User:Jose(Cha-Cha)Jimenez
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JOSE (CHA-CHA)JIMENEZ
'Founded Young Lords as Human Rights Movement: 9/23/68
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[edit] EARLY YEARS
Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez, one of 7 founders of the Young Lords street gang and the founder of the Young Lords as a national human rights movement was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico of country folk or Jíbaro parents on August 8,1948.
His mother Eugenia Rodriguez Flores is a retired housewife but has worked most of her life as a factory worker. His deceased father Antonio Jimenez Rodriguez started as a "Tomatero" or a temporary migrating farmworker, from 1946 until 1950 for Andy Voy Farms (Campbell Soups) near Concord, Massachusetts. He later worked 16 years as a meatpacker for Oscar Meyer Foods Chicago.
The Jimenez family moved in 1950 from Massachusetts to Chicago's downtown Water Hotel on Superior and Lasalle streets. This area from Ohio to North Ave. along Clark Street was mostly hotel rooms serving transients or kitchenette apartments being milked for rents (before the cranes and bulldozers arrived). They were dilapidated and with other mini complexes were being converted into apartments either by landlords or quietly packed in by large families of Puerto Rican immigrants. Most worked as lower-skilled foundry laborers, meatpackers, factory piece workers, housekeepers and dishwashers for this low income downtown neighborhood. It eventualy became stable to the point where the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico opened up their offices across from the Water Hotel and Puerto Ricans would call this area La Clark.
When Mayor Richard J. Daley first took office in 1955 expanding downtown became his campaign program.It soon became the Chicago 21 Plan. By 1957 all of La Clark had fallen victim to the wrecking ball or to building inspectors guided by patronage and not interested in housing codes but rather in manipulating to achieve Daley's master plan. Deals were smoked out with the mayor's few contractor friends and with absentee landlords, like the infamous Rubloff. Soon La Clark was abruptly replaced to expand downtown and the Gold Coast along Lake Michigan. Several large building units; the Carl Sandburg Village served as anchor. The Jimenez family and an entire Latino neighborhood witnessed their few homes over inspected, forcibly sold, and then bought out cheaply, along with rental apartment buildings now being demolished. Their community destroyed, voiceless and ignored, Puerto Ricans were scattered into the neighborhoods of: Lakeview, Uptown, 63rd, Wicker Park, West Town, Humboldt Park, 18th Street, and Lincoln Park. Not long afterwards these neighborhoods would themselves become urban renewed or urban removed and Puerto Ricans would be forced out again.
The largest of these Puerto Rican barrios would settle within Wicker Park or inside Lincoln Park by 1957. Both neighborhoods were created out of a combination of an influx of Puerto Ricans from the Island, displaced residents of La Clark and displaced Puerto Ricans resulting from construction of the University of Illinois Circle Campus. Most of them had lived among skid row, their nucleus being Madison Street, between Halsted and Kedzie. It was called the Barrio of La Madison. La Clark was a similiar environment; low income neighbors, divided hotel rooms and low rents.
Lincoln Park was a move up, divided between the affluent "gold coast" on the east along the lake and the white working class section on the west. However, the displacements from La Clark and La Madison and subsequent relocation into Wicker Park and Lincoln Park led to tensions among residents. Lincoln Park became inundated with white street gang youth. It was where the mostly Puerto Rican Young Lords gang originated in 1959 for protection and "respeto." Orlando Davila, a Puerto Rican of dark complexion, feeling strongly the biases against his racial and national origin heightened now by displacement, recruited the young Latino gang founders. He called the first meeting of his gang at Arnold Elementary in an afterschool classroom.
Orlando was highly loved and respected for his physical and caring defense of the group. However he never chose to become its official head or President. Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez, whose residence was a block from Orlando's but who practically lived in juvenile homes (with other Young Lords, for gang related offenses) was also at this first meeting along with the six other original founders of the gang: Benny Perez, Angel Del Rivero, Fermin Perez, Santos Guzman, Orlando Davila, and Joe Vicente. Vicente was voted the first president. Cha-Cha Jimenez became the president of the Young Lords in 1964 after several other presidents before him.
The Lincoln Park Community was also a place where the Puerto Rican adult immigrants organized their retreats, rosaries, novenas, annual plays of the Crucifixion of Jesus, softball leagues, dances and Catholic Sunday brunches, under the leadership of eloquent spokespersons such as Jesus Rodriguez and others of the Caballeros de San Juan (Knights of St.John) and Hijas de María (Daughters of Mary). Oak Street Beach thru North Ave. up to Fullerton Beach and beyond including the zoo and the Park was filled on weekends with Puerto Ricans and other working families.
