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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a439aced87ed7185d2660dff223507f2.pdf
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Speaking Out
Western Michigan’s Civil Rights Histories
Interviewee: Jose Jimenez
Interviewers: Timothy Robertson, Ashlie Hood and Angelica Perez
Supervising Faculty: Melanie Shell-Weiss
Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections
Date: 2/24/2012
Biography and Description
Jose Jimenez was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico and lived in Chicago. He discusses his experiences as
the leader of the Young Lords and an activist for Latin Americans.
Transcript
JIMENEZ: So the name of the class is what?
HOOD: US diversity, diversity in the US
JIMENEZ: Oh diversity, ok
ROBERTSON: So we will essentially be conducting an oral history which I’m sure you have way more with
experience than we do
JIMENEZ: No I don’t have any experience this is my first time that I’m doing the history, the oral history
ROBERTSON: Oh nice, right on
JIMENEZ: Yeah I don’t have any experience
ROBERTSON: Then it will be a new experience for the both of us; essentially we will be running through
basic history about you
JIMENEZ: Ok
ROBERTSON: Integrating a few points of what kind of built you personally and then like your opinion of
home
JIMENEZ: Ok where do you want to start, what’s your name again?
HOOD: Ashlie
JIMENEZ: Ashlie? Ok I’m José, ok
ROBERTSON: To start actually if we can get some basic information about you
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�JIMENEZ: You do have a lot of questions? Or is that
ROBERTSON: Well these are…
JIMENEZ: Background stuff
ROBERTSON: Yeah, they
JIMENEZ: Ok
ROBERTSON: Just some basic questions
JIMENEZ: (laughing)
ROBERTSON: We kind of developed our own from this so
JIMENEZ: Ok so you want some basic personal questions first or
ROBERTSON: Yup. Yeah the first, if you could introduce yourself
JIMENEZ: Ok, I’m José Jimenez, the nickname I’ve had for most of my life is cha cha, C-H-A C-H-A
(spelling out cha cha) and I got that, it was more like a people in the neighborhoods usually get
nicknames in a negative way so they were kind of little racial in nature because this guy used to call
another black person sambo and he called me a cha cha cha, and so as more, I was just a little kid, but as
more Latinos came into the neighborhood. I, I kind of liked the name cha cha so I just kept it, some
people get called frog face or whatever, (Ha-ha) I just kind of liked the name cha cha
ROBERTSON: If you could tell us date of birth and location
JIMENEZ: Ok, I was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. My family is from the country but of course I was born
in the city, in the town because my older sister had died and my mother was worried because there was
no medical treatment in the country so she moved to the town of Caguas but us when I went back to
Puerto Rico when I was fifteen years old, all I knew was the country. I came straight from Chicago back
to the country there. It was actually a good experience because I spent a lot of time with my
grandfather, Egragrorio Jimenez, and I mean I had to use the two bulls to turn ground and…
ROBERTSON: Oh wow
JIMENEZ: And coming from Chicago there was real whole awakening for me. The whole country, the
whole culture, the music of the people that they had there so I was able to catch a lot to really
appreciate the country life of Puerto Rico there
ROBERTSON: Kind of to bounce off that, what kind of ancestry did you have?
JIMENEZ: I had, well my great grandfather and my great grandfather, they’re all Puerto Rican so. On my
mother’s side there’s a lady that comes directly from Spain but basically we’ve been Puerto Ricans for
generations. We came when I was two years old, my father did not own his own property, he did not
own his own farm so he worked on other peoples farms. At the time they called them agregaros, so
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�aggregated or connected because they were able to get some space for their house in somebody else’s
land and that’s how you make a living, you work for the farmer and so there was a large farmer named
Jimenez which is my last name and he worked for him, a lot of people worked for him at that time. Later
on my grandfather was able to purchase a lot a large a lot where his sons and daughters were able to
work because there were about 13 or 14 of them, brothers and sisters so siblings. So they were able
each of them to have their own section, and so things improved later, after this large land owner
Jimenez left the area. Ah, well that was just the way of life. People were not angry with him, it wasn’t
like slavery or anything like that it’s just that he had money and he was able to provide for other people
at that time, it was his business. from my father, because he worked at the farm it was easy for him to,
when the united states was having trouble with Mexican workers because of their documentation and
their papers and that Puerto Ricans were citizens of the united states so the united states, the US
companies went to Puerto Rico to bring Puerto Ricans here to work in the fields, so my father came and
he worked by concord Massachusetts when there was still farm land at that time and he did that since
1945-46 and then he moved up and they let him drive a tractor because he spoke a little English and so
he went back and brought other people to, to near Boston to the Andy voy farms. Andy voy farms were
connected, they were the farms providing vegetables to Campbell’s Soup Company because I tried to do
some research on them and that’s what I found out. But so he was bringing in people so, but the
conditions were not that well because they would come and they would have to work from early in the
morning to late at night and they had nothing else to do to socialize, I mean a lot of them started
drinking alcohol became their way to relax on the weekends because on the weekdays they had no time
to relax and they and they didn’t know anybody.
ROBERTSON: It certainly becomes a social conflict
JIMENEZ: Yeah yeah, so he did that for a few years and then he brought my mother and myself to
concord and then my sister Juana was born there and from me moved, after he brought us here. I guess
even though we had our own little cottage life, I guess he didn’t like that environment for us, for the
family environment. It was mostly just men working there. Although my mother, she started making
money ironing clothes, and she was making more money that he was. Because she was ironing clothes
for the men and the place
ROBERTSON: Mmhmmmm
JIMENEZ: But there were more family in Chicago so his sisters and brothers were I Chicago so he decided
to move to Chicago in 1950 and that’s when we lived in a, what they called a new barrio, a
neighborhood a new community because it was developing in Chicago at that time. So everybody kind
of knew each other, I would say there was maybe ten thousand Puerto Ricans at that time in the city
and they were kind of spread out like Clark, around Chicago avenue, Clark was a neighborhood
developing, it was a Puerto Rican neighborhood, it actually was it actually was a skit row area because
there was a lot of hotels that they were converting into apartments and rooms and stuff like that it was
a little rent. They were ready to tear down the buildings and so there was low rent and that was where
Puerto Ricans can go. I mean most of them were migrant workers anyways so they were just coming
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�there to work for a few years and to go back, the same as my father was doing in concord
Massachusetts
ROBERTSON: Right
JIMENEZ: But this time it was in a city and factories and they were trying to make enough money to go
back but the plane fair was very expensive and then it wasn’t just the plane fair but when you went back
to Puerto Rico, you had to put a fassad, like you had money. So you go there and everybody’s expecting
you to buy drinks and everybody’s expecting you to wear the best clothing and everybody’s expecting
you to act like your upper class because you have money and you’re an Americano, you’ve been to the
united states and so those things were hampered with the travel back and forth because people had to
put their fassad to pretend that they were something that they weren’t.
ROBERTSON: That’s an interesting condition though, I mean to me essentially what you’re saying is that
the condition I Puerto Rico was just a lack of employment and that’s what drove you to the states
JINENEZ: Exactly that was very you k know when there is employment here at 90% you’re looking at
even at right now 30% in Puerto Rico so it’s definitely by triple the amount that it is here so those were
bad times there in the early 50’s, late 40’s and people were looking, there was a big migration at that
time of Puerto Ricans coming not only to Chicago but to the Midwest and the steel mills and to the
hotels they had a, my uncles had a favorite quote that they used to talk, if you asked them what kind of
work they were in they would say that they were gravando discos making records. What they meant by
that they were spinning records, what they meant by that they were washing dishes (Tim and Ashlie
begin to laugh) because there were so many of them that were living in the well they were working in
the hotels in Chicago we lived like six blocks away from the downtown so I mean that was and that kind
of created a bad problem later because it was prime real estate so the few Puerto Ricans that were able
to buy some houses cheap resold them cheap then there was a whole land grabbed in that area of
downtown which is where we came in later, we were, cause we kept moving, we didn’t know, I mean
we were not connected to the city at all, we were not connected to the politicians or anything like that
or we didn’t pay attention, our parents didn’t pay attention to the news or anything like that because
they didn’t speak English
ROBERTSON: Right
JIMENEZ: And we were young we didn’t care about it and we were like disconnected from the city. Like
Mexicans are today, a lot of Mexican people immigrants, are today they are kind of in their own world
they’re disconnected and that went like that for a while through generation until we started to go to
school and making our own little connections and that but, so we kept moving from one place, we lived
there for a few years then we got pushed out of there and moved to another place and so you read in
some of the books today that Latinos or Puerto Ricans moved a lot but what they didn’t say was that it
would be renewed and being pushed out from on, I mean because we didn’t know that they were trying
to re develop the whole lake front
ROBERTSON: Okay
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�JIMENEZ: So we just kept moving north along the lake front and so we kept on being pushed out
ROBERTSON: So that that berry field then pushed you farther away from downtown
JIMENEZ: Right and then they were trying to develop the downtown and the lake front so we were
always near downtown I mean because of our jobs because we were with the dishwashers, the women
with the hotel, with the maids, with the rich people, they cleaned people’s houses and companies were
recruiting women from Puerto Rico to do that and they I can’t think of the name right now of one of the
companies but they actually they companies and it was cheap labor they were looking for that and
you’re dealing with citizens, you’re not dealing with someone that is not a citizen. Puerto Ricans were
born citizens. In 1966 we were getting were for our first world war, and so we were made citizens of the
united states, there was no vote or anything like that, they just said you we’re giving you this right to be
a citizen and the next day you got to go to war
ROBERTSON: Of course
JIMENEZ: But it’s true, why would you become a citizen in 1917, what was going on was the war you k
now
ROBERTSON: Right
JIMENEZ: So anyway we were citizens and it gave us some benefits it’s not, so yeah there were some
benefits that came with that those benefits made us more independent but you’re talking about food
stamp benefits, that we didn’t have before so those benefits were good. We have a lot of companies in
Puerto Rico but the owners are over here I mean if you own a business and you’re over here, you’re the
one that’s making the main money I mean you’re giving jobs to some people, but you’re the one that’s
making the profit so it was like that but, I’m saying that because the whole fight that happened with the
young lords later was about self-determination of like Puerto Rico. We believed that Puerto Rico should
determine their own destiny and it nothing against the United States believes the same thing I mean
they fought their war against England so I mean we believed the same thing. We don’t disrespect the
American flag we can’t because we want to respect our flag; we want to fly our own. Right now you
have to fly both flags, there was a time in the 30’s when Puerto Ricans were made, they were forced to
speak only English in school, that’s crazy. Somebody’s not going to go to Germany and tell everybody ok,
you got to speak English now (laughing).
