Carlos Munoz video interview and transcript
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
Oral history of Carlos Munoz, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 5/9/2013 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Munoz, Carlos
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
In Copyright
David Mojica video interview and transcript
Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social life and customs
Chicago (Ill.). Mayor (1983-1987 : Washington)
David Mojica is a very important, unsung hero in the history of Puerto Ricans in Chicago. He has volunteered his services in Humboldt Park. Mr. Mojica has been the head of the Cocineros union for many years, helping to provide jobs and distributing Puerto Rican pride flags and shirts, and good tasting fast food to the entire community. Mr. Mojica was also one of the primary Puerto Rican community workers that helped to elect Harold Washington, during his first bid for mayor. He volunteered every day at the Fullerton Ave. near Western Ave. in the “Washington for Mayor” office. Mr. Mojica’s work included distributing flyers and posters, identifying registered voters, and phone canvassing. Mr. Mojica was also a Young Lord who helped to organize the first Hispano rally for Harold Washington at North West Hall in 1982, and the victory rally at Humboldt Park during the first official Mayor’s Neighborhood Festival where over 100,000 Puerto Ricans attended.
Mojica, David
Diego Mercado video interview and biography
Oral history of Diego Mercado, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 11/21/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Mercado, Diego
Francisca Medina video interview and biography, interview 1
Spanish language--Personal narratives
Francisca Medina lived for many years in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. She describes visiting with other Latinas on the streets of Lincoln Park, at laundromats, and in the large variety of Puerto Rican owned shops in the 1950s, a time when the community was thriving and safe. Ms. Medina recalls her involvement in Council Number 9 at St. Teresa’s, as well as her work with the congregations at St. Vincent De Paul and St. Sebastian. Ms. Medina raised her family in Lincoln Park, moving several times within the neighborhood including homes on Sheffield, Bissell and Fremont Streets.
Medina, Francisca
Alfredo Matias video interview and transcript
Veterans--Personal narratives
Arts, Puerto Rican--Illinois--Chicago
Religion
Catholic Church
Racism--United States
Alfredo Matias is the son of Doña Carmen García and a Young Lord going back to the mid-1960s. Mr. Matias joined the Young Lords during the Month of Soul Dances at St. Michael’s Church Gymnasium in Lincoln Park. Mr. Matias lived in Lincoln Park and also in Wicker Park for many years. He was forced from the military because he refused to accept an order that would have sent him to Cuba to fight alongside other Puerto Ricans in the Bay of Pigs invasion, against the sovereignty of Cuba. Mr. Matias grew up in Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico. Today Mr. Matias is home in Puerto Rico, content to be by his mother’s side, and still writing his poetry.
Matias, Alfredo
Pedro J. Mateo video interview and biography
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Pedro Mateo is from Salinas, Puerto Rico and now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He first came to Grand Rapids in the 1950s, but quickly moved to Indiana Harbor to work in the steel mills alongside many other Puerto Rican immigrants of that era. Mr. Mateo describes the steel mill culture and the Puerto Rican community that developed in Indiana Harbor beginning in the 1940s. After a short time in Indiana Harbor, Mr. Mateo moved with his family to Van Buren Street near Ashland Avenue in Chicago, in the barrio area then known to Puerto Ricans as La Madison. In the 1960s, Mr. Mateo moved to Addison Ave. and Wilson Street, next to Wrigley Field. It was here that he first met the Young Lords. Mr. Mateo describes his daily travels by train to La Clark to work at “Las Gomas,” or a rubber factory, by New Orleans and Chicago Avenue. He ultimately returned to Grand Rapids, where his large, extended family plays a prominent role in the city’s Latino community.
