Miguel Melendez narrates how a group of youths took initiative to fight for the rights of Latino community. In his context, he describes the collective of youths as the Young Lords. In We Took the Street, Miguel shares his memoir and doesn’t forget to mention his fellow young Lords’ lived experiences. In addition, Melendez includes his innermost memories. Reflecting on his childhood that appeared broken, he conveys his identity and describes how Young Lords emerged. Melendez draws his readers’ attention by narrating a story of Young Lords’ life experiences within and outside US.  This reflection explores significant components of the book.

The aims of the Young Lord

Miguel Melendez illustrate the context of the history of Puerto Rico as he describes its struggles. The challenges faced by the people of Puerto Rico were struggles for independence, protection, education, and healthcare amongst many others. As a result, the Young Lords rose with the main aim being fighting for the human rights. They fought for self- determination of Puerto Rico, which seemed to be possessed by the United States. Also, they had a goal for restoring social justice in Latino.

Two initiatives initiated by the young Lords

The impacts associated with the cessation of Sanes-Rodriguez who came from Puerto Rico led the Young Lords to the streets to purposely fight for justice. Sanes-Rodriguez’s cause of death was reported as an accident that occurred when the US navy dropped the bomb. The result on the investigative death scene however did not seem satisfactory to Melendez and his peers which stirred their urge to demonstrate. The demonstration initiative clearly described Young Lords ideology on striving for Latino wellbeing including the Boricuas of the Island. The author Melendez shows how Puerto Rican came together in Solidarity as he describes solid emotional state depicted in Boricaus after the disaster on Sanes – Rodriguez’s porch occurred. Melendez (2005) state that for the first time it appeared that about six million members from Puerto Ricans could courageously present solid since they united for resistance opposing US Navy. Therefore, the demonstration initiative brought solidarity in the Puerto Rico, which would be described as a positive move that impacted the lives of the Latinos. In addition, as Melendez tables on board the life of Young Lords, it’s evident that the essential mandate for these young revolutionaries was to build solidarity among the Puerto Ricans.

Melendez accounts for Young Lords offensives through vibrant descriptions on how they had broken the law. However, they did not fear arrest as long as their grievances would be heard. Also, they would avoid arrests until they had to conduct their party as planned. The book We took the Street, narrates how the unity of community could resolute and impact great moves. Having launched their ceremony, which was addressing their objectives, they surrendered to the authorities and were arrested. Melendez exemplify his joy at the thought that they had won since the authorities had helped them in airing their grievances as well as publishing them in the headlines. Melendez (2005) state that they successfully helped us get our grievances aired, and printed in the headlines. The Young Lords’ ceremony launch thus played a great role during the civil right era. The needs of the Latinos were successfully addressed as a result of such a party.

In conclusion, the book We took the Street, is an interesting read that is educative and empowering.It lay emphasis on how a small group of people who are driven by same motives could bring forth revolution. In addition, learning from the book, solidarity and commitment would yield success. However, the Young Lords’ crazy tactics employed to fight for the human rights of the Latinos appeared offensive to both the authorities and the readers. I suppose the Young Lords’ should have engaged more of dialogue strategy to avoid committing the offensives while fighting for liberation. Nostalgic illustrations of direct-action unrest in the book inspire radical generation.

Reference

Melendez, M. (2005). We took the streets: Fighting for Latino rights with the Young Lords. Rutgers University Press.