ROBERTSON: Right
JIMENEZ: What I am saying, no more German allowed that’s what they did to Puerto Rico not everybody
but the people in charge. We definitely don’t blame the American people, just the people in charge and I
grew up over here so but anyways I got off on in a tangent here
ROBERTSON: It’s all right
JIMENEZ: So we came to Puerto Rico to la Clark, was the neighborhood we called it and then there was
another community called la Madison which was right around down town on the other side, on the
western part of it but they actually were together except there was an express way that divides or the
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�Kennedy, that divides up the two neighborhoods so basically we lived downtown and we lived near the
lake front, basically we lived in that community. But there was two barrios, there was two
neighborhoods that were being built at that time, one was la Clark and one was la Madison. Now people
from both la Clark and la Madison moved into Lincoln Park or Wicker Park. And that is where my
generation grew up, in either wicker park or Lincoln park and so that’s all knew of Puerto Rico again I
can’t remember I was only two years old and most of us came when we were young so we didn’t know
anything about Puerto Rico but in our neighborhood here in Chicago and so to us that was our Puerto
Rico and all of sudden after were there for like 15, 20 years, here comes the bull dozers again and here
comes the urban renewal program and they wanted to evict us again, except this time they’re not
evicting our parents, they’re evicting us and we grew up here
ROBERTSON: Right
JIMENEZ: And so were saying we can’t go for this anymore, we have to do something and that’s kind of
how the young lords started. We were just hanging out on the corner I mean we didn’t care about
anything, we wanted to listen to music, smoke a little weed, drink a little wine, and have a good time
and some of us were soldiers, we went to the service and once in a while we got a little mischief. We
would cut the hippies hair (Tim and Ashlie laughing) or jump on the sailors. Some of us probably, I
remember going to the dances and there was about eight of us with different stoning cars that we got to
just go to the party, if wanted a new car, we couldn’t afford it so we just took it. So we weren’t even
taken it to, some people would take it to get the hop cats and sell them or whatever. We would just take
it to go to the parties. We weren’t the only ones getting into trouble. I mean we had our fights; we won
some we lost some. So I mean that’s all we were about. We weren’t political, our parents were sure not
political, they came from the farms from the field of Puerto Rico where there were farm workers. They
didn’t have any education, we didn’t have any education, most of us dropped out at eighth grade or
ninth grade of high school so we definitely didn’t have no education, our parents had no education. My
father was on welfare and my mother worked in a transformer place where she got minimum wage
almost and then my father had to say that he didn’t live with us so got welfare, first he got
unemployment I guess then he got welfare but he did work for about 13 or 14 years for Oscar Meyer it
was a meat factory, he worked in a meat packing factory but then they fired him, they moved the
company and so he lost his job and he didn’t want to work again he started hanging out at the bar,
became a pool shark and that’s how he made his money I guess but then he sold the numbers, that was
another way of making money and the neighborhood was to, now its legal, the lottery is legal but at that
time there was no lottery
ROBERTSON: Okay
JIMENEZ: But in Puerto Rico they did have a lottery that was legal and so they just thought it was okay to
sell the numbers but it was not legal because there was no taxes being paid
ROBERTSON: Right, right
JIMENEZ: But today they didn’t distinguish it too much so I wouldn’t say that my father was a gangster,
he did belong to a little club like the old hatchets, it was a name that they chose, but they would get into
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�bar fights, bar brawls but it wasn’t really as gang if you compared to gang stuff its nothing like that. And I
think he went to jail twice because I went with my mom to bond him out for fights and he was definitely
afraid of jail, he didn’t want to go. Not like me I went a lot of times but he, so he was just more of a
family person. In fact Jackie glease, the honeymooners was his favorite show
ROBERTSON: Yeah, so you would say that one of the biggest draws for Chicago was your own people
there
JIMENEZ: The draw, you mean for myself?
ROBERTSON: Right, well with you and your family even I mean you were saying that there were more
job opportunities
JIMENEZ: Right and our families were there we were closer to our family versus being in some farm, in a
field farm in the fields and stuff like that but yeah so one of the draws with living in Lincoln park was
that there was families growing up together and it became a tight knit neighborhood, just like any other
neighborhood
ROBERTSON: So would you say it helped maintain a sense of your culture?
JIMENEZ: Right and maintain the culture, that’s what I’m saying because it maintained our culture and it
made, that was my Puerto Rico, that’s what I knew of Puerto Rico. I loved Puerto Rico today but I never,
I didn’t live in it that much what I’m saying. My sisters were all born here and they lived there for several
years they loved it there. And I loved it there too but I can’t find any work but their husbands were
raised there so they’re kind of used to their economy, their culture and I’m not. I was raised here so I’m
used to here more. Even though I love Puerto Rico and defend it I had to me my Puerto Rico was Lincoln
Park and that neighborhood and that community and then because we did the bad thing and we did the
good things. Think of the new immigrants moving there, like pilgrims
ROBERTSON: Mmhmmm
JIMENEZ: Because they came in there and actually acted like pilgrims cause they came with a religious
fervor from Puerto Rico and when they saw that a lot of the older people, the man would get into gangs
and start selling drugs they used religion, they used Catholicism to preach when they saw that the youth
could not afford to go a catholic school, my mother had her own catechism in her own house, she had
an altar in the house but basically, she would have our living room was about 30 chairs, and the kids
would come in there and she would, they would have to memorize the book because she wasn’t a good
teacher, she never went to school and she only went to, I don’t think she even went to the 1st grade
because she was raised in an orphanage but her mother got ill land so she was raised in an orphanage
near san Juan until she was like 15 or 16 then she got connected with my father and they got married
but she had catechism classes and they would graduate and she worked it out with the local priest and
they would go and do it there. She would have catechism classed and they would have to recite word
from word yes ma’am god raised on the third day no mam, yes mama. That’s the way they had to
answer that was the way she trained them and she was excited when the priest would come and ask
them questions because they would graduating at that time and the families were excited, they would
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�go them like a little suit and fine dresses and that and they would go and receive their first communion
and I saw that, I was going to catholic school at that time and it was like one of those where your
mother is the minister and you don’t want to be connected to the class, you’re always on the sideline.
But I appreciated what my mom was doing and I learned her organizing skills and how she had to talk to
the parents and stuff like that. And she did that for, she had a few classes that graduated (Jose’s phone
starts ringing) I should have turned this off, sorry
ROBERTSON: It’s alright; do you need to take that?
JIMENEZ: No, (Jose is trying to turn his phone off) and Tim is trying to help him
JIMENEZ: Where were we?
ROBERTSON: You were just describing your appreciation with what your mom was doing
JIMENEZ: Well I need to also say, because I said we had a little altar, she my mother also, in Puerto Rico
there is different customs, so even though 99% are catholic, there’s still old customs from the Indians
and from the Africans, so you have their religions also a part of the thing. And my mother had, today she
is what you call a charismatic Catholic so that means that they pray to the saints and she’s very into, well
the Africans have the santaria, which is what we say is more like voodoo but it’s just a religion from
Africa but it’s in the music you here songs like changu, and all that so my mother wasn’t into that, she
was more into Indian, she said I’m an Indian. But even though she was catholic she doesn’t say it
because she would get criticized even with the community. But I know that she believe, she says I
believe in the tongues and the holy spirit, which is catholic but I know for her is was little bit more. But I
don’t think she understand the whole religion part of it, she’s just like, you go to any Puerto Rican
neighborhood and they have what they call botanicas, so you can go in there and buy candles and
different things and that a regular store and they make good money because there’s a lot of people that
buy that stuff. So m my mother was just kind of picking from that, she’s like one of those people that
would pick a candle. Right, so she did believe and that so I wanted to say it, because it is part of our
culture I mean it’s not just a religion, its apart of our culture, it’s a part of the fact that Puerto Ricans are
Indian, African and European Spanish, so I have my light features because from the European Spanish.
But even within our own family for 500 years we’re mix. So there’s also a saying in Puerto Rico that says
y tu abuela donde esta? And your grandmother where is she? Meaning that all our grand mothers were
from Africa. I mean that’s what they’re trying to day by this saying. Even though they weren’t all, what
they mean is that we’re all mix; we cannot be prejudice against anybody, because we’re, we’re all, we’re
all mixed people. So we’re mixed for 500 years, so talking about diversity…
ROBERTSON: You were ahead of the game?
