Talk:Young Lords/Archive 1

Lead info
I started this one. I had some contacts with these folks circa 1970 in New York. Very interesting, very worth an article, but I don't have much special knowledge and would be doing web research just like anyone else. I've tried to write a stub and point to some uesful online sources. -- Jmabel 21:01, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)


 * I've seen some stuff on them. They recently had a documentary on Puerto Rican Nationalism called "Mi Puerto Rico" (on WNET station of PBS of course). It was quite interesting and did some coverage of the Young Lords. I was surprised to learn that Geraldo Rivera was actually a Young Lord. After watching a Latino Public Broadcasting program called "Valley of Tears" I looked up the webpage for that documentary and saw that Juan Gonzalez (the journalist from the New York Daily News) helped produce it and in the little bio of him it said that he was actually the founding member of the New York Chapter of the Young Lords. It's always interesting to see what these guys were doing back in the sixties. I'll add some stuff to this in a few days. Jersey Devil 00:22, 28 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm a researcher and teacher currently writing a dissertation, which will become a book, on the New York Young Lords. They were a very interesting and important organization that, unfortunately, too few people know much about. In the spirit of education, I need to correct Jersey Devil about a couple of things. First, Geraldo Rivera was not a member of the Young Lords. He certainly hung out with them and represented them in legal matters; but according to interviews I've done he was never "actually" a Young Lord. Second, Juan Gonzalez, while an important founding member and figure in the Lords, was not "the" founding member of the New York chapter. There were several other folks actively involved in that formative process. I hope that helps. A lot more deserves to be said about the YLO/YLP/PRRWO. JesusArocho 06:08, 16 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I will volunteer to add some historial background and commentary on this topic - since I was the first woman on the Central Committee of the Young Lords Party, and was a part of the early history of the formation of the Young Lords Organization, New York Chapter.


 * The comment about Geraldo Rivera was correct - he was not a member of the YLO/YLP. He was however an attorney for the Young Lords, and as such was often a spokesperson in the media on issues that the membership could not comment upon for legal reasons.  Geraldo gained local media attention via his link to the YLO, and shifted his field from law to media studies/journalism as a direct result of his contact with our organization and the issues we were organizing around. Denise —Preceding unsigned comment added by Denise Oliver-Velez (talk • contribs) 7 Dec 2005

Odd wording
"While the Young Lords advocated similar armed strategies as the Black Panthers did, this rarely came out&hellip;" What is this last phrase intended to mean? Very unclear. - Jmabel | Talk 03:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
 * My fault. I was trying to give a reference to their support from armed self-defense and armed revolution just like the Panthers, but that it rarely played out like it did with the Panthers. - Bayano | Talk 9:32, 15 February 2006


 * I still don't understand quite what this rather convoluted sentence means to say. Could you take a shot at rewriting the whole sentence coherently, either in the article or here on the talk page? If it's easier for you to write it in Spanish here on the talk page, feel free, I'm sure I'll be able to translate. - Jmabel | Talk 04:32, 21 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Let us not forget that Felipe Luciano was also a member of the young lords party as i recall from longwood ave. office, as was richie perez. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Urbansurvivor (talk • contribs) 8 April 2006.

Palante
May I assume that Palante is a contraction of para adelante? - Jmabel | Talk 03:43, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
 * That's an interesting observation that I hadn't considered. I'll be sure to ask around about that.... I know it was used because it was basically just slang connoting either progressive movement or "right on." The contraction makes sense, though ... and I *have* seen it spelled "pa'lante" (although not by the Young Lords as far as I can recall).JesusArocho 05:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes - Palante was a contraction of Para Adelante (Pa'lante) We dropped the apostrophe.  DeeOlive 16:35, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

