Organization and Representation

The Young Lords Organization

Organization and Representation 

The YLO primarily focused on giving a voice to the lower class Puerto Ricans and Latinos who weren't able to represent themselves without being looked down upon. It was important for the Young Lords to recruit many people from different parts of Chicago to show representation for everyone. With a large number of people, the Young Lords had a fair representation of everybody in the Latino community and they were able to listen to the issues people faced in their daily lives. A large issue Puerto Rican communities faced was poverty, and with poverty came other issues like lack of food, lack of proper education, lack of respect, and many other issues. Issues like these were pointed out and the YLO would get to work and start projects that would help their community.

Above pictured are a few members from the Latin Kings gang who united with the Young Lords to help fight for equality for all Latinos and to fight gentrification (Latin Kings Section Heads).

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A major part of the growth and strength of the YLO was their ability to unite feuding gangs and other communities to work together and fight for one common goal: justice against Mayor Daley, a man who continuously excluded people of color. Throughout the multiple arrests of Cha Cha Jimenez, he refused to give information about different gangs to the police. This "won him(Cha Cha) respect within the gang community" which played a big part in the cooperation between gangs (Jeffries). With the common goal to fight for minorities, latin gangs put aside their differences to create a bigger crowd to fight police brutality and gentrification. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Martinez , Blanca. “Interview with Michael Robert Gonzales .” 22 Jan. 2020.


A couple of teenagers gathered at the People's Park on Halsted and Armitage to clean 

up trash (Flores People's Park).

The Young Lords let poor citizens of Chicago speak on their needs through peaceful means and beneficial events. An example would be the clean up of the People's Park, this project was meant to show the importance of respecting what they had because no one else cared about what they had. They couldn't keep using parks as hangout spots for gangs because the parks were for everyone to enjoy. The Young Lords helped others understand how important it was for a community to find meaning within something that wasn't up to everybody's standards. By gathering young teens, the Young Lords were able to show how anyone could help fight for their rights no matter the age or race. ​​​​​​​

Gathering at the People's Church to discuss the next protests(Flores People's Church).


Seeing that the YLO wasn't a formal organization that was respected amongst everybody, the meetings had to be held at the People's Church. There, people were able to pitch their needs and the YLO could help organize a way to help them. At the People's Church the Young Lords were able to offer the community "child care and free health care" ,which was extremely important to the lower class (LISC Chicago). 

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