In the late 1960s, the Young Lords Party mobilized for the rights of Puerto Ricans in the United States and the end of colonialism in Puerto Rico. Women members brought attention to gender issues, ushering in a new militancy for women’s rights. Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords Party examines the rise of feminism in the organization from 1969 to 1972 and the factors that advanced or derailed it.
Women in the Young Lords Party organized for reproductive rights, access to abortion, equal pay, childcare, and the end of gender violence, among other issues. During this seminal period for feminists of color, women in the Young Lords united with Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous feminists in struggles for economic, gender, and racial justice and linked with international "Third World" women's movements.
Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords Party is about activism. It is also about the battle of ideas. Feminists in the organization recognized that inequities as women of color were not solely the result of gender but the outcome of intersecting social locations, class, race, and the legacy of history. From the outset, the Young Lords’ ideology upheld gendered and inferior roles for women. Feminist members challenged the organization’s sexism and advanced liberatory ideas and practices and charted new ground in the Puerto Rican diaspora.
Combining primary sources and research with lived experiences, Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords Party presents an insider perspective, interpreting the activism of the past to inspire a more just future. It grapples with a tumultuous and trailblazing time whose concerns are still very much present. Women’s contributions offer a multifaceted and nuanced account of the Young Lords Organization and fill overlooked chapters in the histories of the social movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.