So d'y'all want to smash the state after breakfast, or what?
Having just mentioned Rat's articles on the NY Lords in an article on Rat (Newspaper), I followed my own link over here out of curiousity - partly because I've been admonished to write more objectively, and I wanted to see how you'd handle it. I too was immediately struck by this article's evasive and murky treatment of the question of armed struggle and all that. The FBI certainly considered it a central issue at the time! And in fact so did just about anyone who was serious about anything at that time - even if they opposed the idea strongly, it was ALWAYS a central concern. Either a group intended to challenge state power, or it didn't. If it didn't it was generally dismissed as sell-out, reformist, etc (even if the pacificism happened to be sound strategy - ML King being the best-known example; he was much vilified for refusing to entertain notions of arms even for self-defense.) The bloodshed of 1969-71 should put this in perspective - something like 38 (give or take a dozen) Panther leaders were gunned down by police and FBI - not always with return fire. No one became a leader or even a member of a group allied with the Panthers unless they were mentally prepared, at least a little, for war. The clinics and breakfasts were certainly not JUST a cynical ruse to give these groups a benign public image - they were audacious and authentic, as much as the more militant-looking activities were audacious and authentic. But to say ten or twenty things about the nice neighborhood programs and then slide over the warfare question is deeply misleading, and very typical of the sort of manipulative propaganda that has almost always characticized the extreme left, at almost all times and almost all places, no matter which sect or tendency is telling the public the story of their aims and programs. One reason that Malcolm X's reputation has stood the test of time and grown ever-larger is that he NEVER lied, fudged or prevaricated - or he sure gave a convincing show of never doing it. The same could be said of King, too, although he was firmly on the other side of the violence question. Let's try to follow the malcolm & martin example here - and tell the story of the young lords in a more realistic way. In fact I do want to know more, as I always found the YL impressive but never knew a whole lot about them. ON THE OTHER HAND (SECOND THOUGHTS): It occurs to me that it IS possible the YL actually were 90-99% focused on community improvement programs. That would be consistent with the general impression I have (from Rat articles, and radio interviews on WBAI with veterans of YL) - militant in principle, but really just more interested in human-to-human good works. Maybe you didn't have anything coherent to say about armed struggle because it genuinely doesn't much interest you? If that's the case, my apologies for accusing you of fudging. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.136.14.139 (talk • contribs) 25 June 2006.
 * I personally remember the Young Lords as being pretty militant in the sense of in-your-face, but I never particularly remember them talking about armed struggle. If you've got citations saying that they did specifically advocate armed struggle, that would belong in the article. - Jmabel | Talk 23:14, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Noncompliant?
This article was tagged as "Chuck Norris" by an anonymous IP who offered no explanation either in edit summary or on the talk page about what might be noncompliant about the article. If this is not substantiated within seven days, I intend to remove the tag. - Jmabel | Talk 17:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

A link
The site http://www.nationalyounglords.com was linked in the external links without explanation. I suspect that despite the name it is just someone's personal site; it also just seems to be a single web page. The information on the page looks accurate. - Jmabel | Talk 02:41, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
 * If, as looks likely, this page belongs to Jose Cha-Cha Jimenez, could someone suggest a way to verify that? - Jmabel | Talk 02:43, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Search results
When I searched for "The Young Lords" in the main search bar of wikipedia a stub article about a battle star galactica episode and a bunch of stuff about British lords and ladies popped up, but this article was only rated as 1.4% relevant. I don't know how to change that as I´m very new to wikipedia, but it seems to me that someone should if it is possible.

Edit request from 68.30.129.245, 12 April 2010
editsemiprotected Someone has vandalized this Young Lords article since April 10th 2010!Can you please put back information about the origins of the group-- End request --> 68.30.129.245 (talk) 02:43, 12 April 2010 (UTC)


 * I am no seeing any info removed on the 10th that wasn't put right back. Please review the article again, and if this is still needed, note exactly what was removed so we will know how to fix it. Thanks!
 * per above. Avic enna sis @ 03:08, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
 * I did go back but could not recall what was taken off. Sorry about that. Now we have a bigger issue.For the last 48 years I have been the founder of the Young Lords civil and human rights movement. Now it appears that some volunteer in wikipedia who knows nothing about research nor copy right law has changed my status and has given that status to their buddy. Incredible.So now, besides going to jail multiple times in cases directly related, on behalf of the Young Lords; besides being harassed continuously including this morning; besides having to live underground; most of my entire life due to the police and gang threats; besides losing my entire family(because they feared being around me because of the police); besides having my daughters having nervous breakdowns and being followed and harassed by the police, besides having close friends turned against me by CointelPro, and besides having community activists and friends around me like Chairman Fred Hampton and Rev. Bruce Johnson, Eugenia Ransier Johnson and Rev. Sergio Herrera who I saw everyday killed; now the little status that I earned and use to try to keep our movement intact has also been stolen for private profit. This is thanks to some so called volunteer from wikipedia who does not know anything about Latinos and is too lazy to do research. It is not that much work. Everywhere on the internet it says that the Young Lords began in Chicago and that I am the founder. So is this deliberate? In fact, just recently in the Amazon book Black Power 50 by Sllviane Diouf and Komozi Woodard, the New Press 2016 www.the press,com., a full article is devoted to the founding of the Young Lords in Chicago and states clearly my role as the founder. The authors live and work in New York at the Schomburg Museum of African American History.And their book is being currently sold on Amazon and in Walmart. We are disappointed that wikipedia would attempt to dis credit our movement. But time is on our side and history definitely bring out the truth.

