[Young Lords Party: Puerto Rican Student Conference at Columbia University]

Interviews recorded at the Puerto Rican Student Conference at Columbia University, gathering together Latinx activists and organizers from around the country.

00:19Copy video clip URL Tape begins mid-sentence, as a woman – presumably a conference organizer – discusses intended actions to be taken by students regarding the United States’ treatment of Puerto Rico. Filmed in the lobby outside the conference. A sign reads “The Young Lords Party calls for a conference of all Puerto Rican students at Columbia University on September 22 and 23, 8:00Copy video clip URL to: ” (no end time given). On the sign is the silhouette of a figure with fist raised, carrying a rifle. Smaller print on sign is illegible. Another sign, this one handwritten, lists the workshops taking place during the conference. Footage of students approaching the conference as a conference organizer discusses, off-camera, the aims and details of the conference. 

02:00Copy video clip URL Another off-screen voice, a male, discusses the reasons for increased acceptance of revolutionary ideas in the 1960s and 1970s.

03:21Copy video clip URL An activist who works with the National Chicano Moratorium discusses political organizations and actions that have been taking place and their aims for the 1970s. “We’re living on the lands we’ve lived on for thousands… of years and yet we’re being used. We’re slaves. We’re being exploited and we don’t have any control over our lands and say-so in our own lives. We’re like political prisoners, and we have to turn that around. We do that by making our people aware of the problems. We can do that with the Moratorium by having mass demonstrations and educating the people. We do that by having picnics in people’s homes. We do that by showing film. We do it by getting tens and dozens of organizers all over the state, all over the Southwest.” He mentions the police riot of August 29 in East Los Angeles, when the Moratorium’s anti-war march was attacked by the police, killing three people. 

06:11Copy video clip URL Interview in Spanish about the issues affecting Puerto Ricans. 

09:30Copy video clip URL Previous interviewee is joined by another conference attendee. 

09:46Copy video clip URL A young woman discusses (in Spanish) issues related to Puerto Rican independence and the struggle for liberation. She emphasizes the role of women. 

14:12Copy video clip URL Conversation (in Spanish) among attendees.