LEADER 00000pam  2200000 a 4500 
001    ocm55729761 
003    OCoLC 
005    20091208091258.0 
008    040616r20052003njua          001 0deng   
010      2004050954 
020    081353559X|qpaperback|qalkaline paper 
020    9780813535593|qpaperback|qalkaline paper 
035    (OCoLC)55729761 
040    DLC|beng|cDLC|dBAKER|dBTCTA|dYDXCP|dGPI 
043    n-us-ny 
049    GPIA 
050 10 F128.9.P85|bM455 2005 
082 00 323.1/168729507471/09|222 
100 1  Melendez, Miguel. 
245 10 We took the streets :|bfighting for Latino rights with the
       Young Lords /|cMiguel "Mickey" Melendez ; with a foreword 
       by Jose Torres. 
264  1 New Brunswick, N.J. ;|aLondon :|bRutgers University Press,
       |c2005. 
264  4 |c©2003 
300    xvi, 256 pages :|billustrations ;|c22 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
500    "First published in a cloth edition by St. Martin's Press 
       in 2003"--T.p. verso. 
500    Includes index. 
520    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. 
610 20 Young Lords (Organization)|xHistory. 
650  0 Puerto Ricans|zNew York (State)|zNew York|xPolitics and 
       government|y20th century. 
650  0 Puerto Ricans|zNew York (State)|zNew York|xSocial 
       conditions|y20th century. 
650  0 Puerto Ricans|zNew York (State)|zNew York|vBiography. 
650  0 Political activists|zNew York (State)|zNew York
       |vBiography. 
651  0 New York (N.Y.)|xSocial conditions|y20th century. 
651  0 New York (N.Y.)|xEthnic relations. 
651  0 New York (N.Y.)|vBiography. 
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       |sactive 
938    Baker and Taylor|bBTCP|n2004050954 
938    YBP Library Services|bYANK|n2156219 
994    02|bGPI