The New York Times, City Room, Blogging From the Five Boroughs, 2009

Article by Jennifer Lee

The Young Lords’ Legacy of Puerto Rican Activism

This article discusses the beginnings of this New York chapter, the origins being in Chicago and with a bent more towards politics.   Lee quotes Pablo Guzman, “a founding member of the New York City’s Young Lords, who is now a correspondent for the WCBS-TV.”  Guzman tells Lee that many of their members were children of rural Puerto Ricans that had migrated in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Guzman says that public services for their community were appalling, and nothing was being done about it, so they used confrontational tactics to draw attention to their situation.  These tactics involved burning trash on the streets, taking over a church, and occupying it to provide care for its people, and taking hospital equipment for their needs.  The FBI infiltrated the group in the early 1970’s, and there was also political infighting, the group disintegrated around this time.   The group still holds anniversaries, but there are mixed feelings about Puerto Ricans circumstances as conditions have changed very little since this time.  However, they are extremely proud of Justice Sotomayor’s success, who is Puerto Rican and “the Young Lords alumni view as their own.”