PP&D 177 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Culture Of Puerto Rico, Mariana Bracetti, Young Lords
1 Jun 2018
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5/10/18
!Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords
• First generation Puerto Ricans dealing with a lot of community issues
• 10th street = what do you need? (wanted clean street)
• Wouldn't even give people brooms to sweep
• Garbage would not be picked up by the sanitary system
• First Harlem Garbage protest
• More people joined because they wanted social change
• Not much info in Puerto Rican culture
• Niches of 3 great culture = Indian, African and European/Spanish
• Multiracial people
• 1800s Mariana Bracetti
• Puerto Rico = Spanish colony until
• US embarked on Spain war
• Spaniards thought Americans would let them be free but there was a military regime
instead
• The longer America’s presence in Puerto Rico, the worse Puerto Rico got
• Bad health, education, housing, paid 6 cents per hour
• 10 years between WW2, thousands of PRs came to USA, NYC
• Challenged to exploitation, discrimination
• Latinos respond with direct action
• Young Lords Organization = pressured institutions to help Latino concerns, led by Cha
Cha Jimenez
• Young Latinos in NYC inspired by Chicago Young Lords
• Agreement to create Young lord East coast branch
• Military structure to the group
• The group of young Puerto Rican could have impacts in the city issues
• Tremendous potential of young people
• 13-point program (community control, socialist society, weekly political sessions, right to
defense)
• Unemployed youth, students, war veterans joined
• Women allowed to be at the level of men
• Understood the importance of collective action
• Expanded their activities to do free breakfast program and clothing drives
• Asked Church to make more room for their program
• 13 arrested in Harlem Church battle, kidnapped the church
• 11-day occupations = young lord members and supporters arrested
• Continued their programs at different community spaces
• May 1970 = young lords party = created newspaper Palante
• Police Brutality in Philadelphia
• El Che Ve = socialist fight for new individuals
• Sexism amplified within the military based program
• Women of organization = came up with list of 10 demands to the male counterparts
• Platform = machismo is not a concept
• Equality of women on all levels
• Denise Oliver and Gloria Fontanez promoted to the board
• Male men disciplined for oppressing women
• Homosexuality = gay clockers, 3rd world gay
• Afro-Indio culture
• Lead poisoning detection program = third of children in homes had lead in their system
• Banned the use of lead-based paint in apartments
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