The Young Lords: A Reader

5. On Education and Students

125 5 On Education and Students In New York, it was principally young people who had been attending various colleges in the state who founded the Young Lords; that said, the Young Lords was a community organization, not a student organization. Doing work in their immediate communities, the Young Lords partnered with students in high schools and colleges to bring their principles and politics to an even younger generation. The articles in this chapter document some of those relationships and the Young Lords’ commitment to radical student politics. Furthermore, the Young Lords did not limit education to a formal institutional context; rather, they were leaders in community education and regularly taught classes out of their community offices. As other chapters and their Program and Platform illustrate, education was a core principle and goal of the Young Lords. Community Education (From the newspaper Palante, 5 June 1970, volume 2, number 4) When the amerikkkan army landed in Guanica in 1898, they brought with them not only soldiers, but teachers, administrators, geologists, biologists, etc. When they got there, they threw away history books written by Puerto Ricans and had gringos rewrite our history. This new version ended in 1898, and in it the spaniards were the bad guys and the amerikkkans the good guys. What they were doing behind all this was trying to wipe out the minds of Puerto Ricans, our culture, language (they also changed the official language to english in the schools), history and our collective understanding of what we are, a nation. They had psychologists study us day in and day out, to prove that Puerto Ricans are a docile, passive people, who go around saying “ay bendito” and do nothing more than have babies, play the conga, la bilita, and get stoned. Now, the YOUNG LORDS, in the tradition of Urayoan, Betances, Albizu Campos, and Alfonso Beal, have picked up from where our Brothers and Sisters have left off, and intensified the struggle for the liberation of our people, our nation. The YOUNG LORDS PARTY is now running many programs which serve our people and educate us as to the way that this capitalistic system oppresses us, like the lead poisoning, t.b. testing, and anemia testing programs. In addition to these, we are bringing to our people community education programs. These are held in El Barrio and in the South Bronx at 7:30 every Tuesday evening. In El Barrio, St. Edwards Church, 109 St. between Madison & 5th Ave. In the South Bronx, St. Anthanasius old school, on Fox St. near Tiffany St. The sessions will educate and prepare our brothers and sisters to deal with the society in which we live. That society is racist 126 On Education and Students and capitalistic and has as its desire a world empire (imperialism) built on the backs of Puerto Ricans and other Third World people. Our children must relearn spanish, our young brothers and sisters must learn of our history and culture, and our warriors, men and women, must learn of the greatness of the Puerto Rican nation. Puerto Ricans must also understand the necessity for armed struggle or be wiped out through genocide. Our brothers and sisters on the streets must learn that the pig takes many forms, from dope to genocide in the hospitals, to brutality and murder at the hands of the patrolling pigs, and imperialist robbery at the hands of the army and navy who are stealing our island of Culebra today and will try to steal the rest of Borinquen tomorrow. We invite all Boricuas to attend our community education sessions and to bring your friends and relatives. EACH ONE TEACH ONE! THE DUTY OF A PUERTO RICAN IS TO MAKE THE REVOLUTION! LIBERATE PUERTO RICO NOW! Carlos Aponte Education Lieutenant YOUNG LORDS PARTY Bronx Branch Student Conference (From the newspaper Palante, 16 October 1970, volume 2, number 13) The first National Puerto Rican Student Conference was held on September 22 and 23 at Columbia University. The conference marks the first time since Puerto Ricans were brought to this country that we got together on a national scale to intensify the struggle for the education and liberation of our people. Over 1000 Boricuas, mostly students, came from all over the united states and Puerto Rico to attend the meeting called for by the YOUNG LORDS PARTY and the Puerto Rican Student Union. The conference had two main purposes: to organize Liberate Puerto Rico Now Committees all over the u.s. and Puerto Rico...