More info needed on unsolved murders of Sergio Herrera, Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Ransier Johnson
Has any reliable source written more about these unsolved murders, from 45 years ago? Or written about the investigation (or lack thereof) into them? The article currently says: "No one has attempted to investigate the U.M.C. Pastor Sergio Herrera case." -- but no reference is offered for this unlikely assertion. "The church's pastor and his wife, Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Ransier Johnson, were found murdered in the parsonage home on September 29, 1969." But no further information. In various unreliable sources it is reported that the Young Lords accused the police or other government forces of the murders; and in other unreliable sourced it is reported that the police suspected various Young Lords factions (or individuals) of the murders, with some parallels drawn to the murder of Malcolm X by supporters of Louis Farrakhan. But I don't see a reliable source on this, yet. Benefac (talk) 12:39, 19 January 2015 (UTC) Forgive me but The Malcom X parallel is what is unreliable here. There is absolutely no connection unless you believe the Mayor Richard J. Daley attacks and dismissal that the Young lords were "just a gang." I am not a reliable source to you. Yet I Jose (Cha-Cha)Jimenez am the founder of the Young Lords as a civil and human rights movement and that is documented almost everywhere you see information about the Young Lords. I led a transformation of a local street gang and it blossomed into a Lincoln Park Poor People's Coalition which included all sectors of our religious, political, social and business community to try to save the community from segregated displacement, and you continue to insinuate that the Young Lords are a gang which could mean that you are calling me a criminal. There are Universities with special collections, books, You-tubes, movies, documentaries, plays and speakers traversing universities, and yet you are relegating the origins of this Latino movement (which was started from the beginning as a social justice movement) for Puerto Rican self determination as hoodlums. That is shameful. As a primary source who can speak about this movement which originated in Chicago,I also spoke at Rev. Bruce Johnson alongside Rev. Sergio Herrera at the community memorial service. It was followed by a march of 500 through the community at our People's Church. We originally occupied the church but Rev. Bruce Johnson told the police that he had given permission to prevent what would have been a blood bath because we did have legal rifles. The Young Lords in Chicago were Vietnam veterans also and therefore had legal weapons but instead chose all night community vigils to prevent police raids in 969. It is incredible that you would take second and third source information over primary sources which still are alive just because you might be from the east coast as if we are pitting east coast against the mid west. How childish. When the Young Lords began it was to free Puerto Rico and uplift our barrios, it was for unity and never to pitt Puerto Ricans living in New York against Puerto Ricans living in Chicago as you continue to do. Disunity defeats our purpose which is to consolidate puerto Ricans into a unified movement to free Puerto Rico and uplift our barrios. Researchers without investigation? What a joke. This movement has many historians who hold a PhD starting with Dr. Jacqui Lazu and Felix Mazud-Piloto an assistant dean and a professor at De Paul University. Also Dr. Medar Serrata and Dr. Melanie Shell-Weiss of Grand Valley State University see www.gvsu.edu/younglords (I just wrote about this a couple of days ago and someone erased it. Jacqui wrote and produced a play on the origins of the Young Lords movement and Felix headed the Center for Latino research at De Paul and is a current professor (who worked with the Young Lords 13 years and compiled research which is now at the Richardson Library special collections at De Paul University also linked to www.gvsu.edu/younglords ) which said that I am the founder and that the Young Lords began in Chicago. This is ridiculous that I would have to prove myself, yet your misinformation mocks me but more important our movement. We are still operative as a group, after 1969 we were forced underground and then resurfaced in 1972 and led the Rainbow Coalition on my Aldermanic campaign, led by the Young Lords at the same time that Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers ran for mayor of Oakland. At no point have I ever attacked the New York Young Lords. I am very proud that we are fighting alongside each other but we need to be proud of our correct history which is being