. The 1972 leaflet, produced by the YLO and the Cha Cha Jimenez Defense Committee, called for a rally at the Town Hall Police

Station, on the corner of Addison & Halstead St. on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1972. The flyer headline reads: “I WANT TO COME BACK AND BE WITH THE PEOPLE…” The flyer explains that Cha-cha Jimenez went underground in August, 1970, charged with the theft of $23 worth of lumber. The YLO then takes the opportunity to name the events and programs that the

YLO had been involved in. Among those mentioned, “YLO efforts initiated were: McCormick

Seminary Takeover, the Albizu Campos March, Manuel Ramos March, welfare marches,

People’s Park, and a free health clinic.” Also highlighted: the YLO’s efforts to curtail urban renewal projects that displaced neighborhood residents. The flyer states that Jimenez “will turn himself in to the states attorney, Mr. Bernard Carey.” Jimenez turns his imminent arrest into an opportunity to organize, to have community members be present to witness “when Cha Cha

Jimenez returns to the Latin Community.” In this effort, the YLO in the name of Jimenez relies on community ties to protect him as they witness and support his return. Jimenez uses the language of inclusion, a humble petitioner: “I want to come back and be with the people; endure the hardships and agonies with them; organize, fight and help win victories for them,” 487 states

Jimenez. Thus, he points towards his “oneness” with the community, his immersion.

This image of belonging illustrates the approach towards community and organizing favored by the Young Lords. Both YLO and YLP used this language of inclusion, placing an emphasis on

“serving the people” versus leading the people, the desire to “help win victories,” rather than

487 Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations, PE.036, BOX 115, Young Lords Organization folder, undated.

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claiming triumph. 488 In their organizing efforts in various cities in the U.S., this was undoubtedly part of the early appeal of the Young Lords, the idea that these were the children of the barrios, the urban poor, the children of Puerto Rico, and in a broad sense, the children of

Latin America. This was particularly true of the Chicago branch, whose roots within a specific neighborhood led to close relationship of members, many of whom were childhood friends. They also maintained indelible ties to specific neighborhoods, nurturing the perception of a homegrown, “street” organization. The ramifications of these intimate ties made for strong connections among the leadership and many members the Chicago group, still visible today. Yet, clearly there existed a high level of surveillance of the Chicago YLO as illustrated by a report of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee published in 1976. This report concluded that

Cha Cha Jiménez was “unquestionably the leader of the Chicago YLO from its inception.”

Furthermore, it stated that the YLO depended on the “strong personal magnetism of its chairman:” Jiménez.489 While the Young Lords of Chicago were heavily monitored by the “Red

Squad,” Jimenez and leading members were able to go underground for a period of time. 490

According to Jimenez, he and other Chicago Young Lords soon realized that the strength of their movement lay in openly organizing, rather than remaining underground.

In contrast, the New York chapter which later developed into the Young Lords Party

(YLP) drew its membership from multiple neighborhoods and demographic sectors such as students, workers, and unemployed young adults. While several members were childhood friends, or relatives, most Young Lords in the various New York branches represented a

488 Word Italicized for emphasis.

489 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976) 7.

490 The “Red Squad” of Chicago files exist. However, the severe limitations place on quoting, naming, or publishing information from them hinders the study and analysis of these files. 205

consolidation of groups, a coming together of young people from the various boroughs of the city, with differing degrees of political consciousness. Reflective of its status as the largest site of Puerto Rican migration in the continental U.S., the Young Lords of New York operated in

Puerto Rican communities that had been in existence for more than half a century; amid a flowering of political organizing that emerged in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. In comparison, the Chicago group operated in relatively newer communities, a smaller Puerto Rican population interspersed with a growing ethnic Mexican, and Latin American population. While the New York branches had representation from other Caribbean and Latin American countries in its membership, it remained largely Puerto Rican, with African Americans in both its leadership and member ranks.

In the language of organizing, and in the programs they implemented, both the YLO and the YLP used neighborhood needs as a gage in initiating programs and mounting protests.

