Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Spanish language--Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
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...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); African Americans--Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago; Black Panther Party....
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,...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
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...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
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...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago; Puerto...
Rosa M. Hernández grew up on Orchard Street in Chicago. Like many of the Puerto Rican women of that era, she grew up sheltered while boys were free to stay out late and roam the streets. Ms. Hernández was the neighborhood store errand girl, it...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
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,...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Felícitas Nuñez lives in Bermuda Dunes, California. She and Delia Ravelo are co-founders of Teatro de Las Chicanas. The concept began when women of Movimiento Estudíantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) brought their mothers to a university setting....
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Ted Pearson is a long-time resident of Lincoln Park who has been active within the progressive
movement all his life. Early on in 1968 and 1969 he would come by the Young Lord’s People’s Church to
offer his support for the Young Lords and their...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
John “Oppress” Preston was a leading member of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP). His role within the party was to set up and distribute the BPP newspaper throughout the state of Illinois. Though the BPP started in Oakland,...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Dylcia Pagán was born to Puerto Rican parents in 1946 at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, New York City and raised in East Harlem. She became a child star, performing every week on NBC’s “Children’s Hour.” After losing her parents at the age...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
María Romero first joined the Young Lords on Wilton and Grace Streets. She was recruited by then Angie
Lind-Rizzo (later Angie Adorno) and the other Young Lord women members. It was 1973 and the Young
Lords were emerging from two long years of...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Rebecca “Buffy” Vance was friends with “Stony,” who was a white southerner and one of the main
Young Lords from the Wieland branch of the group before they became human rights activists for
Latinos and the poor. Stony was about 17-years-old...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Spanish language--Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Although Estervina Jiménez has never lived in Chicago herself, her life has been deeply connected to the
city. Born and raised in Barrio San Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Ms. Jiménez’s husband, Cordero,
traveled back and forth to Chicago’s...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Laura Garcia was raised in an immigrant farmworker family. She was a member of MECha, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, in the struggle to build the United Farmworkers Union, and joined the Teatro de las Chicanas, a theatre troupe...
Young Lords (Organization); Puerto Ricans--United States; Civil Rights--United States--History; Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.); Personal narratives; Social justice; Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Cathy Adorno-Centeno is the daughter of Angie Navedo-Rizzo, a Young Lord who also founded “Mothers and Others,” a sub-group within the Young Lords that organized around women’s rights issues. Born in Chicago, Ms. Adorno-Centeno describes...
