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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
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Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
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Puerto Ricans--United States
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Social justice
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Young Lords (Organization)
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- Notes:
- Cathy Adorno-Centeno is the daughter of Angie Navedo-Rizzo, a Young Lord who also founded “Mothers and Others,” a sub-group within the Young Lords that organized around women’s rights issues. Born in Chicago, Ms. Adorno-Centeno describes growing up surrounded by Young Lords and in a home that was a central gathering for pot luck family dinners for members of the organization and their supporters. Following the brutal death of her Young Lord father Jose “Pancho” Lind, Ms. Adorno-Centeno and her brothers and mother went underground; staying at a rented farm near Tomah, Wisconsin that would become the Young Lords’ Training Camp. Her most vivid childhood memories are of the warmth and support she enjoyed as a member of the Young Lords community. It included block parties, farmworker pickets, demonstrations and social events held near or in the Young Lords headquarters on Wilton and Grace streets. She also spent time at Rico’s Club (which her mother owned) and enjoyed company for the Sunday pasta dinners in her home.
- Date Created:
- 2012-08-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Ted Pearson is a long-time resident of Lincoln Park who has been active within the progressive movement all his life. Early on in 1968 and 1969 he would come by the Young Lord’s People’s Church to offer his support for the Young Lords and their programs. For most of the Young Lords who had just stepped out of gang violence in Chicago, it was their first time ever being involved in protests, demonstrations, or sit-in occupations of institutions. It was a difficult beginning for the Young Lords, who lacked role models and reference points. Some people were even afraid of their unrefined meager appearance, though they were creative and dressed in their best with what they had. Nevertheless, the Young Lords did not originate from a middle class movement. They did not even resemble a student movement at first. It was only later when they began to grow that students and others joined them. Back then there was pride to say you were “Lumpen.” Mr. Pearson and others like him stood for working people, and he hated discrimination and racism then and now. He was one of several who did not judge, but related, relaxed, and took the time to talk and get to know the original members of the Young Lords. It was easy to notice that he genuinely cared for the plight of the poor, and in turn for him to realize that the Young Lords were not evil but were his friends. They were odd looking but they shared the same values. He was also strong on the need to fight racism. Mr. Pearson co-chaired the Chicago branch of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. His mother had been active in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a strong supporter of a movement called, “The Right of a Black Family to live in a White Community.” This movement was led by Carl Braden and was put forth during the Red Scare of the 1950s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee was hunting for communists, in all parts of government and the country. Mr. Pearson has supported many democratic causes since before the 1960s. They include the Young Lords and Black Panthers, Voter Registration Drives, Immigrant Rights, The Committee to Defend the Bill Of Rights, Harold Washington for Mayor, the Obama Campaign, and the Lincoln Park Neighbors United for Peace Against the War in Iraq. This was a grassroots group of neighbors who came together to speak out in a unified voice against the war. They believe in using peaceful non-violent solutions, to promote social justice, conserve the environment and protect civil and human rights.
- Date Created:
- 2012-07-12T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Oral history of Sandra Quiles, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 11/21/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
- Date Created:
- 2012-11-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- María Romero first joined the Young Lords on Wilton and Grace Streets. She was recruited by then Angie Lind-Rizzo (later Angie Adorno) and the other Young Lord women members. It was 1973 and the Young Lords were emerging from two long years of being completely underground, or inoperative publicly as a human rights organization. There were no longer remnants of the Young Lords Movement left in the Lincoln Park neighborhood that gave birth to them in 1968. The Lincoln Park neighborhood had been cleaned out of Puerto Ricans and the poor, in just a few years, by city hall and the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. A directive was given by the leadership for the Young Lords members to move and to establish themselves as a base of operations in the Lakeview Neighborhood, at Wilton and Grace Streets. Many Young Lords moved there with their families. Prior to that, a group of about 25 Young Lords had moved to a rural, rented farm near Tomah, Wisconsin. The farm camp was called a “Training School,” and their sole purpose for their camp was to train new Young Lord’s leaders who would step in and lead the Young Lords. Repression had hit extremely hard within the Lincoln Park Movement, splitting it in several directions. This was aided by pending trials of several Young Lords leaders and the still unsolved murders of United Methodist Rev. Bruce Johnson and his wife Eugenia, of the Young Lords People’s Church. Rainbow Coalition leader of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark were also assassinated in a raid organized by the States Attorney. The Lincoln Park Movement had seized to exist. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, who was then in hiding from the police after being sentenced to one year in Cook County Jail and who had 17 more felony indictments still pending, called for the organizing of a training school in a secluded farm near Tomah, Wisconsin. After members received their training in the farm camp for one and a half years, it was decided that Mr. Jiménez would voluntarily turn himself in, begin serving the year and start to fight the remaining cases which included bond jumping and many trumped up charges of mob actions for demonstrations. The Young Lords would raise his bond, hire attorneys, and then switch their organizing in Lakeview and Uptown where many of the Puerto Ricans of Lincoln Park had moved. They had also moved to Wicker Park and Humboldt Park but the Young Lords wanted to concentrate their forces. If this move was not done, the movement started in Lincoln Park would completely collapse. After serving the year, Mr. Jiménez announced his Aldermanic Campaign for the 46th Ward, as an Independent Democrat. He would use the election not as an electoral revolution but, “as an organizing vehicle for change.” Among other things the campaign would focus on Mayor Daley’s forced displacement of the Puerto Rican Community from the near lakefront and near downtown areas of the city. It not only boldly opposed the banks, the developers, the neighborhood associations but implicated Mayor Richard J. Daley in urban renewal plans that clearly were racist, being utilized to cleanse these areas of lower income minorities. Because of this, María Romero volunteered to serve as Young Lords Office Coordinator. It was Ms. Romero’s job to pass out assignments and to provide support and referrals for services for residents of that Lakeview area of Wilton and Grace. She herself had lived in Lincoln Park but had grown up in Lakeview. There most of the Puerto Ricans knew her family, as her father was a businessman, who for years had owned several Latino botanicas, or stores that sell religious potions and candles of saints, and provide consultation services. Ms. Romero was instrumental in getting a large amount of persons registered to vote. The Jiménez Aldermanic Campaign received 39% of the vote on the first attempt. It was not the 51% needed, but it was still victorious in uniting the community and beginning to expose the prejudice behind displacement. It also opened wide the doors for future Latino political candidates. As Ms. Romero moved west to Humboldt Park she was hired as a community organizer for Bickerdike, a non - profit development corporation. She used her Young Lords organizing skills and passion to promote their mission of being, deeply dedicated to preserving the ethnic and cultural character of their neighborhoods, providing quality affordable housing, preserving jobs, advocating for resources and struggling against gentrification and displacement. One of the main issues that Ms. Romero advocated for was the “Chicago Affordable Set Aside.”
