Rebecca’s Continued Research

Since we last met, I’ve been doing some more research on why activist groups, like the Young Lords Party (YLP), have yet to succeed in gaining independence for Puerto Rico. I’ve spent a large chunk of my time reading The Young Lords: A Reader, a compilation of documents produced by and of prominent Young Lord members and ideologies. This book has offered a great deal of help in understanding the activist era of the 1960’s and 1970’s from the Black and Puerto Rican side of society in America. This book has offered a lot of points of references for further research, not just for understanding their side, but to also find additional aspects “revolutionary standards” and variety for Puerto Rican/Latino independence.

I have also been reading into a lot of articles published through Hunter College’s Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (through EBSCO) to better understand the Puerto Rican conditions of the time, both in the U.S. and on the Puerto Rican mainland. The combination of conducting research with the Book, the Centro, and going over old notes from classes taken that discussed Puerto Rican culture and politics is shifting my research towards a different angle for my paper. I see myself leaning more towards the side of finding: if activist groups, like the YLP, have been able to progress the Puerto Rican people in the U.S. towards political and social independence on the U.S. mainland.