JIMENEZ: We were ahead of the game a little bit, I think. But the problem also—it says that in the United
States we don’t get our history. And, and so we’re, we’re not being taught that, although that’s common
knowledge among Puerto Ricans that, that went to school in Puerto Rico. So, the Puerto Ricans that
grew up here don’t [pause] don’t have that knowledge. We were, what the Young Lords were doing
[pause] was to try to teach people about their history and, that’s one of the things that we, we
promoted that we still promote.
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�ROBERTSON: Say, I’m kind of curious moving onto that point… what was it like actually organizing and
assembling the Young Lords?
JIMENEZ: Well, that’s [pause] it wasn’t easy. I mean it’s still not easy today, I mean,
ROBERTSON: Certainly.
JIMENEZ: You kind of have to keep one step ahead of yourself, even today. [Pause] I mean, part of the
reason I’m in Michigan has to, has to do with some of that, too.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: But [pause] I got in, in, I went to jail, I got from the gang we went, we, there were different
stages in the gang. We were first starting out; we’re just kind of just drinking and having a good time…
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And then we started organizing ourselves and then we started trying to get a name for
ourselves so we go to [pause] to other neighborhoods, to challenge them right in their own
neighborhoods. to, to let ‘em know we can kick their butt in their own neighborhood. At that time it
wasn’t like today where you just are shooting, but some of us had, some weapons, but just some of us.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: Well we were going to another neighborhood. I remember going with Orlando one day and,
and we went, and we used to have to walk around this one neighborhood because The Corps used to
hang around there and The Corps was a [pause] was a grouping of a lot of Italian, Irish, Polish gangs, and
they all…
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: They used to be the Saint Michael’s Drum and Bugle Corps but they [pause] they changed into
a gang. They, they, they started The Corps themselves became a gang. so we used to have to, to go to…
we had a branch in Old Town it was like ten blocks away from our other branch, so me and Orlando,
Orlando was the founder of the gang—Orlando Davila—was the founder of the street gang. I was the
founder of I was one of the original founders with him.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: But I was the founder of the political group the Young Lords. So I transformed the gang into,
into the Young Lords as a political movement. So anyway, we, we walk, one day we’re walking and we
would always have to go around the churches. Orlando said, “what, I got my pistol from my father,
we’re gonna walk—me and you are gonna walk right through there. And I’m going…[all laugh a bit] And
I’m going to let you; you better protect me because I don’t have nothing.
ROBERTSON: Right.
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�JIMENEZ: I had like a little knife and that was it, but, we’re talking about like eighty people that we’re
going right…
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: Going through eighty people on the playground, so we’re, we’re walking in there [pause] and, I
mean, there was like a big pride in us because I knew he had that, that, that weapon. I knew that he had
that, and, and at that time there weren’t that many people carrying guns like they do today.
ROBERTSON: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: And today that wouldn’t work. [Chuckles]
ROBERTSON: Yeah, I bet.
JIMENEZ: But so usually they would have bats and sticks and stuff like that; throw rocks, whatever—or,
cut you up or something like that. So anyway, we’re walking through the middle and I can see these,
these, these guys are, you can hear them. “Whoa, look at these Puerto Ricans here, they think they’re
bad. Look, they’re walking through our neighborhood,” that kind of stuff;
ROBERTSON: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: And I’m just glowing, like I know they’re not gonna... No, but they’re kind of afraid; they don’t
know what we got. They don’t know what we got, but finally they kind of surround us and that, and they
go, “Whoa, you guys are bad,” and, I don’t know what Orlando told them. He just said something, but,
all of a sudden, “We should kick your butt,” and that, something like that. Orlando said, “Well, come
on!” and that… [Fumbling over words] when they took out the pistol he started shooting, like in the air,
and it just emptied out—the whole playground emptied out. [Sounds of shock/amazement]
JIMENEZ: But, I mean after that, [pause] after that we would walk through there; it was like, everything
was okay. I mean, we, ‘cause we went to school with some of these people, so the next day I got to the
school and then after that there was no more, like we couldn’t walk through there. Now, to, to some
people they would say that that’s prejudice that we can’t walk through there,
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: But we were looking at it more like from a gang point, point of view; but you can, today you
can kind of look at it and say—well, what Puerto Ricans… ‘Cause we had the same problem at the beach;
we couldn’t, Puerto Ricans couldn’t go to the beach, so it wasn’t just the youth, it was the adults.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: We couldn’t go to North Avenue Beach in Chicago, and that was in our neighborhood, so we
had to go to Fullerton Beach, and, so the beaches were segregated. Chicago was a, was a segregated
town at that time. It’s still somewhat segregated—where you have different, Puerto Ricans in one area;
Mexicans in another;
Page
10
�ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: Italians in another; Irish in another;, Polish in, in another; so, so there in Lincoln Park it was like
that, but, and, and blacks.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: So these three blocks would be Polish. These three blocks German; like that, and we couldn’t,
like African Americans couldn’t move north of North Avenue. In Chicago, there’s a street called North
Avenue; and you would hear that, I mean, I would hear that as a kid going to the barber shop I heard
[pause] because I was light-skinned, they didn’t know I was Puerto Rican [laughs],
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: So I’m sitting there getting my hair cut, I’m just a little kid, and I’m hearing these adults talking
about, “Mayor Daley, he’s not gonna let no blacks move past North Avenue. We don’t have to worry
about that,” So, this was during the time of Urban Renewal, but I didn’t know that.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: So there, so, so Urban Renewal to us was it was like a master plan for that city for—a fifty year
master plan to clean up the lakefront and the downtown area.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And we were just caught up in the middle of that—the Lincoln Park neighborhood and Wicker
Park later.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: Because now Wicker Park no longer exists as we knew it then. That was also a Puerto Rican
community, and it was wiped off the map. and I’m saying, you’re talking about thirty or forty thousand
people to sixty thousand people in a neighborhood.
ROBERTSON: They just had to up and relocate.
JIMENEZ: Right, I mean they were like sixty thousand people, but let’s say a good thirty percent of that
were, were Puerto Rican. That’s a good percentage, and we were all centered in the central part of the
area.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: The rest were, were the lakefront that was always the same way. They called it the Gold Coast,
so there was no urban renewal there. but in our neighborhood it was completely wiped out and just
robbed; it was a land grab. I mean, they took they tra… they bought—they did it— legally, it was legal, a
legal land grab. so, [fumbles over words] everything was done legally, if you, if you think that out of, out
of a city council with fifty elder men and forty-nine of them are democrats, so if that’s legal to you [all
laugh]
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�JIMENEZ: Forty-nine out of fifty are voting one way, with Mayor Daley. So, if that’s le… if that’s called
laws, making laws, I don’t know where to… [Laughing] I don’t know where it’s democracy; it’s definitely
not the Americas. And they call themselves democrats; that’s the other thing, see. Here, it’s, it was
strange for me to come to Michigan because everybody’s Republican,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And I’m going like, “I can’t tell the difference.” It’s, [all laugh], we’re still in the same boat. But,
[pause] but anyway, I got off track again, I, I don’t know maybe we’ve got another question.
ROBERTSON: Let’s see… yeah just I mean that process of organizing…
JIMENEZ: Oh, organizing; okay, yeah. Okay, so we were in the gang—we’re gang banging, we’re doing all
this stuff—I come out of jail, I’m in jail and I start reading, I got put in the hole,
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: And they said, we go to jail and, and all the Puerto Ricans hang out together, that’s just
common.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And so there was some, some gangs there and they said “Those guys are a gang and they, and
they want to attack us,” so they’re telling the guards; and then they’re talking about escaping because
this one guy, we were joking and he’s, he’s putting his head through the window. So they say, “If you
can put your head through the window, you’re gonna put your whole body,” So he’s, but he’s just
joking; we’re not talking about escaping. He’s just, playing games. We’re just passing the time away;
ROBERTSON: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: And so anyway that night they, they took us all downstairs, strip-searched us, and, took us to
the hole; and that was a, a, a city jail so, so it was a, the house of correction?
ROBERTSON: Mmh.
JIMENEZ: So the most you do there is a year, and but, and I was doing sixty days and everybody else was
doing like ten days, or something like that. So I had the most time; I had just come in, and now I’m like,
they’re saying that I’m trying to escape so they’re putting me in maximum security, which is the hole,
which means I don’t get out of my cell but once a week for a shower, and that’s it, and that’s with a
guard.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: So, you’ve got a lot of time to read; there’s not, no, nobody else there but you. I mean, it’s an
old Civil War, Civil War cell house, so the catwalk, instead of being steel, it was wooden; and they had,
they had big cats to get the rats, ‘cause there were rats, and there were roaches.
ROBERTSON: Wow.
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�JIMENEZ: I mean can you imagine going to jail [all laugh] and you gotta deal with roaches in jail. [Laughs]
Oh, man; but, and then it was real cramped up cells and stuff like that. So I mean, you had nothing else,
you’re spent most of the day in your underwear and, and, and you listen to the radio which is on a loud,
those loud speakers like on M.A.S.H. that t.v. program. They had like loud speakers that you would hear
the radio all day; and [pause] so you had a lot of time to, to, to, to think there.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And so, I’m coming with my family—my mother being religious and that, and, and she had
tried to convince me to become a priest anyways, at one time, before I got into the gang thing. I started
trying to reflect and, and I wanted to go to confession—, as a Catholic you want to go to confession—
and confess my sins and, and then I was using. I went from the gang to the drugs. That’s what, what you
lead to; it goes from the gang to the, to the hard drugs.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And so I said, “I don’t want,” “I don’t want the hard drugs,” I want to get away from that. a
little beer and that, that’s fine.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: [Pause] But I don’t, I didn’t want to be involved with the, with the drugs, with the hard drugs.
