Overview

Rooted in a Chicago-based street gang, the Young Lords grew into one of the most dynamic revolutionary community organizations of the late 1960s and early '70s. In their field jackets and signature purple berets, using militant tactics like building takeovers and mass education, the Young Lords mobilized their community for liberation and against gentrification, poverty, racism, and police brutality. Forging a Rainbow Coalition with Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords expanded from their Chicago headquarters into the Puerto Rican and Latino barrios of New York City and elsewhere, demanding an end to the US occupation of Puerto Rico and self-determination for oppressed communities everywhere. tells the story of Chicago's Young Lords in their own words through articles, essays, interviews, and speeches.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jacqueline Laz ,  Jose ""Cha Cha"" Jimenez
Publisher:   Haymarket Books
Imprint:   Haymarket Books
ISBN:  

9798888904541

Pages:   304
Publication Date:   17 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Foreword by José ""Cha-Cha"" Jiménez Cha Cha looks back on his life and what the YLO accomplished in its short life Introduction: “Toward a Reparative History of the Young Lords and the origins of the movement” by Jacqueline Lazú Re-centers the importance of Chicago in the narrative of the Young Lords Organization 1. Symbols, Programs, and Structure of the YLO This first chapter introduces the reader to the visual, political, and organizational identity of the Young Lords Organization through original documents and platform statements. 2. Y.L.O., Pitirre, El Young Lord: Latin Liberation News Service: This chapter covers the YLO’s revolutionary community news service through original newspaper articles, journalism, and political analysis. 3. YLO Speaks This chapter makes available original speeches from Young Lords organizers 4. Community Actions and Programs The Young Lords organized many campaigns and social programs in the community. This chapter provides the reader with original documents, articles, handbills, and ephemera related to their numerous campaigns. 5. The Art of Protest: Culture and Artivism Art and culture were vital components of the YLO’s organization. This chapter covers the many facets of that work. 6. Mapping the Movement This chapter provides a visual map of important locations of YLO activities 7. Alliances and Coalitions This chapter provides a retrospective of the YLO’s work in the Rainbow Coalition. Includes an essay from Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown. 8. Counterintelligence, Infiltration and Indictment This chapter documents the YLO’s response to state repression. 9. A New Era This short chapter makes relevant the work and lessons of the YLO to a new generation of activists and organizers, inspired by the YLO.

Reviews

""This dazzling collection--part archive, part memoir and ethnography, part the everyday poetry of the street--hits like a hammer and then settles like an abiding life-lesson. Its authenticity--meaning its contradictions, disagreements, ambiguities, paradoxes, and uncertainties--illuminates the movement muddle in full. There's no attempt here to present the fragmented, dynamic, and contested reality of revolutionary struggle as linear or coherent, but rather as it truly is: achingly human, deeply aspirational, trembling, and real. I left my encounter with The Young Lords Speak energized, refreshed, and with my radical imagination unleashed and my courage renewed."" --Bill Ayers, author of Demand the Impossible! and When Freedom is the Question Abolition is the Answer ""Through memoir, speeches, oral histories, primary sources, and incisive framing, this reader ushers in a long-awaited compendium of the history of the Chicago Young Lords Organization. Attending to how the history of the Young Lords has often been told through the works of their counterparts and comrades, Lazu carefully lays out an archive of political thought and action that remain ever salient."" --Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, Professor and Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) ""The Young Lords Speak brings to life the origins and history of the Young Lords Organization. In the late 1960s the Young Lords took a stand refusing to accept the repetitive forced removal of their families and friends from yet another Chicago community. With one foot in Chicago, another in the Puerto Rican Diaspora, they demanded better. They organized breakfast programs for hungry children, a health center for the sick, day care for mothers struggling to support their families and they organized their community to envision, hope for and demand a better future. Their efforts were embraced by the community but targeted with repression and reaction from the powers that be. This is their story, the perspectives and lived experiences of members of the Young Lords Organization. Each of us engaged in the struggle for a more just society do so standing on the shoulders of those who went before. Knowing that history and sharing it is our path to building the sea for future change makers to swim in and be successful. For an important piece of that history this book is a must read."" --Helen Shiller, Former Chicago city council woman and author of Daring to Struggle Daring to Win ""This reader offers an essential collection of primary sources on the Chicago Young Lords Organization. Covering various aspects of the group's history, the documents provide critical evidence of the activities, motivations, political ideologies, and achievements of the YLO."" --Lilia Fernandez, historian and author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago

Author Information

Jacqueline Lazis a professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at DePaul University and the author of numerous scholarly articles on the Young Lords in Chicago. (19482025) was one of the founders and leaders of the Young Lords in Chicago. As an infant, he moved with his family from Puerto Rico to a migrant work camp near Boston before settling in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. State repression, along with the police murders of Black Panther leaders, forced Cha Cha underground. He eventually returned to Chicago to continue his political and organizing work.

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