Mateo, Pedro
Patrick Mateo video interview and transcript
Personal narratives
Patrick Mateo is a Young Lord who was born in the United States but lived many years in Puerto Rico. His family is from Salinas. But he and his siblings grew up in Chicago starting at Van Buren, the old La Madison barrio, and in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is currently living in Puerto Rico. Mr. Mateo fixes his own cars and studied carpentry and building maintenance. He can build you a house from scratch. His mother lived in a convent for some time and attends church regularly at St. Joseph’s in Grand Rapids. Mr. Mateo, who also dabbles in music, has played and sung for the church choir. He is a community organizer. Mr. Mateo has also worked on several Young Lords projects including the Latino Support Group that became the first bilingual, bicultural support group in Grand Rapids. The Latino Support Group was a volunteer program that received referrals from the courts and probation departments to assist Latinos with substance abuse issues. Mr. Mateo also helped to organize the KO CLUB, an afterschool neighborhood program to prevent youth from becoming involved with gang violence. And he also helped to organize several Lincoln Park Camps in Michigan, to educate people about the Young Lords and to recruit volunteers who would assist in documenting their history. Each of the camps were self-supported by a donated fee, provided a weekend get-away, and proved positive and memorable events. Mr. Mateo has a large family that looks to him as its leader. The Fernández side is also large and well established in Grand Rapids. They include church pastors, school principals, and businesspersons. He describes rough times and perseverance. And he remains a role model and pacesetter for others in his community.
Mateo, Patrick
Charlyne Martínez-Villegas video interview and transcript
Charlyne Martínez-Villegas came to Grand Rapids, Michigan from New Jersey where she loved it because there were many Puerto Ricans. In Grand Rapids she was only one of a few. Another reason that she loved New Jersey is that that is where her mother and father were still married. She explains that as soon as their family arrived in Grand Rapids, her parents divorced. Her mother worked hard trying to make ends meet, preparing homemade pasteles that people would order from her ahead of time and then she would have to have them ready at all hours of the day or week. Eventually her mother’s homemade business led to opening up a small restaurant on Grandville Avenue which is always filled with patrons. In Grand Rapids, Ms. Martínez-Villegas began to get in trouble at school and in the neighborhood on the southeast side of the city, by Garfield Park. She missed her friends back in New Jersey and in school “she just did not fit in…the kids were mostly white, or black.” She explains that she could relate a little better with black children because they shared a lot of things in common. She also missed her father. The Young Lords were passing out flyers door-to-door. But they did not use the name “Young Lords” publicly. Instead they called themselves the “KO CLUB.” And they had a way with words. She explains that they had to read some pledges and phrases and everything began with KO: “Keep Open Your Hearts” or “Keep Standing Up for Yourself” or “Keep Open Your Mind.” Their meetings were held in a United Methodist Church, and the heads of the KO Club were Pastor Marge Berman, who was of Mexican descent, and Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez. Members of the Club were also shown several videos about the Young Lords.The young people who participated in the Club and the small congregation were supportive. But there were a few within the church who did not like the Young Lords, who had taken over Methodist Churches in New York and Chicago. Those same individuals also did not like Pastor Berman, who was new and wanted more interaction with the community. Pastor Berman had read a newspaper article about the Young Lords while Mr. Jiménez was working as a substance abuse counselor for Project Rehab. She contacted him by phone. And when they met for the first time, Pastor Berman told him that he was sent by God. To which Mr. Jiménez replied, “Did God send any money? Because I have bills.” Mr. Jiménez did want to organize and help youth, but he wanted to do so around issues related to the Young Lords. Pastor Berman just wanted to save souls. It was a good understanding, but Mr. Jiménez would have to work incognito because using the name Young Lords name would be like saying the word “gang” in Grand Rapids. The KO Club worked well because it was not an after school program. It was an “in the neighborhood program.” It was focused on youth like Ms. Martínez-Villegas who did not want anything to do with school. And while others were saying to all youth who got in trouble, “Lock them up and throw away the key.” the KO Club had their own public slogan: “Support Youth For A Change.” Parents had to get involved, because the KO Club would visit them in their home and let them know that they were not babysitters. Once a month parents would attend amateur night where the KO CLUB members would perform for them and the rest of the community. Organizing was constantly being done door-to-door. KO CLUB was like a good gang and everyone was a member. Their colors were black and purple, but their symbol was a heart with KO in the middle and a cross above the heart. Once a year there was an annual dinner with the community where many members of the United Methodist Church attended including the Bishop. It was cost effective as it was run more like support groups divided by age: pee wee, juniors, and seniors. They would all have a chance to express themselves in a variety of ways, including discussion, with music, or in sports. The only problem came from the adults. Some wanted to make it more ecumenical to include the community at large and others wanted the organization to be more faith-based. Still others wanted control. And Pastor Berman was moved to a church in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Jiménez was left alone, fighting church elders who were paranoid that Mr. Jiménez might want to speak for the church. Mr. Jiménez understood their fears and resigned in an amicable way. The youth program continues today and it is being run more privately within the church. Ms. Martínez-Villegas says that it is what she needed then with the loss of her father, and that participating in the KO Club turned her life around.