Following the lead of the Black Panthers, they started Free Breakfast and Childcare programs, free health clinics, and community education classes. As many grass roots movements o f the era, the Young Lords benefited by the many organizing lessons put forward by SNCC, whose impact reverberated in community groups of all colors. However, as illustrated in previous examples, the YL also developed their own brand of organizing. One of the strengths of YLP organizing was their ability to act quickly on searing issues, responding to cases/issues when their impact on the community was highest. Hence, the lead poisoning campaign developed following the death of an African American child as a result of lead poisoning. Similarly, the takeover of Lincoln Hospital occurred after the abortion death of a young Puerto Rican woman at that hospital. Both cases received media exposure. The Young Lords quickly and decisively heightened the visibility of these cases, pointing to them, not as singular events, but as examples

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of larger systemic issues of inequity. “Seize the time,” the motto made famous by Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, seemed to guide many of the actions of the New York branches.

The October 1970 death of Young Lord Julio Roldan in the Manhattan Detention Center also resulted in an increased focus on jail and prison conditions in New York. Young Lords members viewed Roldan’s arrest as an intimidation tactic by local police. The reported chain of events indicates that Roldan addressed police and the courtroom judge as “pigs,” and subsequently hung himself in his jail cell. In response, Young Lords noted the number of inmate deaths, purportedly suicides, in New York jails and prisons. Roldan’s funeral received a large amount of press coverage. Photographs, archival film footage and press articles illustrate the multitude of people that accompanied his funeral procession through the streets of East Harlem and in the First Spanish Methodist Church, also known as the “People’s Church.” The coffin was carried through the streets by representatives from the Young Lords, Black Panthers and other members of the Rainbow Coalition. 491

The death of Roldan marked a number of changes in the YLP. Although Chicago YLO had lost a few members by the time of Julio’s death, this was a first for the YLP. His death led to a new approach in YLP politics: a change in the public image of the group and a bold embrace of the idea of armed struggle. When the YLP decided to locate their base of operation to the island, Julio’s hometown of Aguadilla became an obvious choice. Roldan’s death also led the

Young Lords to advocate for prisoners and expose prisons conditions. This resulted in a Young

Lords presence in prisons through the Inmate Liberation Front, most prominently in Attica.

491 The other Pall bearers may have included a representative from I Wor Quen or a New York-based radical Asian organization. Possibly a member of the Young Patriots and the Brown Berets, was also included, although the latter were not formally a part of the Rainbow Coalition.

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During the revolt and takeover of Attica Prison in September 1971, the inmates demanded that outside members of the YLP and The Black Panther Party “serve as observers and advisors.”492

Ideology

During most of their organizational life, both factions of the Young Lords cast a broad ideological net that accommodated nationalism and socialism. This position was clearer on the east coast. The Chicago Lords at times found themselves grappling with the struggle to embrace socialism or highlight the cultural nationalist philosophy then prevalent in many Chicano organizations. In contrast, east coast branches highlighted their socialist ideology early in their organizational life. However, on the east coast internal discussions relative to cultural nationalism also surfaced. This was largely driven by several influences. A few members, most notably, New York chapter Chairman Felipe Luciano were important members of the cultural arts movement in New York. This coalition brought together Puerto Rican and African American artists, writers, and poets, their creative endeavors reflective of shared urban experiences.

Secondly, an expansion of the YLO into New Jersey brought the leadership in contact with

Amiri Baraka. Denise Oliver detailed her encounter with Baraka when she accompanied other leading members of the YLO to meet with him. This experience led to intensified organizing among the women in the New York chapter. Oliver vividly recollects Baraka’s refusal to answer her questions, while responding to questions and comments posed by Young Lords men.

Describing the entrance of several women members of Baraka’s organization, into the meeting room, Oliver became enraged with their display of subservience and walked out. “The women crawled into the room on their hands and knees wearing elaborate headdresses decorated with fruit.” Oliver gathered Young Lords women, described her experience and warned those

492 Jeffrey Ogbar, “Puerto Rico en mi corazón: The Young Lords, Black Power and Puerto Rican nationalis m in the US, 1966-1972.” Centro Journal 18, no. 1 (2006) 157. 208

assembled: “If we [don’t] do something, we [will] end up on our hands and knees with fruit on our heads.”493 This incident, its memory and re-telling, point to the multiple political experiences and influences on the growing organization, as well as the tensions and changes they engendered.

Additionally, it reveals the organic nature of the political development of the YLO during its early years. Influenced by other civil rights and New Left movements, and exposed to blossoming cultural and literary movements, the YLO and later the YLP, incorporated various ideological threads and paths.