revised by some opportunists who want want to sell books and make a profit off the blood of our martyrs. The young lords in New York came out of our movement in Chicago. It is the same movement and is why we seek unity. Why would we see them now as our enemy. U.S. imperialism and colonialism and Cointelpro misinformation and divisions is our enemy. These divisions which are the same divisions created inside the Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society,the Brown Berets, the Young Patriots and many of the other 60's movement were orchestrated to divide and destroy our combined movements in which we are still in a protracted struggle. Our mission is to free Puerto Rico not to free New York City or to free Chicago. You asked about Rev. Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Johnson; it is a cold case that has yet to be solved but every year the Young Lords in Chicago hold a memorial for them and Sergio Herrera, the assitant Pastor. It was front page and there was a lot of news at the time and some of it De Paul has info on it. The problem now is that I am not living in Chicago now but we are in the process of compiling the articles and footage. We never said that the police did the murder because we are unable to prove that. We are demanding that they investigate. What we said was that the same week he was murdered I was jailed for "bond jumping" because I was late for court and UMC Bishop Pryor bonded me out of jail to do the eulogy. The old congregation was made up of Cuban exiles who publicly stated that they were proud to have been part of the Bay of Pigs invasion. We had murals of Che Guevara painted on the church ( and they quit the church angrily when the church began working with us regularly). The Young Lords picketed the local numbers/real estate office of the local mafia in support of a local Puerto Rican business owner. They were blaming Rev. Johnson for the Young lord picket. The political machine of Alderman Barr McCutheon (who controlled the local police district) was also writing numerous letters (supported by the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association via a committee which they called UPTID or United People to Inform Good Doers to get us out. These letters are all archived at the Richardson library under the Lincoln park Neighborhood Association files and at Garret Theological Seminary in Evanston,Il and at University of Illinois Circle Campus special collection under the Armitage Avenue United Methodist Church (People's Church). The letters demanded that the Northern Illinois Methodist Conference expel from People's Church Cha-Cha Jimenez, the Young Lords and Rev. Bruce Johnson and kept requesting meetings with the Bishop. We remained at People's Church in Chicago for two years (New York members have called themselves former Young Lords and state that they only lasted 6 months before taken over by the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Party. We are not former anything. We are still proactive Young Lords. There is a YLO/YLP/PRROW link but it begins in Chicago not New York, and in Chicago it remained functioning all these years. How can you have a Black civil rights movement without respecting Selma? How can you have a Young Lords Movement without recognizing that it was never about the Young Lords but about the entire Puerto Rican Community of Chicago being evicted from their homes by the Richard J. Daley machine. These people were harassed all these years, jailed and killed. We still have members in jail. We were not a student social club. It was a grassroots movement of street folks and the broad community and we should be proud not ashamed of our roots. We should not continue to help the FBI by continuing to discredit the Chicago Young Lords and divide the movement between New York and Chicago. Whoever does this is doing grave harm to the Puerto Rican Nation. We are already divided with four million Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and four million forced to migrate here every week. I have given you De Paul University Richardson Library special collections and Grand Valley State University special collections at http://www.gvsu.edu/younglords as reference. also youtube has a video called The Garden Walk of Protest by Monaco about Rev. Bruce and Eugenia Johnson. Rev. Sergio Herrera is information gathered from Pat Devine-Reed who was married to Rev. James Reed, who was the head of the Northside Cooperative ministries in which they all were members. That information unfortunately is undocumented but first hand in Pat Devine's oral history at the Grand Valley online oral histories at www.gvsu.edu/younglords. These collections are both work in progress and we are continuing our research.