Martínez-Villegas, Charlyne
Guillermo Martínez video interview and transcript
Guillermo Martínez was born in Puerto Rico. In the 1950s he moved to Chicago, settling in the most northern and western edge of Lincoln Park, near Diversey Parkway and Ashland Avenue. Mr. Martínez describes his memories of Lincoln Park, including the Puerto Rican youth groups of the area, local taverns, and social clubs. Even within the Puerto Rican community of Lincoln Park, there was debate about the effects of urban renewal. Mr. Martínez provides insight into these differing perspectives, including his belief that the Puerto Rican community of Lincoln Park was not forced out, but moved by choice.
Martínez, Guillermo
Monsignor Leo T. Mahon interview and transcript
Catholic Church. Archdiocese of Chicago (Ill.)
In the early 1950s, Monsignor Leo T. Mahon, an Irish American priest who was then head of the Hispanic apostolate in the Chicago Diocese, organized the (Knights of San Juan), as a religiously inspired community action group among Puerto Rican men. The group was tremendously successful and soon became a model that other dioceses strove to replicate around the country, including in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Monsignor Mahon developed the program based on the idea that religious development takes place best where social stability and self-confidence prevail.
Mahon, Leo
Ricardo Lugo video interview and transcript
Oral history of Ricardo Lugo, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 12/14/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Lugo, Ricardo
Felipe Luciano video interview and transcript
Oral history of Felipe Luciano, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 3/15/2013 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Luciano, Felipe
Higinio Lazano video interview and biography
Higinio Lozano arrived in Chicago and settled in the La Clark neighborhood in 1947. He later moved to North Avenue and Sedgwick in Old Town, right across the street from Lincoln Park, and lived there until the 1980s. Mr. Lozano is considered the official “Grandpa” of the Young Lords because he does not miss any of their events including socials, funerals and weddings. Several of his children were part of the Young Lords including his daughter, Yolanda Lucas, who held a top leadership position within the Young Lords. Ms. Lucas is also the mother of Alejandro “Alex” Jiménez, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez’s only son. Alejandro Jiménez is now an adult who went to Truman College, has sold insurance and other products, and has even worked for the Northwest Community Organization, a neighborhood group known for their grassroots activism, especially around housing concerns.Ms. Lucas and Mr. José Jiménez separated after the Jiménez for Alderman Campaign when pressures contributed to Mr. Jiménez‘s relapse. Circumstances related to divorce, safety, distance, the Young Lords, and repression prevented a more traditional type of family communications. Communication was nearly non-existent and usually done in public places, which became cannon fodder for those without clear understanding, and who loved to be involved in gossip. This contributed even more to the pain of a child. But Mr. Lozano provided needed support to Alex and to the Young Lords group. Ms. Lucas remains very close to the Jiménez family and now there is also a granddaughter, Alessandra.Mr. Lozano is always happy go lucky and the biggest flirt ever, who will not miss a beat on the dance floor. His son, Albert, was a salsa king at the Rico’s Club that Young Lord Angie Adorno owned, and which many Young Lords and others from Lincoln Park patronized. Mr. Lozano is the typical Puerto Rican joker who will catch your every weakness. And his politics are soft spoken. One does not realize how clear he is on Puerto Rican politics. He knows racism firsthand and what Mayor Daley did to Puerto Ricans; removing them from the lakefront and downtown. He saw it with his own eyes. But he is patient enough to wait until you can see it.