The broad embrace of socialism changed in later years, when the YLP became the Puerto

Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization (PRRWO) and the Chicago Lords became engaged in electoral politics. Their earlier position, however, along with neighborhood - specific organizing efforts guided them towards several successful community programs. Indeed, many of their successes stem from this approach, using urban-based organizing techniques in response to specific neighborhood problems. The unique history of the organization stems from successfully combining these organizing techniques with an ideology inspired by Puerto Rican nationalist history, Black liberation and Latin American leftist struggles. While the organization internally evoked Maoist thought during the early years, among the cadre at least, this was largely symbolic. Maoist rhetoric was not evident in organizing nor did it explicitly appear in print media until the final year of the YLP and the emergence of PRRWO. During the early years of the YLO, in both the Chicago and New York chapters, much of the approach and representation was community/neighborhood-centered. Yet even with this community/neighborhood focus, it was difficult to separate the island from the neighborhood.

For the Puerto Rican members, the island was a point of reference, a source of identity. For

493 Personal memory. Also re-iterated in the following source. See: Jennifer Nelson, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2003) 118.

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others, particularly those who came into the organization already identifying as leftists, Puerto

Rico represented the site of the closest anti-imperialist struggle. Still other members recognized the demographic importance of the Puerto Rican community on the east coast and the Midwest.

Many non- Puerto Rican members lived in predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhoods and felt an affinity with their neighbors. Still others, came from similar immigrant backgrounds, family structure, and lived experiences as those of the Puerto Rican members. On a broader scale, many groups on the American Left viewed Puerto Rico as a focal point in world struggles for national liberation. 494 Additionally, pro-independence voices in Puerto Rico intensified during this era.

From Young Lord to PRRWO

“TODOS AL PRIMERO DE MAYO “read the message on a leaflet encouraging attendance to the May 1st rally a commemoration of workers’ rights and achievements such as the eight hour day. The commemoration, popularly known as May Day, attracts leftists groups and labor organizations throughout the United States. 495 By the time this leaflet was produced, the Young Lords had changed their organizational name, their rhetoric, and organizing techniques. This particular announcement, purportedly from the Puerto Rican Workers

Organization (PRRWO), contained a different language that years earlier would not have been recognizable as coming from the Young Lords. Following “operacion rompecadenas” or “break the chains offensive” which signaled the YLP shift to focus on organizing on the island, the group subsequently redirected its efforts towards the continental U.S. re-fashioning itself as a worker’s organization. While the YLP appeared to gravitate towards a Maoist ideological

494 “Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism, Political Statement of the Weather Underground” July, 1974. Weather Underground Organization 1969. Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations, PE.036, BOX 115, Young Lords Party folder, 1969 – n.d.

495 Celebrated internationally but with roots in the United States. For a history of the celebration see: Philip Sheldon Foner, May Day: A Short History of the International Workers' Holiday, 1886-1986 New York: International Publishers Co, 1986). 210

framework, its early leanings were more symbolic, in the vein of solidarity with Third World socialism. Young Lords carried Mao’s little “Red Book,” but they were more apt to quote

Malcolm X, Che Guevara or Albizu Campos. Yet this late organizational shift was more clearly focused on what central committee members described as “Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung

Thought.”496 While the YLO, the founding chapter in Chicago, was moving towards organizing via electoral politics, the YLP, and its successor PRRWO, was moving towards an explicit and dogmatic position as a Maoist organization. Hence, the language in this leaflet included “class warfare, “capitalist monopolies” and the “great Russian revolution of 1917.” they critiqued the

Soviet Union for “fall[ing] to revisionists,” while lauding the Peoples Republic of China for

“continuing to defend and develop Marxism – Leninism.” Previously, the Young Lords would have admonished other Puerto Rican or leftist groups for using terms that were too philosophical, not in popular parlance. As Young Lords they had spoken and written about capitalism and monopolies. However, these oral and written conversations were originally centered on Puerto

Rico or urban communities. What was missing during the PRRWO era was the emphasis on community that the Young Lords had so carefully cultivated. Previously, in calling for worldwide solidarity Young Lords would have framed it as a call to poor people to organize. Hence what is telling in this and other PRRWO communications, is what was excluded, rather than what was present. There were no references to Puerto Rican leaders, or to urban leaders like

Malcolm X, to Puerto Rican struggles or history to El Barrio, Harlem or other urban communities. Moreover, rather than linking the local community to their international counterparts, those they sought to organize became invisible within the broader international community. As one Young Lord Party member remembered the meeting where the change from

496 Pamphlet, “Resolutions and Speeches,” 1st Congress, Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization, 1972. Reprinted in The Young Lords: A Reader, Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed. 235-44. 211

YLP to PRRWO occurred.” I saw who was there,” a reference to posters of Marx, Engels, and

Mao, “and I saw who was missing: Puerto Ricans like Albizu Campos.”497

The transition of the YLP into The Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization

(PRRWO) signaled the beginning of the death of that segment of the Young Lords movement.