Lack of Ideology
This article provides no information on the Young Lords Party ideology. What was the point of their creation? What did they stand for? What work have they done to accomplish their goals? And what are they doing today? More information on these topics would be greatly appreciated.

Zigbigadoorlue 22:49, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


 * We do link to their 13-point program. But in my experience as a New York-area activist at the time, the Young Lords were not driven so much by genuine ideology as by emulation of the Black Panthers. There were some impressive individuals in the Young Lords, but they never achieved the Panthers' level of organization and coherence (which probably saved quite a few of them from the fate of Fred Hampton. -- Jmabel | Talk 22:01, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I think there are a couple of different issues here. First, in terms of ideology, Jmabel is pretty on target. The Lord's weren't driven so much by ideology in any orthodox sense; that said, they did articulate their "ideology" in a document called Ideology of the Young Lords Party. In terms of their level of organization and coherence, I'm not so sure that I'd agree entirely. When they split from Chicago and became the "Young Lords Party," they took on a party structure that was topically oriented (health, women, workers, etc.). Even before that point, however, they were divided up into ministries (defense, health, education, and information) and were "led" by a central committee. Even given that organizational coherence, the issue of individual leadership is a different matter entirely -- the issue of "impressive individuals" and group coherence or group ideology are separate. Does that make sense or am I being too cryptic? JesusArocho 17:25, 24 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi Jmabel -I'd really like to know what you mean by "level of organization and coherence". Our organizational structure was similiar to that of the BPP, but there were differences. We were not driven by emulation of the Panther's, though the initial inspiration for the Chicago Lords came from Fred.  The evolutuon of the YLO (Chicago) and YLP (NY and other locations) is too complex to discuss here in a short comment, but the ideology of the YLP was neither lumpen-based, nor CPUSA Marxist.  The fact that we were dealing with the issue of Puerto Rico and a long history of both nationalist and independentista struggle made us clearly revolutionary nationalists - which is an ideological stance.


 * What saved the Lords from the fate of Fred Hampton was more than likely the fact that the Lords made it clear in public that neither our living quarters nor our offices contained weapons.


 * I don't want it to seem that I'm attacking you - actually I'm really overjoyed to find this discussion, and look forward to further dialogue. DeeOlive 16:54, 12 March 2006 (UTC)


 * My contacts with the Young Lords were entirely with the New York contingent and were not extensive; I had only the most minimal contact of with the Panthers while they were an active organization, so my impressions were mostly secondhand or by talking years later to ex-Panthers; so I could well be wrong in my impressions. Re-reading my remark above, I didn't really mean to emphasize "emulation": certainly the Lords' Puerto Rican nationalism was extremely genuine. But I still had the feeling, and I can't claim that it is much more of a feeling, that the Panthers just simply seemed to me to be more ideological, more dedicated to their broad program, whereas the Lords seemed more like they were simply driven by nationalism. Again, I could well be wrong: this all may reflect more whose path I've crossed thant the nature of the groups. - Jmabel | Talk 19:19, 18 March 2006 (UTC)


 * In response to Jmabel's comment about ideology and comparisons to the Black Panthers, I believe that Young Lords' ideology was that of equality for all people (no matter a person's race, gender, or religion) and that your comment never reaching the level of organization & coherence is false. Dealing with equality, Pablo "Yoruba" Guzman discusses this in his book Palante, Young Lords Party & in Darrel Enck-Wanzer's The Young Lords, in which he states that the Young Lords would say "Don't ever let any particular hatred you have prevent you from working" and that they were intent on "destroy[ing]...a system created by white people, a capitalistic system that has run away from them to the point that it is now killing white people too" (Wanzer 43). They intend to tear down the capitalistic establishment that is causing the degradation of all classes and replace it with one of equality. Similarly, dealing with your comment about their coherence and Fred Hampton's fate, they believed in the distribution or diffusion of power between all (hence equality), which, contrary to the Panthers, created a system where the organization did not have a set of leaders that could be murdered or assassinated to cause the downfall of the organization. In the rules of the Young Lords, rule 22 states that "All members must read at least one political book a month, and at least two hours a day on contemporary matters", which is meant to educate the politically uneducated and to keep those who are educated on their toes. The effect of this contributes to the system of equality that keeps everyone educated in preparation for attacks against their organization or the collapse of the capitalistic system.
 * Ideology comes from practice or struggle.The problem is if you do not do research then you have no right to speak.That was the Black Panther line. As much love as we have for the Black Panther Party who stood for self determination, the Young Lords were not founded by the Black Panther Party. The Young lords rose up from the grassroots out of a turned around gang which saw their community being displaced by the ruthless Mayor Richard J. Daley. All these alleged authorities have never done research. They have never spent an hour in jail. They were not near nor did they witness the set up and murders of Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark nor the Chicago Young Lords' People's Church murders that are still cold cases of Rev. Bruce Johnson, Eugenia Johnson and Rev. Sergio Herrera. These were of the United Methodist Church. These were victims of the establishment and these were not intellectual games.
 * Who said that there were no weapons when the Young Lords took over McCormick Theological Seminary or People's Church.Who said that the Young Lords in Chicago stopped functioning in 1969 when they ran a campaign for Alderperson in 1975 and Harold Washington as the first Black Mayor in Chicago's history in 1983. In June 1983 we organized an event for the new Mayor where over 100,000 Puerto Ricans participated. The first 30,000 were wearing Young Lords buttons. We organized Lincoln Park Camps in 2000, 2001 and 2004. In 2012 we organized archives in both DePaul University and at Grand Valley State University. Just this Friday we held a rally to begin a campaign to celebrate next year at DePaul University in Lincoln Park Chicago: 50 Years of the Young Lords. The entire faculty of both DePaul University and Grand Valley State University are su[porting and endoring this event. Do your research before you relegate these victims of murder and CointelPro and Patriot Act and of repression to insignificance. Maybe you are projecting but the Young Lords rose up by themselves, and they continue to fight for the liberation of Puerto Rico. There are no "former Young Lords" here. To be a former Young Lord is to be a coward. There is only one form of retreat that is ever acceptable in any movement, and that is proactive retreat.The entire Central Committee in Chicago had to go underground but they came back and have continued to fight ever since.  Furthermore, intellectuals do not speak for the Young lords. We are a People's Movement and we are about People's Revolutionary change. It is why we nor the Panthers stress weapons because our goal is to build a People's Army and to do that we must first build base areas by arming the People with education. The object of any battle is to preserve yourself and destroy the enemy. But you intellectuals want to continue to create divisions by dividing the movement into YLP and YLO and calling us former Young Lords. Our nation of Puerto Rico is divided enough already and in crisis. Our job therefore is to build unity and continue to byild a united People's Army. We can not quit because our mission is to free Puerto Rico: self determination. If you do not want to fight anymore. Get the hell out of the way. The FBI does not do as well as you in creating divisions. So what is the purpose of your books? Don't tell me, because I know. It is to glorify the fine deeds that some have done. The problem is that we have not won yet. So it is for you to rip off money from the People's Revolution. History will see you as a divider and not a uniter, and see you for what you are.         207.98.72.251 (talk)August  —Preceding undated comment added 06:26, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

