The Young Lords

The Young Lords was a Puerto Rican nationalist group in several United States cities, notably New York City and Chicago.

The Young Lords began in 1960 as a Puerto Rican turf gang in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Their president Jose Cha Cha Jimenez reorganized them and became founder of the Young Lords as a national civil and human rights movement on Grito de Lares, September 23, 1968. This new community wide movement then spread to nearly 30 cities including three branches in New York.

New York City, where one-fourth of Puerto Ricans then lived, and Chicago were the two largest Puerto Rican hubs. Puerto Rican mainland communities also developed elsewhere during the Great Puerto Rican Migration of the 1950s, so in 1969, subsequent branches organized themselves in Philadelphia, Connecticut, New Jersey, Boston, Milwaukee, Hayward (California), San Diego, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico.

The Young Lords were a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, which had long harassed Puerto Rican independence groups. The New York-Chicago schism mirrored the "Divide and Conquer" divisions within other New Left groups like the Black Panther Party, Students for a Democratic Society, Brown Berets and many other new left movements. All of these organizations were repressed. At first, the splits were believed to be the result of growing pains, as this movement was very young and spread quickly. But it is now documented that it was primarily due to police infiltration by informants and provocateurs, and planned and shaped by the ongoing undercover work of the FBI's COINTELPRO.

The Young Lords were a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, which had long harassed Puerto Rican independence groups.[10] The New York-Chicago schism mirrored the "Divide and Conquer" divisions within other New Left groups like the Black Panther Party, Students for a Democratic Society, Brown Berets and many other new left movements. 

All of these organizations were repressed. At first, the splits were believed to be the result of growing pains, as this movement was very young and spread quickly. But it is now documented that it was primarily due to police infiltration by informants and provocateurs, and planned and shaped by the ongoing undercover work of the FBI's COINTELPRO.