Abandoning the methods and approaches to organizing that had attracted many in the past, they adopted a narrowed political focus and rigid approach. These changes both removed the YLP from communities and caused the organization to shed members, many of them from the early days of the YLO. Infiltration by police and government agents served to weaken and further destroy the once vibrant organization. Richie Perez articulated the painful demise of the organization.

PRRWO began to discuss a merger with other organizations. All the groups were shutting down all the political work that was going on around the country. This was a national phenomenon, and how could such a phenomena have taken place without being coordinated someplace? I cooperated with the purges. We were purging people politically and defamed them afterward, saying that they didn’t have the interest of the working class at heart.

Perez continues, admonishing himself for not speaking up when he sensed the group was taking a wrong direction, for participating in actions that were later also taken against him. In painful detail, Richie described the beatings he and his then wife Diana Caballeros suffered at the hands of PRRWO leaders and members of the ministry of Defense during his final days as a member.

Perez’ agony and sense of betrayal is captured by Iris Morales, who herself expresses anger and sadness for the destruction of the organization. Both present their individual experiences as a cautionary tale, a lesson learned regarding the potential for debilitating and destructive behaviors within grassroots organizations. Although the experiences of long-standing members such as

Morales and Perez during the final years of PRRWO were harsh, they maintained an enduring

497 Anonymous. This was not part of a formal interview. Rather, a sentiment expressed in a group conversation. 212

commitment to social justice that lasted throughout their lives, and in the case of Morales, and many other Young Lords continues today.

The appeal of the Young Lords Party had been its ability to speak to community issues, organize around community needs, and respond to community problems, linking them to broader issues of poverty, racial inequity and injustice. In the quest to become primarily a workers’ organization: PRRWO, this amalgamation of college students, workers, high school students, tenant, union, and community organizers, and unemployed youth became factory workers. This artificial re-configuration cut at the heart of the appeal of the Young Lords: knowledge of their communities. These were the sons and daughters of factory workers whose parents had hoped their children would not end up in factories, laboring under the conditions that drove both generations to organize. Politically, many members lost their way while others mourned the imminent death of an organization they had nurtured and grown with.

In spite of the demise of the Young Lords as an active organization, there still exists an aura of fascination with the Young Lords. The activities and mobilizations of the various branches often seem incredulous, more so because they were the work of teenagers and young adults. The offensives were generally bold acts, meant to elicit awareness of the dire conditions in communities where Young Lords organized, which typically, were the same neighborhoods they lived in, or grew up in, or where friends and relatives lived. “We’re from these blocks, and we’re from these schools, products of this whole thing.”498 The immediacy of community problems fueled their “serve the people” campaigns, and emboldened the membership. “You can arrest us/ you can burn us/ you can kill us/ but you can’t stop us,” stated Cha Cha Jiménez as a

498 Anonymous Young Lord, in Abramson, Palante, 132.

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Young Lord in Chicago. 499 Similarly, Iris Morales and Denise Oliver-Velez describe the commitment that drove their work “We were breaking new ground and lived each day as if there would be no tomorrow…”500

We awoke each day to serve breakfast to school children, went door to door testing residents for lead poisoning and anemia, developed ground-breaking-programs to deal with drug addiction, conducted community education classes, and mobilized demonstrations…We organized hospital and factory workers…We raised awareness about the triple oppression of women…We wanted to change our communities, and perhaps while doing so, change our brothers…We published and distributed Palante, a bilingual newspaper, and produced a radio show. We inspired and were inspired by our artists, poets, and musicians to play to the drumbeat of revolution. 501

While Morales and Oliver-Velez were specifically referring to the work of the Young Lords

Party, the Young Lords Organization, in Chicago and Milwaukee, also confronted the issues that most impacted their communities. Each group of Young Lords, organizing in different cities, chose the area of struggle that they would engage in, based on their perception of local needs.