So, I went to confession and then they, I wanted to go to confession and the guard says, “Well, what
you’re trying to do is just get out of your cell;” so, “we can’t let… you can’t go to confession.” I said,
“What do you…” so I start trying to get legal on him, “You’re trying to,” you’re trying to well, I mean not
legal, I just tried to tell him, “All I want to do is go to confession. Can I have the priest come here?”
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: He said, “I don’t know if we can do that.” So I said, “Well, I’m asking,” . So he told me, “Put a
note, and we’ll do that;” so that’s what I did, and then all of a sudden the priest came and, —, I it took a
little bit because I had, you’re in a p-prison-like environment, [pause] and, you’re gonna go to
confession, that’s like drinking [laughing] cookies and milk, what I’m saying?
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: It’s like, “Are you trying to be a Cub Scout in here? You can’t be a Cub Scout. You gotta…
you’re not going along with the program.” But anyway I didn’t care; what I’m saying? I was, I was, … it
was… when I believe in something that’s the way I, I was ? I, I didn’t care. That’s what I learned from my,
from my mother and from her religion and stuff like that and so I said, “I don’t care. We’ll go to
confession right here,” and, you feel like an-anybody when they go to confession. You feel pretty good
afterwards and, and so I start… so now I’m hearing all this stuff about the Black Panthers, and I’m going
to confession and then I hear the Black Panthers are on the radio and they’re taking over a courthouse
in Alameda, California and they’re going with guns and everything to take over, and I’m going like,
“Wow,” “this is great! This is what we need to do.” [all laugh] So I’m gonna change my life. I’m gonna
stop gang banging and I want to become a revolutionary; what I’m saying? I don’t want to, … so then,
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�then at the same time they’re bringing Martin Luther King… is, is, is killed, and so they’re bringing in the
people that are riding, they’re bringing them into our cell house.
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: So we’re looking at them from the top of, our cells. We’re looking down as they’re being
[pause] shaken down, to see if they’ve got that… anything in there. Then they’re being asked questions
diagnostic… questions, when they come in. So they’re bringing in riders and all of a sudden they’re also
they’re doing raids on, on Mexican undocumented workers. So they’re bringing them in, and now
there’s black guards--there’s not that many Spanish guards—but there’s black and white guards mainly.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: But I’m looking at the black guards and they’re pushing the, the Latinos, and even though
they’re Mexican or Puerto Rican—but they’re still Latinos, just like me; and so I’m going like, “Why don’t
you leave those people alone? You don’t, you don’t,” I’m yelling; we’re yelling—the few Latinos that are
up in the jail.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: We’re yelling out, “Why don’t you leave them people alone? They’re not messing with you.
They don’t understand what you’re talking about.” So, they would start asking a couple of qu- they
would ask, the couple of black guys that were pretty good they would ask us a couple questions so we
could help them translate. So then, I asked them, I said, “ what, I’ll translate,” “there’s not a problem.
I’ll…” “Oh, you want to get out of your cell again.” I said, “No, no, no, no; I’ll do it from here.” [laughter]
So I started yelling the questions and answers, back and forth and, that kind of helped me, also. I was
like, I’m, I’m, I’m kind of serving my people or something like that, or in a way. so, so the riders and the
Mexican, undocumented workers that were coming through there… and then I’m reading about Martin
Luther King. The first book I read, though, was Thomas Merton, and I found out later he, he, he was a
Trappist Monk, and I felt like a Trappist Monk [all laugh] in the cell, so he was, like, going through the
same kind of stuff. So then, [pause] so I read that first, so that’s why I went to confession. I mean, that
made me go to confession, the fact that he was religious and all that. But then I started reading Martin
Luther King,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And then I read Malcom X also. so that was two different philosophies: one was for peace, and
one was for by any means necessary.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: [interviewee coughs] Excuse me, and then I’m, I’m hearing about the, the Panthers on, on the
radio at the same time, and then... Anyway, I get out, I said, “What I need to do, what we need to do is
to, to do the same thing for Puerto Ricans, ; ‘Cause we don’t have nothing like the Panthers. This is what
we need to do.”
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�ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: So I came out with that idea, I’m gonna come out and I’m gonna try to ‘cause I was still the
leader of the Young Lords at that time. So, I’m gonna try to do something with the Young Lords and do
that, because I knew every time you go to jail they, the, the gang kind of breaks up a little bit and…
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: They don’t break up but they don’t, they don’t meet. There’s no meetings in there, …
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: That wasn’t to meet; and so, I came out but I had to deal with other stuff. I had to deal with—
[laughing] I didn’t have a job,
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: What I’m saying, and so I, I got into this, program at the Argonne National Laboratory where
half of the day I would be a janitor and the other half I would study for my GED.
ROBERTSON: Nice.
JIMENEZ: So, [pause] that was a riot, too. [laughing] But I mean, that, that, … we used to hide out and
everything like that [all laughing] from our work, but we did, but we did… Anyway, they took us on a
[pause] on a field trip to the Democratic convention and we saw the hippies getting beaten up; and
before that, like I said, we used to cut the hippies’ hair. I mean, we just, just… they were there in Old
Town, so they were there with us.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: It… Many of them were our friends, but we would do it just, just as, as a prank.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: And like I said, we fought with the sailors and that so it wasn’t no big thing, but [pause] but
anyway, we went to the Democratic convention and now they’re… we’re all former gang members or,
or, or we’re still gang member’s but we’re studying for GED. So in there we’re getting along, everybody
gets along because we’re all for the same thing. We’re trying to, get our GED. So we go to the
Democratic convention and the police are running to get the hippies and they’re beating them up, but
they’re beating up reporters, and we’re saying to ourselves, “If they come to us,” everybody’s saying, “Is
everybody going to stand for themselves?” and everybody said, “Yeah, we’re ready.” so I mean you
could tell that we were, we, we were going to fight. Our thing was not peace.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: We were [laughing] we were gang bangers and we don’t know anything about what’s going
on, we just came on, on a trip, a high school trip here.
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�ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: They’re not going to beat us up, so… So anyway, when they came, we just kept walking
straight. I remember about five or six of us, and the, and the professor—the teacher—and the police ran
around us. They did… they, they could, I mean the way we were dressed, they could tell that we were
not part of that, that crowd.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: So it wasn’t that we put fear in them, [laughter] it’s just that these guys are not any part of
this. They kind of let us go, but that kind of stuck [pause] seeing people getting beat up, that kind of
stuck in my, in my head ‘cause we would get beat up by the police, too. that kind of stuff, and all this
kind of stuff that I was reading.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: So, anyway I had, I… On a different day, I met this lady, Pat Devine, and she was with some—
two other people from the Concerned Citizens of Lincoln Park, and I’m talking to Benny, who was a
Young Lord, and he was in his uniform and he’s proud that he just… he’s on leave from Vietnam,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And this lady comes in, and I’m looking at the neighborhood since I got out—I was only gone
sixty days
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: And I could see the changes
ROBERTSON: Wow.
JIMENEZ: and this lady, I mean, they would… I mean, one-way streets, two-way streets, or one-way
streets, you could see people getting thrown out by the sheriff and, and I’m talking to Benny, my friend,
my best friend. He’s a Young Lord and he’s in a uniform and he’s proud. He’s a, a Vietnam veteran and
all this stuff, —the Vietnam War because we were the ones who were put in the front lines. our, our
people, … and this nice lady is telling him, “You’re killing the, the, the [pause] Vietnamese people,” and
all this other stuff. I’m going like… so I go to his defense. To Benny’s defense and I used… I don’t mean
any disrespect—I go, “Look, you [laughs] white bitch,”
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: “who the heck do you think you are? You’re kicking us out of our neighborhood, and this man
is fighting for our, for our people; and you’re kicking us out of our neighborhood against…”, “You’re a
Communist,” and she goes, “I’m proud to be a Communist.” I go, “Oh no! [laughter] This lady’s crazy.
This lady’s way out there; this lady’s crazy.” So, … so, anyway she, she hit me hard; harder than another
guy would hit me—I mean she knocked me down with the way she, the way she could express herself
and stuff like that;
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�ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: And, so it made me stop to think, and then, then I was a-already thinking about urban renewal
and she says, “, we’re f… we’re… our organization is trying to fight to help people stay here,” . So, I
mean, it started making sense to me. You get what I’m saying? So anyway, that night the, the other guys
that were trying to rap to her and to her other friend and, and trying to, they were just trying to just rap
to her but I was interested more in what she was saying;
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And, anyway, she invited me and Benny and, and everybody else to go to her house. just to
relax and stuff like that—have a, have a few beers, stuff like that. So we did that, and we… I remember
we were just talking all night, I mean we were sitting there talking and, and, and I’m asking her
questions about it and stuff like that; and so she invited me and … me to, to, to come to a meeting. She
said, “Well, can you bring any people to come to the urban renewal meeting,”
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And I’m going, “I can bring a thousand people. I’m the leader,” [laughter] that kind of stuff.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: So she said, “Well it’s going to be in about three weeks,” “just, whatever you can come…
whatever, as many people as you can get just bring them,”
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: “Because it’s an important meeting about the neighborhood.” it was the Department of Urban
Renewal was coming in. So that’s… this is a long story, but it’s… that’s when I started organizing and
then I found out that, that to get people to come to a gang fight was a lot easier than to get ‘em to come
to a meeting. [all laugh] what I’m saying? I mean, I, I went, I, I… people are supposed to organize like in
the houses and stuff like that—well I didn’t know—I organized on street corners and in the bars.