Women Involvement
I was not sure where this could be fit in on the article page, or if to just create a new section, but I think it would be useful to have more information on the women involved in the movement. One thing that separates the Young Lords from other movements that were occurring at the same time, is that they really recognized the roles of women in their organization. In the book, "The Young Lords: A Reader," by Darrel Enck-Wanzer, it goes through the history of the Young Lords and how the organization function. One of the things that really stands out in this book is that the Young Lords made sure to include women in their decisions and ideas. Unlike other movements, the women who were involved, were not cast aside and were not put to do the "women's job." They were allowed to be part of the organization of ideas and events, and were more actively involved within the organization. One thing that gives evidence to this, is the the first section of the book, where they are talking about the 13 point platform, and how when it was revised, they made sure to move their point on women equality higher up on the list, as well as recognize that machismo cannot be revolutionary, because it is a form of oppression, so they also revised the point to say that machismo should not be allowed to exist. Later on in the book, they also challenge gender roles, by saying that men should not oppress women (p.23), and that men should also learn to "cook, to care for children, to be open to cry and show emotions," (p.25) because it is not only up to women to do these things. I think that this is important to talk about, because women involvement is usually left out when talking about important organizations and movements, so since the Young Lords Organization tried to ensure the women were recognized, then it should be important to talk about these women in the Young Lords article. 2601:1C0:C501:46AB:547C:D67:FF91:68CE (talk) 02:58, 2 June 2016 (UTC)Sonia
 * My name is Tony Baez, and I was the Minister of Education for the Young Lords in Chicago, as well as the founder of the Young Lords in Milwaukee. It is very unfortunate that so much misinformation is reported in Wikipedia regarding the Young Lords. It is also sad that there is so much speculation regarding the origins, thinking and purposes of the Young Lords, and of the relationship between Chicago and New York as the two major centers where the Young Lords were most active. Surely, more has to be written about this by the people who were originally involved and those with scholarly intentions. The Young Lords was an extremely important youthful movement particularly at the end of the 1960's and the early 70's. It should not in anyway shadow the important political and people's work that was done by numerous community-based organizations and movements all over the country, at the time. But it certainly provided a national impetus to the larger thinking that Puerto Ricans and other Latinos were participating in a civil rights movement that swept the nation in the 1950's and 1960's. We were a child of that strong political expression of resistance and youthful anger over the treatment of poor people, and in particular Blacks, Latinos and others. We were not imitating any group, although we all borrowed from each other, because most of our actions were driven by the need to protect our communities, community improvement, community service and the dominant ideologies driving each particular ethnic group, such as the case of Puerto Ricans. Therefore, in communities where the actions were inspired by the Puerto Rican independence struggles, that thinking was very prominent. Yet, even then, like in the case of Chicago, we formed Rainbow Coalitions with others (Chicanos, Blacks, Asians, Whites, etc) also victimized by national and local governments, and the attacks against people involved in social justice and civil rights by system institutions that wanted to preserved themselves and used government political and economic policies and the police, for instance, to destroy anything that smell of resistance and change. The Young Lords began in Chicago thanks to the efforts of Jose "Chacha" Jimenez and young people who militated in what today people referred to as grassroots and community-based organizations. Jimenez and the Young Lords were inspired by the grassroots work of the Black Panther and the Fred Hamptons of the time(which by the way, could be found in almost every community in the country). Hampton was assassinated by the Daley machine in Chicago, and that became a rallying point for many, not just the Young Lords, raising his horrible and politically-motivated death to the national level. But there were good leaders like him being killed all over this country, particularly in Latino and Black communities, and also among White anti-war (Vietnam) organizations. We learned how to work together with others in the struggle, first of all, for a just society, a respect for human rights, civil rights, and in solidarity with important causes, such as the struggles for PR independence, a growing Chicano justice and civil rights and labor movement, and an end to the war. In Milwaukee, for instance, because of a very active Chicano/Mexican community, and because of a strong solidarity between PRs and Chicano's publications of The Young Lords newspaper incorporated issues affecting both communities and the images at the top left and right of the newspaper were those of Pedro Albizu Campus (PRs) and Emiliano Zapata (Mexicans)--and we were very tight with African Americans who had marched for desegregated housing and better jobs and health care. The New York Young Lords was established as a Chapter of the already existing young Lords in Chicago. In their own right, the young people of New York had been fighting their local government and the horrendous condition of Puerto Rican barrios, and the Chicago Young Lords was a sort of inspiration; so they became Yong Lords, because of Chicago. Prominent among them were Felipe Luciano, Juan Gonzalez, Richie Perez, Iris Morales, Denise Oliver, Yoruba and many others, who gave direction to the movement and connected with other community groups in that city, very much in the same way that the Young Lords did in Chicago. In Chicago, Chacha Jimenez, Omar Lopez, Saul Rivero, Alberto, myself and many others were constantly