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Don Corvo, one Young Lord who made a big impression of my psyche during those teenage years was the poet Felipe Luciano.The Young Lords Organization evolved out of a Puerto Rican "gang" in Chicago led by Jose "Cha-Cha" Jimenez. The original Chicago Young Lords were led in their transformation in 1968 by Jimenez.Cha-Cha Jimenez later met Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton in 1969 and modeled the group after the Panthers. The New York Young Lords "Party" was organized in the summer of 1969 by student activists who were not exclusively of Puerto Rican background but various people of color. Felipe Luciano was the first chairman of the YLP and led extremely successful survival programs in "El Barrio," The Bronx, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Hartford, and Bridgeport. The Chicago YLO was equally successful in their community programs and that organization functioned well into the early 1980s. Luciano and Jimenez are still community activists and involved in youth organizations in the New York and Chicago areas.
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