The Puerto Rican Congress, Claudio Flores' El Puertorriqueño newspaper, Raul Cardona's radio program, Puro Pinzón's and Mario Rivera's stores, along with other major Puerto Rican organizations and businesses, were also located in Lincoln Park. It is in Lincoln Park where the first Fiestas de San Juan held at St. Michael's Church preceded and led to the organizing of the first Puerto Rican Parade of Chicago in 1965.
[edit] Young Lords Fold
Several other Puerto Rican youth groups also developed in Lincoln Park as social clubs and met at the Isham Y.M.C.A. organizing dances, picnics and other social events. They were the Black Eagles, Flaming Arrows, Paragons, Continentals, Rebels, Trojans, and Imperial Aces and Queens. These groups later turned into gangs and became part of an early 1960s gang epidemic, as Lincoln Park and other city neighborhoods transformed and tensions grew. In contrast, the Young Lords organized themselves into a gang from day one. They quickly sought out reputation walking into enemy territory and picking fights with all non-Latino gangs in Lincoln Park. Soon, they grew into several branches including near Old Town and Evanston, with a few women auxilaries called Young Lordettes (in the later political group, male and female were both called Young Lords).
By 1967, the working class section of Lincoln Park became primarily Latino and the Young Lords, in their late teens, without a war and without organized meetings, ceased to exist except loosely, as a gang. Some married or were on active Vietnam duty. Many were incarcerated for car thefts, purse snatching, burglaries, armed robberies, drug sales, stabbings, shootings, and other gang-related crimes. Others fell victim to hard drugs. Still others moved to other communities and joined up with other gangs. Many even became heads of other gangs, but never opposed the Young Lords.
During most of this period, Cha-Cha and the remaining Young Lords spent their hours hanging out at the corner of Halsted and Dickens at George's Hot Dog stand. Here Jimenez also hung out with loose members from the other gangs (some of whom he had spent time with in jails) and within a late '60s drug culture, they took to hard drugs including speed, acid, heroin, and cocaine.
Cha-Cha still frequented jail, now more often, but this time it was not gang-related but drug-related. In the summer of 1968, he was picked up for a possession of heroin charge and given a 60-day sentence at the then Bradwell or House of Correction, now Cook County Jail.
[edit] Human Rights
An opposing black gang in jail told guards that Jimenez and five other Latinos were planning an escape.All were questioned, strip searched and transfered to Maximum Security.It was here in "the hole" that Cha-Cha Jimenez read 7 Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, about a Fransican monk.It was his first book since dropping out in 2nd month of freshman at Waller High School(now Lincoln Park High).This drop out was facilitated by his deportation to Puerto Rico via a plea bargained deal by an attorney hired with coins saved by Cha-Cha's mother. The book impacted Jimenez and he wrote a letter asking for a priest.Unconcerned with the standard gossip of prisoners he went to confession between the cell bars of "the hole." Jimenez then began to read about Martin Luther King Jr.,about Malcom X and Black nationalism and about the organizing of the Black Panthers for self defense. Books were given to him by a Black Muslim who was assigned as the inmate librarian.He first looked at Cha-Cha with scorn due to Jimenez's light skin and blue eyes.A cousin of Cha-Cha's who was of dark complexion and also a Jimenez and in the same "hole" helped to smooth things out.He explained most Puerto Ricans are centuries of mixture of three cultures:African,Spanish European,and Indigenous People's. Rioters were now being brought into the jail after King was assasinated along with Mexican workers rounded up in public relations raids by Immigration.As they were being assigned dorms or cells they passed thru Maximum Security or the North Cell House for further processng.To prevent them from being pushed around by both white and a few Black guards,Jimenez requested and was allowed to translate for them from his third level cell. These experiences made a secluded and captive Jimenez realize a need to fight for social justice.He was determined to duplicate a Black Panther Party within the Puerto Rican and Latino Communities.It was also his intention to give up useless gangfighting and time consumptive drugs inorder to devote all his time to this new group upon his release. When Cha-Cha was discharged from the House of Correction Jimenez was forced to enroll in an ex-offender G.E.D program at Argonne National Laboratory,for income.Mr.Bob Lawson who directed the program was a Peace activist and also sported an "Afro" and wore African dress.He wanted to expose his Black and Latino gang banger students,to a more broader education.So he took them on a field trip to protest the 1968 Democractic Convention.Here his students were able to witness protesters and reporters beaten and bloodied by Mayor Daley's police. During this same period,the Puerto Rican section of the Lincoln Park neighborhood was being stripped off all city programs to the poor.The Trina Davila Urban Progress Center was at that time relocated to Humboldt Park.Then it provided city services with rented space in the Armitage Ave. Methodist Church.It was this same Chicago church that the Young Lords would later take over and convert it to People's Church and into their National Headquarters. Two way streets were now transformed into one ways for traffic control and for this new inner city suburb in Lincoln Park.Sheriff evictions of Latino neighbors became a frequent sight. Rents increased 400% within a month's time.Churches,hospitals and police and fire houses now were being expanded or renovated or new ones built for the new incoming residents as part of Mayor Daley's Master Plan.Entire city blocks were being bought up by conglomerate developers feasting on this modern day landgrab. On Armitage Ave between Fremont and Bissell streets, three real estate offices on one block opened up for business at the same time.Homes of Puerto Ricans and the poor were targeted,pirated for pennies by these real estate agents who were working with investors and city developers; and sold these houses and turned them around several times like one turns candy in a jar at the grocery store. Some established businesses spoke of historical preservation or conservation for rich whites only and for buildings and for profit and for the eviction of the blighted poor.They added Old Town to their business signs.Old Town signs announcing changing times for the rich but fear and anxiety for a stable and diverse working class neighborhood.Lincoln Park was also the 16 to 20 year old home to a growing wave of the first Puerto Rican immigrants to Chicago.Yet noone was trying to preserve their history.Old Town was previously carved from La Clark but "Old La Clark" was also not conserved.Now businesses were using the alleged prosperity of Old Town as a symbol once again to kicked Puerto Ricans and the Poor out of Lincoln Park and later Wicker Park.This defaulted tax theory continues to not serve its citizens equitably.It segregates rich whites near downtown and the lake.While,Black,Latino and the poor are pushed and maintained segregated in the periphery of the city and its outlying suburbs.It is a plantation patronage with JOBS and a few trinkets of status symbols or leaders, rubber stamping for Mayor Daley. It is Chicago polictical history since Daley became mayor in 1955(slowed down only briefly by the People during the Mayor Harold Washington era). It is also now the model being duplicated in other cities.
[edit] Community Organizing
Pat Devine and Dick Vision both of Concerned Citizen's of Lincoln Park asked Jimenez to come and bring Puerto Ricans to the Department of Urban Renewal Council Meetings in early September of 1968.The council then consisted of about 15 upper class white persons. Most were from the Lincoln Park Conservation Association, a local smokesreen for the city's masterplan.It was a group well connected to Mayor Daley and to developers.Much later in their housing speculation,they also recruited a couple Latino precinct captains or "leaders" to help promote the hype, "that Latinos would be given $200 moving expenses and would later be relocated back into Lincoln Park.This claim is ludicrous today because Latinos in Lincoln Park or in other urban renewed sections of communities can now be counted on the finger's of one's hand.
Jimenez without funds,only passion, and untrained in organizing skills went to every street corner every,every snack shop and every bar where the gangs hung out.He was forced into fist fights, kicked out from taverns by proprieters and ridiculed by other gang members whose insults sometimes threatened physical harm.On the day of the urban renewal meeting Jimenez walked in with about 60 converted youth.Most of the Young Lords did not support him on this first action.Those who did support were primarily Young Lords and didn't sit down for the meeting.Instead they faced the stage and formed a U-shape around the attendees and without verbal nor physical threats took over the meeting. Cha-Cha quickly adjorned it by informing the council that no more Urban Renewal Community Conservation Council meetings would be permitted in Lincoln Park until there was,"Black,Latino,and Poor White representation." The Young Lords, with youth from other gangs in Lincoln Park(including some from the Dayton Street Latin Kings,Harrison Gents and others)all got away after they became angry and "thrashed" the place.Two days later Jimenez was picked up for questioning.This led to an arrest only after police discovered two old warrants for Disorderly Conduct. News spread of the victorious takeover and destruction of the urban renewal office and of Cha-Cha's arrest and 200 People marched onto the Chicago Ave. Police Station demanding his release..Jimenez was released on his own signature or recognizance bond and the Young Lords now part of a People's Movement, took off. The following six weeks saw Jimenez being arrested and indicted a total of 18 times as Young Lords transformed themseves into internationalist revolutionarys and began to organize more community actions including demonstrations for:welfare rights,women's rights, against police brutality, and for the self determination for Puerto Rico and other Latin American Nations. Manuel Rabago took Cha-Cha to Puerto Rico to visit Nationalists,Don Pedro Albizu Campos home,Blanca Canales,Don Antonio Corretjer and to march with other compatriots during a rainy day in Lares,Puerto Rico in 1969.Earlier on March 21rst 1969 Young Lords participated with Rabago in a radio program on the Raul Cardona Show, remembering the Massacre de Ponce,where police in Puerto Rico in the 30's had shot into a peaceful demonstration and gunned down Nationalists and their supporters.The Young Lords also dressed up like Nationalists in black and white and marched with them in that same year's Puerto Rican Parade.One of several 1969 marches of the Young Lords was also held with 10,000 People carrying Albizu Campos signs - from Lincoln Park to Humboldlt Park. Later in 1983,after being incarcerated for 9 months while awaiting trial and winning these other charges which included being arrested to demonstrate support for the F.A.L.N. Prisoners of War Cha-Cha Jimenez again spoke of their mistreatment, as he introduced the newly elected Mayor Harold Washington, before a crowd(organized by the Office of Special Events,the Puerto Rican Parade Committee and the Young Lords) of 100,000 Puerto Ricans in Humboldlt Park.The very next day, Jimenez and Dr.Jose Lopez and others met with F.B.I. Director Webb in their Chicago office and demanded that they stop the mistreatment and tortures of the Prisoners.On the following day,Rudy Lozano, another Latino Harold Washington supporter who was also going to be honored for his support of Washington at a neighborhood festival in the Mexican Community was assasinated in his home by a local drug dealer, most likely angry with Lozanos efforts to clean up the community.The Young Lords helped to organize along with Slim Coleman,Marion Stamps and Jesus Garcia the first annual procession for Lozano, marching thru the Mexican community on 18th street to the Church service. Bail bonds were now higher in 1969 due to the Young Lords support for Puerto Rican self determination.Charges were now framed in a way that they appeared EXTRA criminal,unreal and unrelated to the strategy of well organized peaceful demonstrations now being utilized by the Young Lords.Jimenez and others were picked up now prior to leaving for these demonstrations (in the hopes that they would not be successful and to drain finances)and fictitiously charged with Mob Action.These would later dropped in court by the State's Attorney but only, after Cha-Cha and the Young Lords were able to receive free legal assistance by the People's Law Office.Before that,the Young Lords just thought that the police brutality and civil rights violations were expected as just a way of life. Other fictitious charges on Cha-Cha and others included:Possesion of marijuana and weapons,several other mob actions, and several alleged assaults on the police. Assaults on the Police usually meant that Young Lords and Jimenez were the ones who were being pointed guns at,hand cuffed and forced to cover or to defend themselves, inorder to avoid injury from police fists,brass knuckles,billy clubs and threatened police raids on the church.One announcement on nationwide ABC quickly foiled by attorneys, claimed that the Young Lords had,"just purchased and now have a large cache of illegal weapons inside the church for the upcoming October Demonstrations." All weapons in the Church were legal for protection like at any other enterprise and the Young Lords focus or policy at that time was not on weapons but instead on survival programs,education,community actions,and organizing for the empowerment of the People. The same States Attorney Hanrahan that brought the 18 indictments in six weeks against Jimenez, also targeted and had Fred Hampton and Mark Clark of the Black Panther Party murdered.It was Hanrahan who ordered the predawn raid on December 4,1969.The family later sued the State of Illinois and won a hefty settlement. Commander Braasch of the 18th District Police Station that conducted most of the arrests on Cha-Cha,the Young Lords,and their Lincoln Park supporters was himself indicted and found guilty of extorting local businesses in Lincoln Park.The commander and his police money collecters visited businesses and told them that the police would provide special protection from Young Lords and street gangs in return for a larger contribution to their personal fund.
[edit] Original Actions
The Young Lords held protest demostrations in front of real estate offices located between Fremont and Bissell Streets. They sat in at Augustana and Grant Hospitals demanding that they stop turning away the poor who were being referred by the Young Lords' Emeterio Betances Free Health Clinic. 350 persons camped out on vacant land at the corner of Halsted and Armitage to halt the construction of a one block,indoor tennis court which had a proposed membership of $1000 @year,where Puerto Ricans once lived. The Young Lords joined welfare recipients and Obed Lopez and LADO (Latin American Defense Organization)and Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers and together they shut down twice,the Wicker Park Welfare Office.Their demands were for a union and for a more dignified service.Cha-Cha Jimenez,Obed Lopez and Fred Hampton were all three arrested for mob action on both of these occasions. Architect Howard Alan invited and brought the renown Buckminister Fuller to the People's Church to meet with Cha-Cha and the Young Lords.He was later hired by the Young Lords, to draw up their own archetectural plans for affordable housing.Mayor Daley's city hall rejected these plans even though, they had been reviewed and now were being presented by the Poor People's Coalition and by the former head of the Department of Urban Renewal:Mr.Ira Bach. The Young Lords People's Movement now red listed, with limited resources and without funding from foundations nor city agencies, approached the Methodist Church on Armitage Avenue.This church was completely vacant except for Sundays.It was where city services had once been distributed.It was also where the Young Lords and other street gangs had previously hung out outside, prior to their transformation.The Young Lords asked to rent space for: a Free Day Care Center to be run like a family coop,a free dental and health clinic,a Puerto Rican Cultural Center,and a Free Breakfast for Children Program. Negotiations by the Young Lords led by Cuban American Luis Cuza with the congregation, broke down.Luis Chavez,a Young Lord of Mexican descent, then led a small group of Young Lords gathered outside of the meeting and seized the church.Chavez then signaled from a window to Cha-Cha who was standing outside talking with the Pastor,Rev.Bruce Johnson to let him know that the takeover was completed.The congregation immediately called the Police and the church was surrounded by police swat teams.To prevent a bloody confrontation,Rev.Johnson with Jimenez still at his side told the police that he had given the Young Lords permission to be inside the Church.By now the streets were filled with Latinos and the Poor of Lincoln Park.It became obvious to the police that this was not a good time to attempt to enter the church. Later,the name of Armitage Avenue Methodist Church was changed by Young Lords and the remaining congregation members to the People's Church. The very next day all the programs were instituted and the church was filled and busy serving the victorious and elated People. At a press conference with Pastor Rev. Bruce Johnson, Cha-Cha Jimenez was asked by a reporter, if the Young Lords were going to permit the congregation to hold service.Jimenez replied,"this is not a take over it is a liberated People's Church and not only will there be Sunday service but he and the Young Lords will also participate." Later murals were painted by Young Lord supporters on a wall and buttons were made with the new People's Church insignia approved by the congregation.Other murals also included the insignia of the Young Lords,National Headquarters sign,and murals of Che Guevara,Lolita Lebron,Adelita,and Zapata. These were primarily painted by Ron Clark and the Mexican muralist,Ms.Felicitas Nunez who traveled from San Diego and donated all of her work.
Just prior to the Young Lords entering People's Church,Cha-Cha Jimenez and Preacherman of the Young Patriots joined the call of Chairman Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party and together they set up the Rainbow Coalition nationwide.Truces for Latino street gangs were facilitated within the People's Church. During this same period of the People's Church liberation, meetings were also held with various institutions requesting that they invest in low income housing.Mckormick Theological Seminary refused and the Young Lords chained doors and seized their administration building.The following morning the Young Lords were joined by a 350 community residents and together they held the seminary's offices for 7 days until all of their demands were met.Visitors were allowed but were searched and screened.Inside the People were organized into teams of volunteers that fulfilled the basic needs of the families who had now voted to bring in with them their children as another way to prevent a shoot out with the Police. There were daily recitals of poetry,dance and live music in the auditorium.While Young Lords also provided ongoing polictical education workshops, along with daily meetings for work assignments and press conferences from the balcony while crowds gathered outside. These activities provided information,relieved tension and built moral.The demands were all met including:$25,000 to begin a LADO free clinic,$25,000 for seed monies for a cultural center, $25,000 to help open the People's Law Office and $650,000 for McKormick Theological Seminary to invest in affordable housing.
[edit] Repression
Repression was stiff.An entire Progressive and Latino neighborhood within Lincoln Park,home also to the first Puerto Rican immigrants to Chicago was completely wiped off the map by urban renewal and Mayor Daley's repression.Any community person expressing free speech by wearing a Young Lords button was "stopped and frisked."Jose(Cha-Cha)Jimenez was indicted on felony counts 18 times within a 6 week period."Police from squad car megaphones yelled out obscenities at the Lords as they drove by the church or would stop to harrass and humiliate them in front of the public.Patronage machine workers spread campaign style rumours,door to door.The Red Squad parked across the street,24 hours a day to gather files,follow Young Lords and supporters or just to photograph any one entering and leaving the church.Building and fire inspectors harrassed the congregation and a $200 a day fine was levied on the Young Lords Day Care Center until ceilings were lowered and floors raised 3 feet.Letters were being sent and meetings called by Alderman Barr McCutheon and his Uptigd organization demanding that the Methodist Bishop remove the Young Lords from the Church.United States Congressional Committees were set up as special hearings to gather information police could use for future indictments against the Young Lords and their leadership.Mayor Daley called for a WAR ON GANGS and specifically included,the Black Panthers,Young Patiots and the Young Lords Frequently persons with film cameras would come to do interviews,some known to the Lords but many new faces.They would ask more than the customary leading questions like:"when did you first become a communist" or "do all the Young Lords carry guns or just the Central Committee,"This would be the focus of their interviews and the film clip was later used at the special hearings. The Justice Department,not allowed inside the church,interviewed persons right outside.They claimed that they had come to protect the Young Lords' civil liberties. The Cobra Stones,a black youth gang admitted to the Young Lords at Mckormick Seminary that they had received monies from the Gang Intelligience Unit to disrupt a demonstration and to try to disrupt the take over of Mckormick Seminary.The FBI'S Cointelpro already attacking the Black Panthers also targeted the Young Lords.F.B.I. agents visited several family members of Jimenez and other Young Lord leaders.Police set a fire at one demonstration protesting Police brutality which had to be extinguished by the Young lords. Provacateurs were discovered several times and prevented from disrupting other Young Lord demonstrations.At the Cook County Jail Police met with inmates prior to their release to locate enemys or to scare supporters into providing information on the Young Lords and the Black Panthers and also to recruit new infiltrators. Groups like the Commancheros and Concerned Puerto Rican Youth(it was reported later from reports of public hearings)were given start up funds for their organizations for cooperation providing information which was often distorted.These groups also red baited the Young Lords by calling the Lords communists.They hoped to join the band wagon and discredit the Lords work, in return for favors or monies. The Commancheros appeared out of the sky blue wearing blue berets to counter the Young Lords purple berets and opened up their offices in an apartment building next door,nearly touching the People's Church. The Young Lords well aware that they were the police did not confront them until they began panhandling in the neighborhood while using the Young Lords name.The police then came as their protectors to the steps of People's Church to warn the Young Lords about intimidating these Commanchero citizens. It was discovered later that Black Panthers and Young Lords were being featured in police training videos of new recruits.Cha-Cha and other Young Lords were often caught alone and beatened up by the police.They were picked up and paraded in handcuffs before shift change so that all the police of the station,could track their where abouts and provoke or fabricate more crimes;crimes that could eventually put them away for good.According to Red Squad files,there were very few community meetings where agents were not present and gathering information.This has also been substantiated as the result of the Freedom of Information Act which facilitated the reading of F.B.I. files.The Young Lords were also victims of city hall's Gang Intelligence Unit who were brutal and lack any semblance of professionalism.Leftists groups also targets of the F.B.I.,split up and divided themselves and now paranoid of everyone also attacked the Young Lords leadership and other progressive groups. With so many arrests, mostly on Cha-Cha, but also others in the leadership;the police hoped this would chop up the heads,exhaust their finances and discredit them and thereby destroy their strong community based movement. The Young Lords fought back strategically proposing to engage in what the Lords call a "protracted struggle" and used several methods to increase their support.They continued to provide services via their programs.They organized large public events like block parties and demonstrations,sold their newspapers on busy street corners,and when forced underground set up a training school for their leadership, in a rented farm outside Tomah,Wisconsin.It was organized by Cha-Cha Jimenez who was already underground and who joined 20 to 25 of them for 18 months. After a member was rushed to an emergency room due to being injured accidently by a discharged weapon,the school was forced to move closer to the Milwaukee Chapter of the Young Lords.It was always kept separate from the local Young Lords chapter,to prevent an escalation of repression on the local chapter.Jimenez was still underground and these members now with him were being trained to take over the group.However,Jimenez did contribute his ideas to the national newspaper then being published out of Milwaukee and called:the Young Lord. It was decided that the People's Protracted Struggle was more important than one individual.Jimenez would not be permitted to flee to Cuba or to some other haven.Instead,it was voted that Jimenez would begin serving a one year sentence,fight the 17 other charges,and resume the struggle from Chicago. The Young Lords National Office resurfaced in Chicago on December 4th 1972,on the anniversary of the death of Chairman Fred Hampton when Jimenez walked into the Town Hall District Police Station.There 500 persons greeted Cha-Cha in below zero weather.Jimenez quietly got out of a cab and walked inconspicuously into the crowd shaking hands with a few People before the police grabbed him.With Dennis Cunningham,Flint Taylor,and Jeff Hass of the People's Law Office present,the Police allowed Jimenez to speak to the crowd from a bull horn.It was during a moon landing and Jimenez said that "they(the U.S.) should investigate the craters left behind in Vietnam. The Lakeview/Uptown community of Chicago was selected because it was also being gentrified and by that time most Puerto Ricans had been completely displaced from Lincoln Park.It was also here where the Young Lords would follow the example set by Bobby Seale and the National Black Panthers and announce in 1973 to run Jimenez for Alderman immediately following his release from jail. The Aldermanic Campaign was then used solely as an organizing vehicle to maintain the Young Lords in the public eye and therefore hope to slow down further repression. In 1973,Jimenez became the first announced Latino aldermanic candidate to publicly oppose the much feared Daley Machine.In February,1975 Jimenez received 39% of the 51% needed to win in an area with only 1000 registered Latinos.This was achieved with the coalition of the Independent Precinct Organization and the Intercommunal Survival Front, headed by the now Rev.Walter(Slim)Coleman of St.Aldaberto Methodist Church. Manuel Ramos was shot by James Lamb in 1969 by off duty policeman James Lamb and it was ruled justifiable homicide.There were witnesses at the scene and the Young Lords made a citizens arrest and instead four Young Lords(the Cuatro Lords) were arrested for assaulting the police officer.Courts filled to capacity, along with several protest marches but it was still ruled justifiable homicide. Jose(Pancho)Lind,a husband and father of four children was also beaten to death with baseball bats by a white gang in a different neighborhood.A policeman who arrived at the scene was the brother to one of the murderers and he helped to destroy and to shuffle the evidence.Perhaps it was because Pancho Lind was dark skin,a Puerto Rican,or a Young Lord but court filled rooms,witnesses and plenty of protests by the community calling for the arrests of those involved were ignored and noone was ever prosecuted. Rev.Bruce Johnson,a Methodist Pastor to urban youth and a Young Lord supporter;the pastor of People's Church was found fatally stabbed 17 times inside his home.His wife was also found stabbed 9 times in their bedroom.A postal worker discovered their blood covered bodies the next day after the Johnson's two little children were crying;trying to explain that their martyred parents would not wake up. This appeared on every television news program in Chicago and all the front pages of the papers and nearly 40 years have passed and still nothing has been done.Perhaps it is because he "supported youth for a change" or because these youth were Latinos or were Young Lords. Jimenez was in jail for "bond jumping" (or not being able to be in three courtrooms at the same time)and had to be bonded out of jail by the Methodist Bishop so that he could say a few words at the service. It was to an overflow crowd and it was held within the Young Lords National Headquarters:Pastor Rev.Bruce Johnson's People's Church. After the service, Cha-Cha led worshippers in a march around the neighborhood where Rev.Bruce Johnson had sacrificed and defended with his life and the lives of his family;the inalienable rights of Puerto Ricans,Latinos, and the poor to control their own destinies. Several celebrations followed along with a routine investigation that focused more on the now voluntarily opened up Young Lords files, than on anything else.After nearly 40 years with DNA and other advances,this case has not been investigated further and their appears to be little intent to resolve it. The leadership of other chapters like New York were also targeted by Cointelpro who began sending infiltrators to split up this Young Lords People's Movement for neighborhood empowerment and Latino and Puerto Rican self determination. Self determination of Puerto Rico referred as a possesion of the United States has been the Young Lords primary goal.A possesion occupied and taken over by military force and now applied the name of commonwealth is not a commonwealth like Massachusetts or other states America.It was not voted for in that manner in 1952.Nearly everyone voting believed that they were voting for Independence since Munoz Marin,the first elected Puerto Rican governor proposed it and he had previously advocated for Puerto Rican Independence. Even still,the majority of the Puerto Rican People boycotted this referendum because elections on the Island are seen as a tool to maintain a puppet government for the United States
- a puppet government that hopes to eventually turn Puerto Rico over to them.
Since only a few Puerto Ricans voted for this status(none of the other half of the Puerto Rican Nation living in the Diaspora cities of the states were permitted to vote ) and Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico till this day have never voted in presidential elections,Commonwealth is clearly a defaulted designation.It is an attempt to swindel this land and this Nation and force Puerto Rico into a state of the union that can only be freed by ceceding militarily. Puerto Rico was given away by Spain as War Booty after Spain's defeat in the Spanish American War of 1898.However,Puerto Rico was already an independent nation in 1897,unconnected to Spain and forming its own roots as an independent nation. Therefore,this Puerto Rican Nation is not a state in the form of a commonwealth state or in any other form.It is not attempting to cecede from "A Union" as the trap has been laid.Puerto Ricans have never been an official nor any other designated part of this "Union." Instead,Puerto Rico has always been an occupied country.The reality is that it is the last colony of this hemisphere.Its not a Massachusetts. This occupation and colonial status is shameful for an America that professes freedom for all while it now also puts up walls that bar Latinos from entry and continues to enslave a Puerto Rican Nation.So proudly do Puerto Ricans wave and dress up in their Puerto Rican flag for every and any type of holiday that it is obvious the only Union for them is the Nation of Puerto Rico. The current discrimination and maltreatment of Mexican People, brothers and sisters to Puerto Ricans is clarifying to all, on what side "Tomateros" should stand. The Puerto Rican legislature is merely a rubber stamp smokescreen for colonial occupiers of this Puerto Rican "Land of Enchantment." Its members are well qualified to run Puerto Rico but only seek status and hand outs and rationalize tyranny as the pragmatic savior for Puerto Rican JOBS.But Puerto Rico's problem is that their natural resources and People are being controlled by a foreign power, with all the economic dependency that that brings.The solution is not polictical nor complicated.It is a simple case of self rule.And Puerto Ricans like anyone else are born with inalienable rights and qualifications to run themselves and their own resources and their own monies and thereby provide their own JOBS. Over 100,000 persons now work for the Puerto Rican puppet government in a country of only 100 by 35 square miles and with just three and a half million residents on the Island(the other 3 million were lured out to the U.S.in search of jobs and as a way to take over Puerto Rico). With continuos heavy unemployment above 30% and subsequent welfare stipends along with a large retired population dependent on Social Security and food stamp hand outs, this so called commonwealth status has turned Puerto Rico into a "welfare plantation." It is a plantation mindset that if not awakened is destined to allow Puerto Rico to be robbed by global pirates, of all its resources.The Viequenses have demonstrated to us all that what the United States also wants is to maintain one third of the Island as a military base. By the second decade,the 2020 Master Plan for Puerto Rico will soon give foreign capitalists free reign not only as tourists but also to grab the land and buy up Puerto Rican homes cheap from people in desperate straits living in prime areas of real estate in the very same way that Mayor Daley's Master Plan has done in Chicago. When the U.S. generals took over Puerto Rico in 1898,the currency was changed from the Spanish Peso to the U.S. dollar.Many Puerto Ricans lost fortunes in the transfer.The postal service,the courts,the prison system,the media,big business,the military and all top government is controlled entirely by the United States.Tax free multinational corporations provide low level,needed jobs but only because they suck out all monies that would otherwise remain in Puerto Rico.The Jones Act in 1917 forced Puerto Ricans to become citizens only so they could be drafted and put on the front lines of: World War I,World WarII,The Korean War,Vietnam,the Gulf War and Iraq to fight not for Puerto Rico but for a United States that colonizes Puerto Rico.. Clearly, the United States is being hypocritical and should therefore transfer power to Puerto Rico as some United States congressmen have proposed.It is sad and a waste of energy on both sides, because this problem of colonialism will not dissapate.Puerto Rico belongs to the Puerto Ricans and they will not permit anyone to enslave it much longer.The U.S. is a country proud of its own Independence, from their colonizer: England. Yet the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. both have offices and conduct military maneuvers,raids,and even plot out assasinations on those who oppose the subjugation of a Puerto Rican People by an imperialist government. Don Pedro Albizu Campos,head of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico said it all, when he said,"any local cop in any United States city has the power to arrest any politician in Puerto Rico." Until he died he suffered and fought hard for Puerto Rican liberty.He is a true Puerto Rican hero and there are plenty who humbly seek the honor to kiss the ground where he walked and to follow in his steps.