Lazano, Higinio
Obed López-Zacarias video interview and transcript
Poverty--Illinois--Chicago
Discrimination in housing--Illinois--Chicago
Housing--Illinois--Chicago
Obed López-Zacarias is founder of the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), that organized for a caseworker union and for the dignified treatment of welfare recipients at the Wicker Park Welfare Office of Chicago. LADO was also instrumental in helping to develop the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, the longest standing Puerto Rican Cultural Center in the city of Chicago. Mr. López-Zacarias worked closely with the Young Lords and became the official envoy to the Presbyterian Conference in Texas by the Young Lords and the Lincoln Park Poor People’s Coalition. When the occupation was over and all the demands were won, LADO opened a free community clinic located in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
López-Zacarias, Obed
Omar López video interview and transcript, interview 2
Students--Civil rights
Omar López was Minister of Information for the Young Lords. He was born in Mexico and first came to Chicago in 1958, settling in the Humboldt Park Neighborhood where he has lived ever since. He first met some Young Lords in Lincoln Park when they were hanging out on the streets as a local Puerto Rican street gang, and later when the Young Lords were providing security for Interviewers: José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez and Fred Hampton (of the Black Panther Party) who were speaking together at Loop Jr. College where Omar was a student and fighting for student rights and bilingual education. Mr. López joined the Young Lords in 1969. In 1973, he founded the Mexican Teachers Organization.
López, Omar
Omar López video interview and transcript, interview 1
Martha López video interview and transcript
Martha López grew up in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and recalls the thriving Puerto Rican community there, especially the youth groups, Caballeros de San Juan, and the Young Lords. She also recalls being attacked “from the whites and the blacks” who lived in different parts of the segregated Old Town and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.
López, Martha
Antonio López video interview and transcript
Antonio López grew up in the Logan Square Neighborhood of Chicago and heard about the Young Lords early in life, as his parents are activists. Mr. López is also active in various projects and community organizations. He is of Mexican descent and Logan Square is currently a prime real estate target for developers, who continue to prey on Latinos and the poor, and are supported by city hall and their housing Master Plan. In fact it is not hard to locate many of these developers who readily finance machine loyalists and who have sat and still sit on the many city boards. Mr. López ‘s parents were connected to the land grant struggles in New Mexico that were being led by Reis López Tijerina. Mr. Tijerina was born on September 21, 1926 near Falls City, Texas. He is preacher who founded the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) in New Mexico. He is widely credited as launching the early Chicano Civil Rights Movement, although Mr. Tijerina prefers the term “Indo Hispano Movement” because the word “Chicano” can also divide Mexicans. At the time of this oral history, Mr. López was completing his doctoral studies in the Department of History at the University of Texas, El Paso. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the Rainbow Coalition, which originally began with Chairman Fred Hampton and included the Young Patriots and Young Lords. Mr. López has voluntarily assisted the Young Lords on various projects beyond his dissertation.
López, Antonio
Melvin Lewis video interview and transcript
African Americans--Personal narratives
Melvin Lewis was born in Chicago but today lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His parents live in Maywood, Illinois. This is the same town where Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party (BPP) grew up. It is also where, at Maywood’s City Hall, there is a recreation center with a swimming pool named after the slain leader of Chicago’s BPP. There is also a street named “Fred Hampton Way” and a bust of Chairman Fred Hampton. Mr. Lewis is a Chicago Black Panther and freelance writer, a master gardener and certified beekeeper. His recent articles include “Out Loud and Into Print” in the May/June 2012 issue of City View (NC). He writes on music and his publications include features on “Hootie and the Blow Fish,” and singer and song writer “Rene Marie in Pluck!” He has written and broadcast twelve vignettes about civil rights for FM Radio stations 107.7 and 91.9 FM and conducted interviews on horticulture, history and art. Mr. Lewis has also won the Significant Illinois Poet Award and is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently assisting with the Chicago Black Panther History Project. Their motto is, “ We will tell our story, in our own words; Illinois Panthers speak for themselves.”
Lewis, Melvin
Carmen de Leon video interview and transcript
Carmen de Leon is a Young Lord who grew up in New York City and today lives in Loíza, Puerto Rico. A strong advocate for women, Ms. de Leon worked closely with Young Lord Richie Pérez on a range of education and youth centered programs. In her oral history, she recalls her days working with the Young Lords. Ms. de Leon discusses how the Young Lords were infiltrated by government agents and how “ideology” was utilized to factionalize and create divisions within the Movement, including encouraging takeovers, discrediting, and purging leaders. She vividly describes members being taken hostage as well as how she herself was purged from the Young Lords. Her interview provides important insights into how these repressive tactics were carried out and how they ultimately destroyed the connections between the Young Lords and the barrio base.