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: That’s all I knew.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: The street corners and the bar. So I, I remember going to the bar of, of another gang ‘cause
I’m trying to reach out to everybody,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: All the different gangs, and I remember going into the bar and they go, “Oh, here comes that
nut again, Cha Cha,” [all laugh] and, and, and even the bartender didn’t want me in there.
ROBERTSON: Wow.
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�JIMENEZ: And I’m talking and I said, “man, they’re kicking us out of our neighborhood,” and, real basic
stuff.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: I… “You see these one-way signs,” and all this, real basic stuff. “Oh, you’re a Communist,” and I
go, “I’m a Communist? Come on out and tell me that.” [laughter] So I would go out and get beat up
[laughs] and then they would buy me a drink and, it went like that. like I said, I got beat up a lot of times
and put down and, and and, basically they didn’t want you there. The bartender didn’t want you there,
you’re messing with his customers.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: The guys didn’t want to hear, they don’t want to talk about that. they… politics, they don’t
want to… and they thought I was crazy and stuff like that. So it was like a, … but I learned that from my
mom. I mean, I learned that you had to be, you had to be committed. You had to stay, stay with it; that
it takes time to, to organize something.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: I mean, it wasn’t easy. Those kids come into the house, for catechism, wasn’t just they did a
lot of stuff; they did the catechism, and then they did, rosaries like because what their goal was to get
Spanish mass…
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: In the churches. There was no Spanish mass.
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: And, their goal was also to get them… they would have, they finally got some Spanish masses,
but then they put—they did the mass in the hall instead of the regular church because it was offensive
to the, to the regular parishioners; and there was, there was not enough Puerto Ricans to, to, to… They
felt that there was not enough Puerto Ricans, but actually the hall was getting more filled up than the
church. [laughing] what I’m saying?
ROBERTSON: Right, right.
JIMENEZ: but they did a lot of good stuff; and then they worked with the gangs. I mean, the, I mean
they, the… It became a community, because when there was a big gang epidemic, when we started
fighting and stuff like that, they started organizing dances—weekly, weekly dances. So they were smart;
they made money [pause] and they work, they work with their kids. They were, they could see their
kids, so I mean… and they could promote, proselytizing, that’s what you call it. they could promote their,
their church, also. out of that community, Lincoln Park came the first Puerto Rican parade of Chicago;
out of this, this group called, the Knights of St. John, which was equivalent to the Knights of Columbus;
ROBERTSON: Okay.
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�JIMENEZ: And the Damas de María, Hijas de María, “Daughters of Mary”, in Spanish… [pause] But out of
that they’re organized; my parents became that, and then we did our own organizing as youths, the
Young Lords; because we didn’t just… When we, when, when we started to grow as Young Lords we
didn’t just organize the Young Lords, we organized all the other youth in the area,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: All the other youth groups and stuff like that. But yet, the, the organizing part was, … I took
you on a whole trip [laughing] to tell you that I was getting beat up every day... [all laugh] that it wasn’t
that easy, that, the organizing; and, and, and then we got beat up by the cops later, so that’s, so that’s a
different story. I mean, after we get organized we’re thinking that we’re doing good, good things, right.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: ‘Cause we’re, we’re not fighting. We’re refusing to fight any, anybody. we’re not, we’re trying
to stay away from drugs; we don’t, we don’t want… we’re opposed to drugs.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: We are for discipline; we want people to give more discipline. we want people to go to school;
I mean, we thought we were doing everything the right way, but we begin to get attacked, by the police.
for doing the… now they hate us more than when we were in, in a gang. They literally hate us more; I
mean, they’re… anybody that’s wearing our button, they’re putting them against the wall and shaking
them down, and these are community people who are wearing our buttons.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: They had a car parked twenty-four hours a day in front of our, our, our church; we did take
over the church, but it became our headquarters and we had a daycare center there. We had a free
breakfast for children program; we had a free health clinic; and we had cultural educational classes that
were taught in the church. So, before it was empty. So we did take it over, and then, but right away the
next day after we took it over… because the pastor had been working with us,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: It was the congregation that was opposed to us. We told them it’s not really a take-over, we
just want to work together with, with the church for the community; and that pastor was later killed
about six months later because it’s a cold case. It hasn’t been, [pause] proven who killed him or why.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: But we know that, during that time he was killed, another pastor was killed, and Fred
Hampton from the Panthers were killed. So we knew that it was some kind of pattern going on there at
the time but we, but we can’t prove it. I mean we, we know that; and, and out of respect for the family
we, we didn’t promote it at that time. we didn’t talk about it that, that, that much. just out of respect
for them, but by not talking about them people thought that we had something to do with it; because
they used knives and all Puerto Ricans are supposed to carry knives. I mean they, but, it was a, …
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�ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: People that, that, that read about it they could tell that it was something related to passion
[fumbling over words] because of the way he was stabbed; he was stabbed seventeen times and his wife
nine times. so it was, that was passion that tells you… it had to do with passion.
ROBERTSON: Certainly.
JIMENEZ: Now, when we took over the church we put Che Guevara as a mural; we put out Lisa Compos,
which is another, Puerto Rican—nationalist from Puerto Rico; we put Lolita Lebrón, another Puerto
Rican nationalist woman; we put Adelita, a woman from Mexico; and we put Emiliano Zapata on the
wall. We put, like I said Che Guevara was on, was on the wall; so that could make somebody in the
congregation… because the congregation was mostly Cuban exiles, so that could make Cuban exiles
angry. We didn’t think about it because, we were thinking, “We’re Puerto Ricans,” and the community
was mainly Puerto Rican;
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: But, I could see why that would make them very angry that they’re first to put a mural of Che
Guevara on their church wall. I mean, today I wouldn’t do that, I mean, …
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: But we, we didn’t … We didn’t mean any harm by that, but I mean, … but I’m saying that could
be one of the reasons. Now another, another thing was that we protested against the local mafia
because he had put a sub-machine gun on a Puerto Rican business owner, because he, the business
owner owned a restaurant and couldn’t afford the rent at that time. So the, the, the real estate office,
who was, who was also the local mafia guy—and the reason I know he was the local mafia guy was my
father. He used to sell the, bring the money for the numbers to him. So I knew, [laughing] so I knew that
personally. Yeah, he was the local mafia; but any… but we still picketed in front of his place and, and I
went with some, with some people that had a local tabloid newspaper,
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And, and they took pictures while this guy put his sub-machine gun on me. All I did was put my
finger in my pocket, I didn’t [ROBERTSON: Wow.] have a weapon. So I put my finger in my pocket
because I didn’t know what else to do when he put the sub-machine gun… and he ran into the back
office that had a window and started calling the police. The police comes in, he comes out with his submachine gun and the police is there, and they’re frisking me [ROBERTSON: What?!] while this guy’s
holding a sub-machine gun, but we’re taking pictures. So we took pictures and we, and we put those on
the newspaper tabloid—about twenty pictures all around the front page;
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: And then we, we, we split about twenty thousand copies of them, we spread through the
neighborhood;
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�ROBERTSON: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: And so, after that we didn’t, we didn’t break his windows, [laughs] but the adults were
breaking them. Every Friday night they would break his window. He started with a big picture window
and then… little, little, little blocks of windows; but, so it could have been, it could have been them too. I
mean, it could have been the local mafia that we had to deal with, because the local mafia was the one
pushing real estate with the city. It could have Lee Alderman, because Lee Alderman had an organization
called United People to Inform Good-Doers and they were going through our garbage cans and stuff like
that trying to find any information that they could to use against us.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: And that they could publicize to the… they thought we were getting funding from the
Methodist churches in the suburbs, so they, they publicized a few things in the suburbs, Lee Alderman
did. Now, we also broke into Lee Alderman’s press conference and, and exposed them because he had
gotten caught with a prostitute in the neighborhood, so we exposed him right in front of the media.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: So he wasn’t too happy with that, either; [laughter] so we were making enemies, I mean is
what I’m saying, and, and they, they were, our target was, was the pastor who was allowing us to… Oh,
and they were also trying to, … there’s letters at DePaul University where they, they were sending
letters to the bishop, trying to get the bishop to kick us out of the church;
ROBERTSON: Okay.
JIMENEZ: And he was saying no, that he was not, going to kick us out and the bishop was with us. he’s
saying, “No, no,” “that’s his ministry and, and, and we’re gonna let him work with the youth. He’s
working with the youth, so that’s his ministry.” So, so Lee Alderman and the committee, the uptight
United People to Inform Good-Doers was definitely… had a campaign to try and get us out of there; and
they were connected with the local mafia and the police and everybody else, so, so I don’t know… but
then we also had the fact that we were part of a a rainbow coalition with the Black Panther Party and
the Young Patriots, which was, an Appalachian white group that, that was, that we were working
together with, and, so they… the Black Panther Party was being investigated by COINTELPRO, the
Counter-Intelligence Program.
ROBERTSON: Mmhm.
JIMENEZ: So anybody that was connected to them—and we definitely were—I mean, I was going to
speaking engagements with, Fred Hampton many, many times and many days. We spent a whole day
with him because he was helping train, train us also.
ROBERTSON: Right.