building relationships with other groups, in the speaking circles in solidarity with others, and constantly drawing from national and localized movements (because we were all learners and all inspired by a national civil rights movement). No; definitely not true that the Young Lords were founded in NY. They were the child of Chicago community struggles, particularly a growing urban renewal (we used to call it "urban removal") by the city that today is evidenced by the gentrification of Lincoln Park in Chicago (you must be wealthy to live in the almost totally White segregated area).The Yong Lords group in NY grew into a fine organization with much clarity of vision and structures. Like the Young Lords in Chicago both groups went through a lot of changes. Again, like most political, community and university-based groups at the time, when it was common for the FBI to infiltrate them and conspire to destroy them from within with individuals they planted;  It was surely unfortunate that the political work of both groups and their ideological bent eventually led to an organizational separation of the two into The Young Lords Organization (Chicago) and The Young Lords Party (New York). I know, I was there during the negotiations. They were painful, because there were young, inspired and brilliant persons involved. Chacha, Omar, myself and others from the Chicago group struggled with it all. Juan, Felipe, Yoruba, and others from NY were also hurting, yet, the idea to split the group in two came from NY, they initiated it, because they felt they had grown and should lead a movement that had taken on a Puerto Rican "independentista" agenda, and the majority of PRs at the time were in NY (which was true then). There were passionate moments during the several days that we spoke. By the way, even though I did not say so before, the women in both groups were very thoughtful and helpful in our discussions, even though, in retrospect, their was still some machismo involved in how we dealt with each other then (remember the 1970's? Male chauvinism was a huge thing, and Felipe, with all due respect, should remember that it was precisely that concern that let the NY Lords to eventually asking to go). I can't cover to much in this entry, because of time and other struggles that persons like me are involved in today. But at present I am still involved in the struggles for social justice, to a great extent thanks to my activism in the Young Lords. I learned many lessons from that experience. So did others. But most of us today are still involved because for us this was not academic, and we were active because our communities needed us and we were a part then and now to make this country better, more democratic and fair for all of us! I would add, and more bilingual for all of us, because I have also taken bilingualism on as a social justice and ethnic affirmation cause!!!  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.128.103.201 (talk) 18:27, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Much truth has been said by other commentators so need to repeat. I'll just state that at this time it's crucial to get the history straight as we know that the histories of the BPP and Young Lords have been deliberately distorted. We cannot tolerate that the extraordinary leadership of women is often left out of the history and we cannot tolerate that the Chicago YLO is not given its due.  Cha Cha was the founder and leader of an organization and movement that derived in Chicago and continues to inspire us. We have to remember how important Chicago was, remember Mothers and Others, learn from Chairman Fred Hampton, and remember the Original Rainbow Coalition.  Peace.  A.R. Lopez  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:304:78A7:4370:2949:FBEB:98E9:47DC (talk) 22:43, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
 * There is little information included on the role of women in the Young Lords Party. Women have been around since the founding of this party and have played a pivotal role in expanding the organization's mission to include more intersectional principles and protections. They constructed the "Position Paper on Women: Young Lords Party" and have been largely taking care of the legacy and documentation of the party. Iris Morales and Denise Oliver-Velez have been some of the main organizers behind documentary filming and writing on the history and expansion of the Young Lords. Why isn't there more information on these different topics? To only mention these women in the "legacy" section of the wikipedia page is to underrepresent the significant roles they carried throughout the active years in the party. Contrary to the above evaluation on "Women Involvement," the book Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords 1969-1976 takes direct narratives from women who have been involved in the party and they indicate a series of abuses and a general sense of antagonism they faced trying to enter the male-dominated central leadership. Cperales (talk) 19:40, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Young Lords and Budding Intersectional Efforts
I'd be interested if you would consider including more information on the Young Lords later efforts to include more intersectional activist work and coalition building. Iris Morales talks about it a bit in her various works, but I'd be interested in the inclusion of more archival material to speak to this fact. Cperales (talk) 20:09, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Page move proposal
Bumping a question proposed earlier in this page about search results/page name. The Young Lords currently redirects to List of Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series) and Galactica 1980 episodes. I think this page (about the political organization) should have "the" in the title, perhaps with a " For the 1980 Battlestar Galactica episode, see here." Thoughts? --190.188.245.53 (talk) 13:36, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't think it should have the in its title. Look at similar articles, for example: Black Panther Party. I agree with the other comments. I updated this article's wikidata item to include The Young Lords in its alias field. Re adding the "for the 1980.." should be on the page, I agree.--The Eloquent Peasant (talk) 17:49, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

