The Young Lords Organization was founded by renowned Puerto Rican civil rights activist Jos “Cha Cha” Jimnez, who passed away.
His age was 76.
Daisy Rodriguez, Jim Nenez’s sister, initially revealed his death on Facebook Friday morning.
Jimnez established the Young Lords Organization in 1968 in one of the poorest areas in Chicago, Lincoln Park. According to the Library of Congress, he turned what was formerly a street gang in Puerto Rico into a community-based organization and political force that was influenced by and modeled after the Black Panther Party.
The Young Lords promoted jobs, cheap housing, education, and access to health care. Additionally, it led neighborhood initiatives that helped standardize the present federal children’s nutrition program by offering free medical clinics and free breakfast for kids.
To further its aims and advertise these community services, the organization published a newspaper every month. In order to celebrate and preserve the history and legacy of all Puerto Ricans, it also spearheaded initiatives to establish cultural centers.
Despite having a large Puerto Rican membership, the Young Lords saw themselves as a multiethnic group that included women, LGBTQ people, Black people, and Latino people. They also identified as revolutionist nationalists who supported the independence of Puerto Rico.
The Young Lords also opposed American militarism, imperialism, and police brutality.
Jim Nenez was born in Puerto Rico on August 8, 1948, the same month that Fred Hampton, the leader of the Black Panthers, was slain by Chicago police at the age of 21.
Young Lords member Felipe Luciano claims that Jim Neez’s association with Hampton sowed the seeds for a far broader coalition of Black, Latino, white, and other civil rights activists.
In 2021, Luciano informed NBC News that he was the one who convinced Cha Cha to go from gang violence to organization. They quickly became lifelong friends after that. Cha Cha frequently discusses it with love and respect.
“The rest, Luciano remarked, is history.
The Young Lords eventually spread to New York City under Jim Ness’s leadership, and in 1969 the group joined the Rainbow Coalition, a little-known movement led by the Black Panther Party that brought together white Southerners waving Confederate flags and Puerto Rican radicals to combat discrimination and poverty.
Police and the FBI were alarmed by the union at the time, fearing it might upset the social order, and some allies were startled.
Jim Nez was essential to filming the documentary, according to filmmaker Ray Santisteban, who focused on the beginnings of the Rainbow Coalition and the political organizations that joined it.
On Facebook, Santisteban expressed her grief over Jim Nez’s passing by writing, “From the time I first met him in 1992 until the last time I saw him, he was solely focused on working to uplift and empower the Puerto Rican community and all poor people in the world.”
Jim Nenez spent the majority of his life in Chicago after his family moved to the US from Puerto Rico when he was a baby.
Jimnez was the first to challenge Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1974, in addition to his work with the Young Lords. The Library of Congress reports that almost 1,500 individuals attended a campaign rally hosted by the Young Lords.
Jimnez and other Young Lords members collaborated with the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University in 1995 to establish the Lincoln Park Project, which aimed to preserve and record the group’s past.
Jimnez’s family announced on social media that a public funeral service will be held Thursday night in Chicago.
“As the founding leader and chairman of the Young Lords Organization in Chicago, Cha Cha became one of the most pivotal figures in the civil rights and liberation movements,” the statement continues. “He leaves behind a profound legacy of revolutionary spirit, a vision for Puerto Rican self-determination, and a commitment to justice for the People.”
On Friday, Jim Nenez’s remains would be cremated, and Rodriguez stated that “his final resting place will be with our mom in Puerto Rico.”