JIMENEZ: We were learning from… so the- we had a lot of enemies at that time. We were in cir- what
you call in circles, they were circling… we were the wagon and they were circling us. and we didn’t… and
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�all we were trying to do was just, like to save our community; I mean, that’s all we were trying to do. We
were probably saying too many things we didn’t need to say, but, other things, but I mean that was the
main reason that, that we started was to save, to save the neighborhood;, save our ‘hood, save our
neighborhood… but, [pause] but anyway, that’s how… That was a long one, right? [all laugh]
JIMENEZ: I mean we did not understand how at that time I was well liked by a lot of people at that time
and I know I should be liked more because I went through a program substance abuse programs and
everything to change my negativity right.
ROBERTSON: Mhmm
JIMENEZ: I should be liked more, but I am hatted more
ROBERTSON: Hmm?
JIMENEZ: So that was we are saying was a concerted effort. To discredit me and what we were doing to
people and that was one of the reasons that I ran for alderman and in nineteen seventy five it was more
so that we could stay alive. As a movement and so that I ran in the neighborhood north of Lincoln Park
which was lake view uptown because there were no more Puerto Ricans left in Lincoln park and in
uptown they were starting to kick the Puerto Ricans out of there as well as like I said we kept moving
north and west. So the aldermanic campaign I remember because we had to go underground and I went
underground because I got arrested eighteen times in a six week period and for all felonies and so they
were it was clear that they were trying to destroy the group in that way so I got a year and asked for a
little time to straighten things out with my family and I took off and just went underground that meant
that like today I could say that I am underground but because I am not in Chicago I am not in public or
anything. But so we did that for like two and a half years which was I would have liked to looking back at
it today I would have rather done two and a half years in jail then to be underground for two and a half
years because at least in jail you have communication but I could not even communicate with my own
family for two and a half years so that that’s why it was more difficult in that way but next time I would
just take the jail time but anyway the while I was underground we organized a couple of movements a
few more chapters of the young lords like in Los Angeles and San Diego and Hayward and Boston we
worked with a group there so we were keeping a little busy while we were underground then what I
decided was we needed like a training school for the leadership because I found out that Chicago was
kinda falling apart a little bit m and they were starting to put drugs back in to the neighborhood so when
I heard a lot of that stuff I said let’s get a group of people and we will rent a farm in Tomah Wisconsin I
considered that because no one is there but we rented a farm in Tomah Wisconsin and about twenty
three of use lived together like a commune but not really we had structure we would wake up in the
morning and every one would have chores it was like a program and then people had to read. Like my
mother I was not a teacher so I would tell them to read the book and discuss it I want I didn’t really have
a plan you just have to read this book so we read it so read books like Frantz Fanon and books like that
and some Lennon books but m we were mainly concerned with what they call the national question so
that was the whole question of Puerto Rico, self-determination and how to organize that and in other
words it was a two-step process because people were saying that we have to talk about the class
struggle the poor vs. the rich and we were saying that we also have to talk about Puerto Rico we have a
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�nation called Puerto Rico so it is ok to be a little nationalistic as long as you are also internationalist as
long as it is not racist because we were against nationalism because that was racist but we said its ok to
talk about that and be proud of that as long as you are still an internationalist and you respect everyone
else and so that was to us the national question so said that before you can talk about class struggle m it
is all collectivism or whatever but it’s all the same thing it’s all mixed up anyway but before we could
even get to that point, but at that point everyone was talking about the class struggle or organize the
workers and stuff like that and I’m going we can’t even get in to the job you want us to organize the job
but we can’t even get in the plant so we are going to organize with in the community so that was what
we decided that we needed not in the factory but in the community but I am not saying not to organize
as an effect but our goal as an organization is to organize the values(27:55) to organize the communities
and to look at it geographically to go door to door and that what we learned latter on with the
aldermanice campaine and the mayoral campaine of mayor Washington was to go door to door that
that was the best form of organizing we had programs but if you go door to door you don’t miss
anybody and so our goal then became clear what our job had to be it was to go to each latino balto and
try to organize door to door and stuff like that but we were never able to because of funding and other
stuff we were never able to accomplish that goal completely, but it did spread and it did spread to other
cities like that like creating base areas we called it but that was the kind of stuff that we started at the
training school and that we did that for about two years and then from there we started doing target
practice because we though that the revelution was going to be the next day and this guy blew his
thumb off (Ha-ha) so we had to close down the place we had to get out of there because I was wanted
by the law and so every one could have gone to jail but I had to so we moved from there to millwalky
and we put out a newspaper and then whent back to Chicago and got appartments and people lived
togeather and today when I am doing these interviews today there are still living togeather in the same
apartment you go to one apartment house and everone in the building is an organizer that works
togeather but they are not all young lords they are in different group but they learned from us because
that is what we did so we went back to Chicago and we I actualy was livng a couple of blocks from the
police station were I turned myself in laterbut we planed the turning of myself back in, turning my self
in. but it is like they are not going to do this for us we have to do it aurselfs so passed out flyers all over
the neighborhood and we sent them to peole in the media to make sure that they would be there and
stuff like that and then we had about five hundered people when it was like four below zero(25:36) and
there was like five hundered people marching when I turned myself in and basecly I wwnt downtown
and took a cab and drove up to the police station and the marchers are on this side and I am paying the
cab driver and I start to walk in to the crowd and I start shaking hands with every body and the loyers
were there and the police grabed me right away but I was able to shack hands with a few people and
then because of the layers they let me talk through a loud speaker to the crowed and stuff like that and
so that was good I mean it was a good event but the fact that we had five hundered people show up at
four below zero was pretty amazing that was pretty good and then right away they took me and I
started my year in jail and wial I was doing the year in jail we were planning the alderman campaign and
so when I can outit was easy because people know that I had just came out of jail and I am running for
alderman(24:35) so I mean that brought news but we did a good campaine we had 39 percent of the
vote for the first time and all you need is 51 percent to win and usualy the first time people get like one
percent but I mean we did pretty good. And the second time it was not me running but the major and
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�we helped him win the election so it was a different feeling from picket signes to, I think two hours are
up, right (Ha-ha) from picket signes we went to a victory we won a majors we won a majors race and it
was a different fealing because I could wallk in to city hall and see the major when I want just callhim up
and say that I am on my way I did not have anything important to talk to him about it was just to say
hello (Ha-ha) but it was a great fealing. I remember that night when we won because see our office was
the fullerton office and it was mixed it was divers and latino were atomaticly going to go vote for herald
not attomaticly I mean that we had to do our work but we were winning eighty to ninty present for
herald Washington major the first African American major and in the purto rican area and in the anglo
community in the white community they did not do that well but still with out them getting any vote we
would have not have won and so I remember how hapy they were too I mean it was like hay we won like
yea we did it. So it was a good fealing I am telling you I i remember my cousin I had submitted his name
for the some liberary board and and I walk in to city hall and there was a couple of other people there
with me and I see him and I great him an I go hay how are you doing Carmelo and he goes hay cha cha
how are you and I says if you cant he says that if you came to see that major he is out of town you will
not be able to see him and I’m going like I’m thinking that he is out of town I just talked to him but I did
not tell him that so I said ok he said that I have been here a couple of hours and I am going to see the
cheaf of staff because they are going to put me on the library board and I am going I know because I put
your name (Ha-ha)ha but anyway so I’m going in there and this guy herald safical the security guard he is
a cop major safle but he is a progressive cop he was with the he was for the panthers and things like
that. And he goes hay cha cha so I say ok and I go in to the back and sure enough halrald Washington in
in the back (Ha-ha)ha he was not out of town we was in the backbut I had gone to see him because I had
went with some bills to his office and I sayed who is paying for this because I don’t have no money (Haha)so that was pretty pretty amazing times at that time and then he won again the second time but I did
not work on that I was in Michigan during the second time but that was a victory for us because what
happened is because we were the first group, latino group in the city to indorce him we did not ask for
money you see our thing was more poklitical and we did not ask we were conserned about the
community we were we vote we worked on his campaine because he rep… in fact it was called
neighberhoods vs. downtown so that is why it fit in with what we were in to (20:37) so we were for his
campaine and we know he had that he was very progressive person and we wanted anyone to defeat
the daily machine so he was against that so so when he won he he organized he we did we and the
office of special events for Chicago organized an event in the purto rican neighborhood of humble park
and there were a hundered thousand Puerto Ricans in that park I mean wall to wall Puerto Ricans in that
park and I was the only one on stage introducing the major at that time and he and he we were able to
be able to choose that band that played it was willy colone and when he came to town people would
pay like 40 50 dollars to see him and so they were seing him for free so that loded it up plus we did
media on the radio and stuff like that that was payed from the budget of the office of special events so
we were kind of directing it but they were kinds supling the money and the expertise to quordinate it
because he had invited all of the community leaders to sit in a band shell or what ever but I was the only
one on stagewith introducing the major but that is that whole speech in in the wikipidia article it’s a hole
little two minite speech that I gave. Introducing him cus there that to use represented the victory we
had went from a gang or what ever from an…to to becoming the young lords picketing protesting to
taking over occupy they use the word occupy to day but we were calling it takeovers then and and our
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�takovers we won we did not leave till our demands were met and and we were so unpredictabale that
they wanted to give us the demands so what ever you want you can have (Ha-ha) because they did not
know were we were going to come from so there was a few of us running around with guns (Ha-ha) and
we are not leaving so I mean but and the families but we would have got killed but the families that
were in side wial we took over micormic seminary for example we were there for a whole week the
demands were $605,000 for them to invest in to low income housing, $25,000 for the health clinic for
two health clinics so that was $50,000 and then another $25,000 to open up a peoples law center.