In these cities, they also focused on particular commonalities, albeit in differing ways and with different degrees of intensity. With youthful bravado, they attacked inadequate healthcare systems, diseases of poverty, urban removal, and the injustice of hunger. This meant that campaigns for adequate housing, access to health care, and free breakfast programs were initiated in most places where Young Lords organized. While they mobilized around local problems, collectively they espoused an inclusive ideology of liberation that went beyond the neighborhood and included liberation for Puerto Rico. Embracing liberation movements in Latin

America, Africa, and Asia, they imagined a broad circle of solidarity. Envisioning themselves as

Afro-Taino warriors and descendants of Malcolm X, Albizu Campos, Blanca Canales, Che

499 Jeffries, Judson. “From Gang-bangers to Urban Revolutionaries: The Young Lords of Chicago.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998) (2003): 288-304.

500 Iris Morales and Denise Oliver-Velez, The Young Lords: A Reader, Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., x.

501 Ibid. 214

Guevara, and many others they deemed revolutionary. Rooted in the histories of protest and resistance of the Caribbean, Latin America, and the African Diaspora, they proclaimed: “We have successfully planted the seeds of freedom given to us by Nat Turner, Antonio Maceo, and

John Brown, and made things a little bit easier for our children then they were for us.”502

502 Anonymous Young Lord, quoted in Abramson, Palante, 131. 215

CONCLUSION

Pa’lante

“Tengo Puerto Rico en Mi Corazon.” When Young Lords in Chicago first coined this phrase, they embarked on a journey of affirmation, of political awareness and direct action. They marched, took over a church and the campus of a local seminary They set up and staffed a day care center, established a health clinic and recruited doctors and nurses to volunteer at the clinic.

They fought housing developments that would demolish Puerto Rican communities and fought

“urban removal” of the poor. As Young Lords, they entered spaces that had been closed to them and demanded community control of neighborhoods and institutions. They brokered agreements with warring gangs, and entered in coalitions with the descendants of poor Appalachians, and with African American, Chicano, and Asian organizations. These men and women, the children of Puerto Ricans and ethnic Mexicans inspired others to join them in New York, Milwaukee, and

Haywood California. Subsequently, these Young Lords replicated some of the actions of the

Chicago Lords. The Armitage Avenue Methodist Church in Chicago became the first “People’s

Church.” The takeover of the First Spanish Methodist Church in East Harlem resulted in the next

“People’s Church,” which in turn inspired Philadelphia Young Lords to take over Kingsway

Lutheran Church. In these churches, the Young Lords established day care centers, free breakfast programs, and health clinics. In the case of the Young Lords of New York, they motivated many others to join them, including a sizeable number of African Americans, and established additional branches in the Bronx and the Lower East Side of Manhattan as well as in New Jersey,

Bridgeport, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and two in Puerto Rico.

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The Young Lords entered the political, activist arena following the emergence and growth of various movements during the late 1960s which sparked the political conversion of many youth. While largely Puerto Rican, the Young Lords became a movement that also attracted, African Americans, Chicanas/os, as well as other Latinas/os organizing in predominantly Puerto Rican communities. The branches of the YLO and he YLP represent the various strands of this movement; each established programs unique to their communities.

Collectively they linked local demands for equality and justice, to the call for independence for

Puerto Rico. Their vision that political power and self-determination in urban communities coalesced with the island’s independence, became both a rallying call and a tool for mobilizing.

The history of the Young Lords movement is part of the history of protest and resistance of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, linked broadly to those of Latin America. The colonial status of Puerto Rico also inserts this history into U.S., Latina/o, and Diaspora histories. This study of the Young Lords brings together these intertwined histories. This work also illustrates the proximity of African American, Chicano, and Puerto Rican communities, their borders often shifting and porous. Significantly, at this historical moment, when radical groups sought linkages and points of convergence, the Young Lords recognized the intersectionality of these communities.

As a historian, I have attempted to present these interconnected strands. These are also the linkages that Young Lords themselves established, that presented them in different ways, most visibly in their political platform, in the imagery they created, and in their actions.

Young Lords supporter, the Reverend Bruce Johnson often said, “Where do you place yourself in the world?” The men, women, and teenagers who joined the Young Lords placed themselves in the political activist arena, drawing inspiration primarily from figures in Puerto Rican and

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African American history. Imbued with youthful bravado, the legacy of the Young Lords’ includes successes as well as failures. Beyond the tangible accomplishments of their activism, the Young Lords ushered in an era of discovery and self-affirmation, and in the process challenged racist and anti-feminist ideology. The Images, words, memories and documents of the

Young Lords act as testaments to their impact. I hope that I have done justice to this history that decades ago, spoke to so many of us.

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