On National Turf: The Rise of the Young Lords Organization and its Struggle for the Nation in Chicago

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to place the history of the rise and decline of Chicago‘s Young Lords Organization (YLO) in both U.S. and Puerto Rico‘s national contexts. By simultaneously situating the YLO within the history of Puerto Rico‘s political nationalism and the United States‘ ethnic revitalization movements, we note the emergent and contingent nature of national identities across transnational spaces. Overall, the essay will complement the field of transnational political practices, as well as the perpetual debate on Puerto Rican identity.