(17:57) because the loyers were helping us negosheate we were there for a whole week we took it over
the young lords and the next day and we did not even plan for food for provitions so today they would
havewiped us out that is what they do today they some body took over some other place the other day
in Chicago and they would not allow any food in. but you see what happened with us the community
came and brought food the net day and then we let them come in so the next day we had three
hundred and fifty people and and what happened is that when the police were wanting to attack us they
decided to bring in the kids not us we did not want the kids to come in side but they said no no we are
going to bring the kids so that that way they wont attack they wont come in and then the students were
in the front of the building the students were our security in front so it was a seminary it was a complex
like this it was a big complex we are talking about depaul university and it is today at that time it was
called micormic theological seminary so it was a big complex like this and we took over the
administration building a three level three story administration building and we were there we lived in
there for a week in fact we won all of the demands and I told everybody that ok we can leave now and
they went I am not leaving I have an office and no we got to leave (Ha-ha) we got to leave we did not
leave but we had fun doing that they had music they had a lot of descution groups nothing but talk
everyone was just talking all day and so every one came close by talking and became close and then we
won all of the demands and we thretone to burn down the liberary because they were thretining to
come in so we said we are going to go take over the liberary and then we are going to burn it down if we
have to burn it down we don’t care that night is when they called us for the meeting “cough excuse me”
that night is when they called us for the meeting but about two oclock in the morning and they said
what what ever demands you wantwe will sign we will agree to your demands they had a little we had
just read your demands and if thoughs are your demands then we will give you all of the demands you
ask and I sayed ok so than the next day we were but I remember having press conferenses every day on
top (Ha-ha) of the thing they had a little window sill that we would have press conferences out of there
is a picture of that some were there is a picture but I have it some were but anyway so that is I don’t
remember were we were at there a tangent I guess.
ROBERTSON: (Ha-ha) Yea its like your saying coming from that level of street corner talk to political
standing.
JIMENEZ: How much time do we have left.
ROBERTSON: Well we have as much time as we need.
JIMENEZ: Ok
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�ROBERTSON: As far as the questions. I was curious, I mean like you were saying, born in Puerto Rico,
never really knowing it to much coming hear like you said when you were two years old and just moving
around as much as you have like what are essential elements for you to consider some place home?
JIMENEZ: Well my home is been Chicago that has been my home but my home is also but it does not
exist any more I mean linken Park does not exist anymore I really don’t know when I was fifteen years
old I went and stayed for about a year in Puerto Rico and and that was I was put on the plan in
handcuffs and sent to Puerto Rico they were trying to deport me because I was the leader of the young
lords and I had got some kind of case were we broke in to a house or something at the time and and I
was not even good at that but that was something from the gang days and anyway I was still a juvenile
and we will either put you hear and I was fourteen or something we will put you in a sharaten and
shareten was a juvenile prison until your twenty one like juveniles htat have commited murders or
something would go there or dangerous criminals they thought that I was a dangerous criminal or I
don’t know I was never the fighter Orlando was the fighter in the group I was more always the organizer
but Orlando never wanted to lead so I was the leader of the group. (12:48) but anyway so my mother
said that I don’t want my son to go to jail till he was twenty one years old I will send him to Puerto Rico
but I was balling I was crying I did not want to go but they took us in a pady wagon from the jail to the
airport and at the airport they watched us from up above ant they let me talk to my parents and they
walked me to the door and I I was that was when I started crying cuz I could not control myself cuz I did
not know were I was going I’m like cheradin I knew were I was going and I will find friends who are there
in jail I mean it is a life of jail so people but in Puerto Rico I didn’t know anybody or I thought I didn’t
know anybody once I got there my uncle who met me he had come back and forth to Chicago several
times so I did know him and other uncles and ants that had come back and fourth because we are like a
shudle culture so we travel back and fourth all the time but I did not know that at first so but I went
there at first and right away they said gangster from Chicago alcapone (Ha-ha) right away that was what
everyone was thinking so but I remember hanging out with the priest because he was the only guy that I
could talk to in English and I remember smiling because my grandmother would ask me stuff and I would
just smile because I did not know the heck what she was saying and my grandfather woud get mad he
would say he knows he knows he is just pretending that kind of thing but he was the backwards guy my
father was bad he was wors but he was the one who tought me about the country and stuff like that I
would hang out with him and go up to him on the mountain because the farm was a mountain the farm
was not flat land it was on a mountain all of Puerto Rico is like that it is all hilly so the farms are all hlly
and stuff like that so you have to climb and it is good because you climb to the top and there is fresh airy
cool fresh air (10:37) when you go to the bottom it is all hot and but I got to know slowly I even went
with one pare of shoes and had to save them for like Sunday so I walked around like what do you call it
huckel berry fin is that with out shoes I mean I walked around that is what we did at that time we could
not people could not afford shoes and that so they would save there shoes for like Sunday and that but I
hung around witht the prist and I remembered I did not get in to any real big truble all though I did steal
his hourse (Ha-ha) and his jeep one time because I fell in love with this girl in another bouyo another
part of Puerto Rico and I was hanging out with and I was not trying to steel it I was just trying to barrow
it (Ha-ha) butthat is what guys do when they are young and in love. So I I took his hourse one day and
the jeep and then every one in the hole the thing is that every one goes to church on suday so if you do
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26
�not go to church on Sunday you have to hide you don’t let anyone know that you are not at church cuz
its like a country and its just one church and every body for miles away you can see form all the hils so
we would go I remember cause he made me go to confection in front of everybody and that kind of stuff
and that but he became like a friend of mine he got me a job in a in a hard wear store a ferreta they call
it and I remember I met a guy from New York that was helping me because I would just sit there and
stand in the front counter and people would come there and ask me something like a nail or something
and I would not know but hten they ask me for something like a fouset and I right away I would have to
go to my friend from new york whats this mean calesa what is he saying but I learned Spanish I had to
learn Spanish that way and I even learned the song and stuff like that and in Christmas time that’s a big
holiday in Puerto Rico the the three kings but it because of the American culture it starts like on crismas
eve and then it last till January six which is the day of the three kings and everyone goes house to house
and there like trubidors so they like sing and they improvise and so all my uncles and stuff like that they
know how to improvise and before they had radio that was the way that they that was there music after
they work in the fields all day they would come back and at night time and I learned it from my mom
from researching her and at knighting like that my brothers and that we would just hang out on the
purch and the vatey the yard ike hear like the yard hear they were not that big but they would there was
a clearance because the rest was jungle you are talking about a tropical place so there was a little
clearing in the front called the batay and they would sing there music there that was there radio that
was how they relaxed at night and stuff like that but today it is only used mainly at Christmas time but
before it was used for any holiday if you die you get a batranda they call it if you a birthday you get a
bathranda wedding baptism whatever you get a bathranda but now it is just mainly done for Christmas
for Christmas time and stuff like that but it is they are really celebrating the the three kings verses santa
clouse and in fact they have an improvisation were one guy( 6:52) would say well I believe in Santa
clause and the other would say no I am Puerto Rican I believe in the Three Kings but they are both
Puerto Ricans but because we believe in both because of the influences but that type of music my uncles
that I grew up with hear even though I did not grow up in Puerto Rico I grew up with that kind of music
here for Christmas we would get together the family and we would sing thoughs songs and then and
believe me I have some uncles that are pretty good at improvising and they would I remember one time
we went to this house one of our ants house and they had just finished painting the house I mean you
could smell the paint and so they come to the door and they start with whatever and they would start
singing and they would say what a beautiful house it has such nice furniture and stuff like that and the
walls must have been painted by the brush of pecaso (Ha-ha) so then it so then everyone had to rhyme
with that at the end they would be they would sing a song and the last vers was it was done with the
brush of Picasso so I mean they that was how it works that music that kind of music but it was great
music I mean its also n the web there is a bunch of websites and stuff on there on the YouTube and stuff
like that but yea we grew up with so I learned a little bit about the culture and I came back and I
remember the young lords sweter cause I came back before around the year o yea I came back around
the year that my father comes and the first thing he does is that the tetarus the tetarus are the riffraff’s
of the neighborhood and I was one of them and he was one of them everyone from there in that section
growing up became one of them so its like a gang but it’s a community gang so everyone knows them
nobody worried about them (Ha-ha) but they are always stealing the eggs or something but no one pays
attention to them they all talk and they all scape goat them like they scape goat gangs here but they
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27
�scape goat them but they are all kids so they cant really hate them and every single one of them would
snake out there so there really all really part all the men are apart of the thing (Ha-ha)
ROBERTSON: (Ha-ha)
JIMENEZ: And they would hang out in front of the store and look at the women and look at every one
but anyway I remember but they would do serves to because my because the people that would come
and visiting they would take there suit case and carry them to make them feel important for a tip and I
remember my father he is over here coming to pick me up(3:57) and to visit and he hadn’t visited me all
year but here he is coming to visit me but at least he’s I’m happy because he is going to take me back to
Chicago so then I remember right away the titas they would carry his suit case and yea no problem and
he is showing off and I am going I don’t know pops you got to slow down on the money because he
starts buying everyone drinks and you got to slow down the money and I’m looking at his pants pocket
like he is half way drunk he’s got his pants on and there is food stamps so the next day I tell him what
are you doing showing off and you got food stamps (Ha-ha) so I said and he did not even have a job at
that time my mother was the one that was working and he was getting well fair so that was the vasod
that Puerto Ricans hear that was a contradiction that I was seeing how our people were acting and how
it was not real how our people were playing the lottery but telling me that I cant do certain things that
are not legal I said you’re not legal you are selling the numbers and what I am saying you’re your selling
the numbers you’re playing the Spanish bingo which is not legal now I don’t know why that shouldn’t be
legal but because they play it at the churches they play bingo at the churches so I mean that is another
contradiction right but the Spanish bingo was illegal I don’t know why I mean they just they just did it for
a quarter or a dime or whatever not a big thing but there were so many contradictions that you see and
stuff like that then you go to school and then they are teaching you one thing and how even coming
here to grand valley so and one class were they show us pictures and they say what does this person
look like and everyone goes all right they had a picture of a hippy and they got a migrant worker and
something like that and they go well he is a losser and this is in one of our classes and I’m going like I did
not say nothing but I’m thinking to myself that guy looks like my dad how are you going to call my dad a
losser he is not a loser I mean he did not have any money but he was a good parent I mean he what I am
saying I mean
ROBERTSON: Yea they were generalizing
JIMENEZ: Yea he was a little macho and stuff like that but then(1:27) my mom had a little thing for the
macho (Ha-ha) she says that a macho is a guy who can raise a family (Ha-ha) be a man he’s not he is not
a macho he is not a man when he would get smart she would put him down
ROBERTSON: (Ha-ha)
JIMENEZ: I mean it was a part of the culture thing because they also labeled macho to to mean for
Spanish people and it is in all cultures and stuff like that so he was a little macho by culture he thought
he was the big shot but he did not works she would put him down like I am the bread winner you don’t
work you are on well fair (Ha-ha) so I mean there were so many contradictions and and that came in to
play when we got in to the young lords and stuff like that and but we got in to the young lords we like I
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�said we were learning from the panthers and stuff like that and we needed the whole question of selfdetermination and the whole the whole the main reason that we started was the displacement of our
community we were being kicked out but then we related that to is this thing going out are we
recording?