- Date Created:
- 2012-06-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Juan Rodríguez was a member and leader of the Jovenes Nobles social club in San Salvador, Puerto Rico, where he was born and raised. Mr. Rodríguez later followed other family members to Aurora, Illinois where he worked for many years at the Caterpillar Plant on Montgomery Road. Later, Mr. Rodríguez heard about the organizing work of the Young Lords in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. By that time his relatives from the Jiménez family had also come to Aurora, moving from Lincoln Park and Wicker Park. Mr. Rodríguez and his brother Ramón would visit their home regularly, and assisted with organizing the parades.
- Date Created:
- 2012-06-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Oral history of Lenny Foster, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
- Date Created:
- 2016-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Oral history of Ricardo Lugo, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 12/14/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
- Date Created:
- 2012-12-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Oral history of Dennis Cunningham, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
- Date Created:
- 2016-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Oral history of Minerva Solla, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
- Date Created:
- 2016-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Charlyne Martínez-Villegas came to Grand Rapids, Michigan from New Jersey where she loved it because there were many Puerto Ricans. In Grand Rapids she was only one of a few. Another reason that she loved New Jersey is that that is where her mother and father were still married. She explains that as soon as their family arrived in Grand Rapids, her parents divorced. Her mother worked hard trying to make ends meet, preparing homemade pasteles that people would order from her ahead of time and then she would have to have them ready at all hours of the day or week. Eventually her mother’s homemade business led to opening up a small restaurant on Grandville Avenue which is always filled with patrons. In Grand Rapids, Ms. Martínez-Villegas began to get in trouble at school and in the neighborhood on the southeast side of the city, by Garfield Park. She missed her friends back in New Jersey and in school “she just did not fit in…the kids were mostly white, or black.” She explains that she could relate a little better with black children because they shared a lot of things in common. She also missed her father. The Young Lords were passing out flyers door-to-door. But they did not use the name “Young Lords” publicly. Instead they called themselves the “KO CLUB.” And they had a way with words. She explains that they had to read some pledges and phrases and everything began with KO: “Keep Open Your Hearts” or “Keep Standing Up for Yourself” or “Keep Open Your Mind.” Their meetings were held in a United Methodist Church, and the heads of the KO Club were Pastor Marge Berman, who was of Mexican descent, and Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez. Members of the Club were also shown several videos about the Young Lords.The young people who participated in the Club and the small congregation were supportive. But there were a few within the church who did not like the Young Lords, who had taken over Methodist Churches in New York and Chicago. Those same individuals also did not like Pastor Berman, who was new and wanted more interaction with the community. Pastor Berman had read a newspaper article about the Young Lords while Mr. Jiménez was working as a substance abuse counselor for Project Rehab. She contacted him by phone. And when they met for the first time, Pastor Berman told him that he was sent by God. To which Mr. Jiménez replied, “Did God send any money? Because I have bills.” Mr. Jiménez did want to organize and help youth, but he wanted to do so around issues related to the Young Lords. Pastor Berman just wanted to save souls. It was a good understanding, but Mr. Jiménez would have to work incognito because using the name Young Lords name would be like saying the word “gang” in Grand Rapids. The KO Club worked well because it was not an after school program. It was an “in the neighborhood program.” It was focused on youth like Ms. Martínez-Villegas who did not want anything to do with school. And while others were saying to all youth who got in trouble, “Lock them up and throw away the key.” the KO Club had their own public slogan: “Support Youth For A Change.” Parents had to get involved, because the KO Club would visit them in their home and let them know that they were not babysitters. Once a month parents would attend amateur night where the KO CLUB members would perform for them and the rest of the community. Organizing was constantly being done door-to-door. KO CLUB was like a good gang and everyone was a member. Their colors were black and purple, but their symbol was a heart with KO in the middle and a cross above the heart. Once a year there was an annual dinner with the community where many members of the United Methodist Church attended including the Bishop. It was cost effective as it was run more like support groups divided by age: pee wee, juniors, and seniors. They would all have a chance to express themselves in a variety of ways, including discussion, with music, or in sports. The only problem came from the adults. Some wanted to make it more ecumenical to include the community at large and others wanted the organization to be more faith-based. Still others wanted control. And Pastor Berman was moved to a church in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Jiménez was left alone, fighting church elders who were paranoid that Mr. Jiménez might want to speak for the church. Mr. Jiménez understood their fears and resigned in an amicable way. The youth program continues today and it is being run more privately within the church. Ms. Martínez-Villegas says that it is what she needed then with the loss of her father, and that participating in the KO Club turned her life around.
- Date Created:
- 2012-06-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries