New York Young Lords History
Highlights (1969- 1976)

OCT 1970 -- Gloria Fontanez, 2nd woman promoted to Central Committee.

OCT 1970 -- Julio Roldan, YLP member, was found hung in the Manhattan Detention Center. More that 2,000 people attend funeral, and Young Lords seize People's Chuch with guns to protest prisoner deaths. YLP occupies church for several weeks and demands Legal Aid Center for inmates and city investigation into the prison system.

OCT 1970 -- Prison protests break out in Tombs and Long Island City House of Detention. Prisoners create Inmates Liberation Front, a section of the YLP, and present a list of grievances to the city.

NOV 1970 -- YLP Thirteen Point program is revised; "We want equality for women. Down with machismo and male chauvanism" replaces the prior "Machismo must be Revolutionary" line in the program.

DEC 1970 -- Ideology of Young Lords is written, and Central Committee makes decision to expand the organization to Puerto Rico by March 21, 1971.

1971 YLP

JAN 1971 -- YLP National Office opens at 117th Street & 3rd Avenue and begins a leadership school to train officers of organization. The YLP continues to fight male chauvinism and recruits more women to organization.

MAR 1971 -- Launch of "Ofensiva Rompe Cadenas" expands YLP to Puerto Rico. Branches are established in El Cano and in Aguadilla.

APR 1971 -- Third World Woman's Conference in Toranto, Canada. First conference to bring together Third World Woman from across the world. Young Lord women detained at border. After conference, YLP publishes postion against white middle- and upper-class women's movement in the United States.

MAY 1971 -- YLP turns to building mass organizations for specific constituencies: Workers, Lumpen, Students, Community Pro-Defense of Community, Women's Union, and GI organization. Women's Union produces several issues of "La Luchadora" newspaper before it is disbanded by leadership.

OCT 1971 -- Pablo "Yoruba" Guzman travels to China to represent the YLP.

Dec 1971- Yoruba launches internal struggle to close Puerto Rico branches and get YLP back on track. Leadership rejects his ideas and ships him to Philadelphia.

1972 YLP/ PRRWO
JAN - MAY 1972 -- YLP members organize Workers, Lumpen, Students, Community Pro-Defense of Community, Women's Union, and GI organizations.
MAY 1972 -- Members in Puerto Rico resign asserting that the YLP's role is in the United States. Leaders falsely accuse them of factionalism.
JULY 1972 -- YLP changes name and becomes the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization (PRRWO) under the direction of Gloria Fontanez. The mission is to organize Latino/a workers toward the building of a U.S. revolutionary party.
AUG - DEC 1972 -- PRRWO members are assigned to workplaces across the Northeast to organize workers' study groups.
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