Intro has POV issues
The article begins with the askgraftema@hotmail.comsertion that they are a mere "civil and human rights organization..." only in the side box does it make clear that they are a far-left Marxist group. The article sounds like it is lifted from one of their pamphlets, not at all encyclopedic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.46.226.164 (talk) 18:27, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

There are virtually NO citations on this page
This whole article needs to be redone with appropriate citations. xcuref1endx 13:19, 20 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Along this same vein, there should be a greater variety of sources you include that come from different perspectives on the Young Lords as an organization and how it was run. There have been many pieces written by Latinos on the creation and legacy of the Young Lords, yet I do not see many included in this article. Perhaps that is contributing to some of the missing perspectives that we see in this piece. Cperales (talk) 19:53, 10 March 2017 (UTC)


 * There should also be more archival research included to grant more legitimacy to the history and foundational information of the organization that you are including in this page. Please see Grand Valley State University at www.gvsu.edu/younglords  DePaul University is also a link on the same web page. There is an abundance of information. Here is Juan Gonzalez from Democracy Now explaining clearly that the young Lords began in Chicago    http://www.elmuseo.org/the-young-lords-in-new-york/  Cperales (talk) 20:12, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

I agree citation is greatly needed in this article, but I would also consider that somewhere in the article there be included some kind of information about the 13 point system as it seemed to be quite important in the Young Lords. Such as the platform from 1969 "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. Billions of dollars in profits leave our country for the united states every year. In every way we are slaves of the gringo. We want liberation and the Power in the hands of the People, not Puerto Rican exploiters. QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE! 2. WE WANT SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL LATINOS. Our Latin Brothers and Sisters, inside and outside the united states, are oppressed by amerikkkan business. 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!.......etc. " much more information could be found here Mss97 (talk) 08:27, 5 February 2018 (UTC)Mss97

All the political trash written above—needs to go. I’m Puerto Rican and this is a disgusting diatribe. F. L. (talk) 22:31, 12 June 2020 (UTC)