Leon, Carmen de
David Lemieux video interview and transcript
Police-community relations--Illinois--Chicago
David (pronounced "Daveed") Lemieux joined the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party in the spring of 1969. At age 16, he was the second youngest member of that Chapter. He was a "rank and file" member and functioned in all BPP activities including the Free Breakfast for Children Program and the dissemination of the Black Panther newspaper. As a member of the Education Cadre, he was constantly engaged with "speaking" the mission and purpose of the Black Panther Party. He remained active with the BPP into the early 70s. In 1982, after consultation with other members of the activist community, David joined the Chicago Police Department and began a 26 year career where he was able to use his office and authority as a vehicle to serve the people. Currently, David Lemieux gives seminars facilitated by Chicago's Black Star Project entitled "Keeping OUR children out of the 'Just US' System" and speaks locally and nationally on the role of peace officers serving the community through the justice system. He is active with the Chicago Black Panther History Project and other efforts committed to preservation, education and reclamation of the true history of our struggle.
Lemieux, David
Mike Lawson video interview and transcript
Ex-convicts--Education--Illinois--Chicago
Mike Lawson is a civil rights activist who first met Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez in 1968, after Mr. Jiménez was released from prison. At that time, Mr. Lawson was in charge of a G.E.D. program for ex-offenders that already had enrolled a number of Black Stone Rangers, Disciples, and Young Lords. The group met at Argonne National Laboratory. Because Mr. Lawson lived in Old Town, he helped some of the students who lived in Lincoln Park get to the classes. In the morning most of the students would work part-time as janitors; they would study part-time in the afternoons. As an extension of their classroom lessons, Mr. Lawson took some of his students on a field trip to Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention where they witnessed police beating up on hippies and reporters firsthand. These demonstrations helped to remind Mr. Jiménez of the goals he had set for himself while in jail. Today Mike Lawson lives on the south side of Chicago and is dependent on a wheelchair to get around, as he is plagued by muscular dystrophy.
Lawson, Mike
Roberto Jiménez video interview and biography
Roberto Jiménez is son of “Tio Funfa” Jiménez. Today he lives in the small mountain town of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, but did live for some years in Detroit, Michigan, traveling back and forth in the 1950s, “when there were not that many Puerto Ricans living there.” It was cold in Detroit. And Mr. Jiménez recalls having to rely on family and friends for transportation and other things. He likes to raise rabbits for sale, and chickens. Mr. Jiménez also grows green bananas and other vegetables in his backyard behind the three houses where his brothers and sisters live in separate apartments. At least one of the houses is an inheritance and it is not bad to be able to live and to share supper with family. When friends arrive to visit, he has a habit of giving them some bananas or a chicken or a rabbit. If he has to do the work to prepare it, he will charge for his time. Mr. Jiménez considers himself to be just a humble worker and recalls going to the United States because farm labor was seasonal and there was no work. Sometimes construction was good. But it did not last long because there were many people trying to do it. Mr. Jiménez had heard about the Hacha Viejas, but they were his cousins, children of Tio Gabriel Jiménez, and workers who worked on his uncle’s farm, and not part of his immediate family. Today, Mr. Jiménez has no plans except to enjoy the tropical breeze from the same chair he sits on daily in their patio/garage entrance. Here he is calm and can think as he enjoys the car and truck traffic blaring as it passes the house.
Jiménez, Roberto
Ramonia “Monin” Jiménez Rodríguez video interview and biography
Youth--Illinois--Chicago
Ramonia “Monin” Jiménez Rodríguez came to live in the La Clark barrio of Chicago on La Salle near Division Street in the mid-1950s. Ms. Jiménez Rodríguez attended mass at Holy Name Cathedral and St. Joseph. She became involved early in the Council Number Three Damas de María at St. Michael’s Church. There she helped other Damas to cook the arroz con gandules dinners to raise money after mass. There was usually a live band playing and many neighborhood people dancing. She was also part of the movement to try to get mass held in Spanish. In later years, Ms. Jiménez Rodríguez moved back to Puerto Rico to retire which is where she now lives.
Jiménez, Ramonia