30 The Nation. April 6, 2020
puppet generals” and for “the armed libera-
tion struggles in Latin America.”
The strong influence of the Cuban Rev-
olution on the Lords resulted, at first, in
the lionizing of male anti-capitalist guerrilla
leaders and in rooting revolutionary think-
ing in a kind of righteous masculinity. The
13-point plan the group issued in late 1969,
modeled after the Black Panthers’, originally
included this point: “We Want Equality for
Women. Machismo Must be Revolutionary...
Not Oppressive.” The Young Lords soon
embraced feminism outright, and after some
internal resistance, gay liberation as well.
The women, organizing around Oliver and
Morales, fought back against a dynamic in
which female Lords were assigned to so-
called women’s work; they adopted the prac-
tice of having consciousness-raising circles
from white feminism, read Friedrich Engels’s
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and
the State, and denounced what they called
sexual fascism. They forced the inclusion of
women on the group’s Central Committee
and changed the point about revolutionary
machismo to one that read simply, “Down
with Machismo and Male Chauvinism.” The
legendary drag queen Sylvia Rivera, a key
figure in the Stonewall rebellion, began to
collaborate with the group.
The Young Lords peaked in late 1970
when they staged an occupation of Lincoln
Hospital in the South Bronx. Focusing on
improving health care for the poor, they
demanded lead-poisoning tests for children
(which would result in laws banning lead
paint in tenements) and worked to expose the
hospital’s poor conditions and exploitative di-
vision of labor. They advocated for patients,
formulating a patient bill of rights, a feature
that is now standard in substance-abuse and
health care programs—and hospital workers,
who were mostly black and Latinx.O
ne of the more difficult aspects of the
Young Lords’ history that any serious
evaluation must come to grips with is
the group’s painful decline. Fernán-
dez documents the troubling events
frankly and compassionately. The Lords’
dissolution was largely attributable to a few
key problems. Like many radical organiza-
tions of the period, their core leaders were in
their early 20s, which encouraged impetuous
decision-making. The Lords’ early successes
caused them to overextend themselves in the
United States and Puerto Rico, their shift in
focus to Puerto Rican independence created
an irreparable rift, and the left’s tendency
toward Maoism created a mania for self-
criticism and the purging of those perceivedThe Virtues
To practice the virtues, you’ll need to ask
What a virtuous person would do in a situation
Like this one, here in the health-food restaurant,
After witnessing the young father, two tables away,
Slap his son for spilling a glass of orange juice.
Is it time to practice courage by boldly
Confronting the father for his fierce impatience?
Or should a commitment to justice prompt you
To remain unnoticed so you can follow the pair
When they leave the restaurant on the chance
Of including a license number or street address
In your sharply worded report to Social Services?
Or is the appropriate virtue here humility,
The recognition you might do more harm
By having the boy placed in a foster family,
Unless you could verify that his new parents
Would try as hard as you believe you would try
If the boy were yours? Can you muster the confidence
That if the father throws down his napkin
After you scold him, and walks out, as if to say,
Try fathering for yourself, you’ll jump at the chance,
Suddenly sure of a well of kindness within you
Deeper than any you felt this morning
When you left the hermitage of your leafy side street
And entered the world? But if you’re too upset
By what you’ve witnessed to wait for this opportunity,
And make your getaway just after the slap,
Hope may be the virtue you’ll turn to first,
The hope that the father regretted his anger
As soon as he showed it, that he’s hidden his shame
Beneath a pose of cool reserve that may succeed
In fooling those who witnessed the incident
But not the culprit, not himself.CARL DENNIS