ROBERTSON: I am kind of queries yea
JIMENEZ: Oh ok actually the other stuff you can probable get out of the Wikipedia thing (Ha-ha) I gave
you stuff that is not on there
END OF INTERVIEW
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29
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1a554612e6ea23035344655137db3604.mp3
fa9084f027e31f5aac64e45563d48a7f
Dublin Core
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Title
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Speaking Out: Western Michigan Civil Rights Oral Histories
Subject
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Civil rights--Michigan--History
Personal narratives
Oral histories
African Americans--Personal narratives
Gays--Personal narratives
Lesbians--Personal narratives
Bisexual people--Personal narratives
Transgender people--Personal narratives
Veterans--Personal narratives
Women--Personal narratives
People with disabilities--Personal narratives
Muslims--United States--Personal narratives
Hispanic Americans--Personal narratives
Homophobia
Discrimination
Islamophobia
Stereotypes (Social psychology)--Upper Penninsula (Mich.)
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of oral history recordings documenting the history of civil rights and social justice advocacy in Western Michigan. The collection was created by faculty and students as a project of the LIB 201 (formerly US 201): "Diversity in the U.S." course from 2011-2012.
Creator
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Grand Valley State University. Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies
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Speaking Out: Western Michigan Civil Rights Oral History Project (GV248-01)
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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2017-05-02
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
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eng
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Sound
Text
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GV248-01
Coverage
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1930-2011
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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GV248-01_Jimenez_Jose
Title
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Jose Jimenez audio interview and transcript
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jimenez, Jose
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robertson, Timothy
Hood, Ashlie
Perez, Angelica
Description
An account of the resource
Jose Jimenez was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico and lived in Chicago. He discusses his experiences as the leader of the Young Lords and an activist for Latin Americans.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Civil rights--Michigan--History
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Relation
A related resource
Speaking Out: Western Michigan Civil Rights Oral History Project
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-02-24
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3307c1b524f4b66a53bdaaa8e239ca7a.pdf
221d8d037c15809c858493044e87409f
PDF Text
Text
Young Lords
In Lincoln Park
Interviewee: Jose Jimenez
Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections
Date: 3/15/2012
Runtime: 01:14:00
Biography and Description
Oral history and interview of Jose “Cha-Cha” Jimenez on March 15, 2012 about the Young Lords in
Lincoln Park.
"The Young Lords in Lincoln Park" collection grows out of decades of work to more fully document the
history of Chicago's Puerto Rican community which gave birth to the Young Lords Organization and later,
the Young Lords Party. Founded by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, the Young Lords became one of the
premier struggles for international human rights. Where thriving church congregations, social and
political clubs, restaurants, groceries, and family residences once flourished, successive waves of urban
�renewal and gentrification forcibly displaced most of those Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos,
working-class and impoverished families, and their children in the 1950s and 1960s. Today these same
families and activists also risk losing their history.
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c5131908777cdf642451538df4f7adaf.mp4
9002636d2da7277abcfb9ae39d32c14d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection
Subject
The topic of the resource
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of oral history interviews and digitized materials documenting the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Interviews were conducted by Young Lords' founder, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, and documents were digitized from Mr. Jiménez' archives.
The Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection grows out of the ongoing struggle for fair housing, self-determination, and human rights that was launched by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, founder of the Young Lords Movement. This project is dedicated to documenting the history of the displacement of Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos, and the poor from Lincoln Park, as well as the history of the Young Lords nationwide.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jiménez, José, 1948-
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection (RHC-65)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/mp4
application/pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng
spa
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-65
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
2012-2017
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Título
Spanish language Title entry
Jose Jimenez vídeo entrevista y biografía, entrevista 1
Descripción
Spanish language Description entry
La historia oral de Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, entrevistado en 3/15/2012 sobre los Young Lords en Lincoln Park.
Sujetos
Spanish language Subject terms
Young Lords (Organización)
Puertorriqueños--Estados Unidos
Derechos civiles--Estados Unidos--Historia
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Mexicano-Americanos--Relatos personales
Justicia social
Activistas comunitarios--Illinois--Chicago
Mexico-Americanos--Illinois--Chicago--Condiciones sociales
Relaciones raciales
Conflicto social
Identitad cultural
Partido Pantera Negra. Illinois Capítulo
Source
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park (RHC-65)</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-65_Jimenez_Jose_1
Title
A name given to the resource
Jose Jimenez video interview and biography, interview 1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jimenez, Jose
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history of Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, interviewed on 3/15/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jimenez, Jose, 1948-
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Mexican Americans--Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Mexican Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Race relations
Social conflict
Cultural identity
Black Panther Party. Illinois Chapter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/mp4
application/pdf
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-03-15
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1b49a4e06959c30a3036b830f2392fbe.pdf
496eb49a6fde142ab8fb81e39ad86a84
PDF Text
Text
Young Lords
In Lincoln Park
Interviewee: Jose Jimenez
Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections
Date: 7/14/2012
Runtime: 00:28:27
Biography and Description
Oral history and interview of Jose “Cha-Cha” Jimenez on March 15, 2012 about the Young Lords in
Lincoln Park.
"The Young Lords in Lincoln Park" collection grows out of decades of work to more fully document the
history of Chicago's Puerto Rican community which gave birth to the Young Lords Organization and later,
the Young Lords Party. Founded by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, the Young Lords became one of the
premier struggles for international human rights. Where thriving church congregations, social and
political clubs, restaurants, groceries, and family residences once flourished, successive waves of urban
�renewal and gentrification forcibly displaced most of those Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos,
working-class and impoverished families, and their children in the 1950s and 1960s. Today these same
families and activists also risk losing their history.
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/18c866a914e1b2f5351e1fbd60a13863.mp4
38ee91c6402e64e0309efc16ae75b5d5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection
Subject
The topic of the resource
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of oral history interviews and digitized materials documenting the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Interviews were conducted by Young Lords' founder, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, and documents were digitized from Mr. Jiménez' archives.
The Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection grows out of the ongoing struggle for fair housing, self-determination, and human rights that was launched by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, founder of the Young Lords Movement. This project is dedicated to documenting the history of the displacement of Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos, and the poor from Lincoln Park, as well as the history of the Young Lords nationwide.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jiménez, José, 1948-
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection (RHC-65)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/mp4
application/pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng
spa
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-65
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
2012-2017
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Título
Spanish language Title entry
Jose Jimenez vídeo entrevista y biografía, entrevista 2
Descripción
Spanish language Description entry
La historia oral de Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, entrevistado en 7/14/2012 sobre los Young Lords en Lincoln Park.
Sujetos
Spanish language Subject terms
Young Lords (Organización)
Puertorriqueños--Estados Unidos
Derechos civiles--Estados Unidos--Historia
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Mexicano-Americanos--Relatos personales
Justicia social
Activistas comunitarios--Illinois--Chicago
Mexico-Americanos--Illinois--Chicago--Condiciones sociales
Relaciones raciales
Conflicto social
Identitad cultural
Partido Pantera Negra. Illinois Capítulo
Source
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park (RHC-65)</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-65_Jimenez_Jose_2
Title
A name given to the resource
Jose Jimenez video interview and biography,interview 2
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jimenez, Jose
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history of Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, interviewed on 7/14/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jimenez, Jose, 1948-
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Mexican Americans--Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Mexican Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Race relations
Social conflict
Cultural identity
Black Panther Party. Illinois Chapter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/mp4
application/pdf
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-07-14