In December of 1970, Gloria Gonzales and Denise Oliver took a ten day trip to Puerto Rico. Their experiences, written in a newspaper article, underline the destructive impacts that western colonialism, specially from America, has on Puerto Rican communities. Oliver describes the psychological impact of colonialism and its devastating impact on young Puerto Rican populations. Oliver rejects the influence of western supremacy on the island, and advocates for a independent Puerto Rico.
In October 1970, Hundreds of Young Lords members occupied the People’s Church, waving Puerto Rican Flags, chanting their support, and demanding that the murder of Julio Roldan be avenged. After the dissatisfaction with the official reports and response to the murders, the Young Lords took the People’s church to create a community space where Puerto Ricans could seek support that was previously denied to them by the United States government. They showed up armed to protect themselves from the mass murder of Puerto Rican citizens by U.S. officials. In their occupation, they set up bail funds, offer draft counseling, and provide lawyers and counseling.
In this document, Richie Perez from the Young Lords Party calls upon his Black and Puerto Rican community members to continue to fight for the “return of the educational system to the people.” Perez defines the common enemy as the white-run school system and advocates for a vanguard of students to come together and resist this shared oppression.
-Richie Perez
“To all our brothers and sisters in school—if your school is messed up, if the administration and the teachers don’t care and don’t teach—don’t let them force you to drop out. Throw them out. The schools belong to us, not to them. Take all that anger and put it to work for our people. Make revolution inside the schools. If the schools don’t function for us, they shouldn’t function at all!”
A love letter to US activists from Puerto Rico, giving advice on barricades, assemblies, and wresting the street from police control.
A barricade makes a lot of difference too. The police’s job is to remove protestors and our goal is to protest as long as possible. A barricade makes them think twice about charging the crowd. Their job is to shoot tear gas and then thousands of people run and it’s a stampede.