We Took the Streets: Fighting for Latino Rights with the Young Lords (Hardcover)

~ Mickey Melendez (Author), Jose Torres (Foreword) "RAGE. IT TORE AT THE MUSCLES in my shoulders like fire..." (more)
Key Phrases: Young Lords, Puerto Rican, Puerto Rico (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the founding members of The Young Lords describes his role in creating the Puerto Rican activist group in this engaging memoir set in New York City's Bronx and Harlem. In 1969, inspired by the "world of revolution" erupting around them, Melendez and several of his friends decided to create an organization that would fight, sometimes literally, for the rights and improvement of the Latino community. Their first "offensive" gives a fair overview of their preferred tactics: to protest the city's systematic neglect of sanitation in Harlem, the Young Lords spent an afternoon sweeping together a five-foot tall roadblock of trash-then, in front of a crowd of community members, they set the garbage pile on fire. No one was injured; police and journalists arrived; the Young Lords had orchestrated a lead news story. Detailed accounts of similar "actions" and "offensives" form the backbone of this book, explaining how the Young Lords helped convince City Hall to ban the use of poisonous lead paint, took over churches and hospitals to demand better social services and bolstered many Latinos' pride. Melendez also describes his role in creating the group's clandestine, armed division, which became public in 1970, when the Young Lords publicly discarded their commitment to unarmed action. (Melendez left the group in 1971 after its new director, Gloria Gonzales Frontaenz, renamed it the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers party and reorganized it into a Maoist-inspired political party.) Though many readers may object to Melendez's "direct action" tactics ("rather than Mahatma Gandhi, my role models are...Simon Bolivar, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, Don Pedro"), his fast-paced blend of personal memoir and political tell-all forms a valuable, if biased, contribution to Puerto Rican history. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A thoughtful and historically insightful book... the Young Lords challenged the system as no one else has done before them.... Their philosophy served as an inspiration for many of us." - Representative Jose Serrano (Democrat, New York); "This account of the formation of the Young Lords is fascinating.... The] account grows as one reads until one is experiencing elements of the epic, the surprising, and the tragic. The book will also have its considerable impact on anyone who is interested in the history of New York during that great period of ferment we call the Sixties." - Norman Mailer" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (June 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312267010
• ISBN-13: 978-0312267018
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,240,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As a Black Male this book made me cheer proudly, June 9, 2006

By	"Ghostwriter" (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I gre up during the 80's in west harlem, later the BX, went to manhattan center high school on 116 & pleasant ave .... you can't grow up anywhere in new york city and not recognize puerto rican pride, all you have to do is head up to Orchard Beach after memorial day, but it's a powerful part of the NY experience ....... I picked this up because of the Lincoln hospital story, and garbage offensives, these men and women are patriots of the black and latin community! The New York City minority community! great read, I learned about them in a american history class @ laguardia comm college, and was surprised I'd never heard of them before, I'd passed by lincoln hospital over 100 times, to hear about them being reason for it being built! I'll say it's a different time period now, but the children of NYC need to learn about this group, and movements like these, to learn discipline, and study the pride but learning journey of mister Melendez, then kids wouldn't get lost, because we are losing our city now as the rents are escalating, people are hurting now, and this knowledge is key to a new generation that needs to move forward and stand for something, not just accept circumstances, this book is excellent, powerful, and informative! True "hood", cultural, minority heroes! I'm glad and insprired by it

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Boricua History- Palante!!!, June 26, 2003

By	R. John Smith (Harlem, nyc) - See all my reviews

Micky Melendez has written an excellent easy to read history of Puerto Rican efforts for social, political and economic empowerment from the Young Lords Party in the 1960's to today's struggle for a Latino mayor of Nueva York. This monograph by Micky Melendez is a powerful weapon in Boricua's long walk to freedom. palante

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dream Realized, February 27, 2004

By	B. Bethea "ochun" (Ossining, NY) - See all my reviews

Miguel Melendez has given us a thoughtful,inspirational, and sensitive account of the Young Lords Party and also of the many pivotal events of his own life. I loved reading this book full of cultural tidbits and an insider's history of a group of dedicated individuals. This book offers important lessons for today's youth, many of whom feel no connection to the larger society. It serves as a tremendous contribution to young people by sharing positive ways to channel rage and frustration with one's social and emotional condition. The writer brilliantly shows what it is to search for meaning and purpose in one's life as he questions events occurring around him.

Quiero agradecerle a Mickey para haber escrito un libro tan bello que demuestra que todos tenemos el derecho a la humanidad y dignidad.