foreign but there was something weirder because there's no music I had my suspicions something's up but what was up I didn't know we had to figure out how we would be able to do this secretly because we didn't want the police to know about it and finally the leadership announces why everybody we're going to take over Lincoln Hospital in the morning no phone calls [Music] to try to get everyone energized and prepared we had the poet Pedro pietri perform Puerto Rican obituary they work 10 days a week and we're only paid for five they work they work they worked and they died to the people do not live at all [Music] there was a a giant ass rented U-Haul truck [Music] foreign [Music] is pumping because we know we're gonna go do something really big we could all be killed we could all be shot up beaten up [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] in the early 1960s you had a huge influx of Puerto Rican migrants to the United States I was born in East Harlem and I grew up in South Bronx in the Puerto Rican Community people played stickball in the Summers snowball fights in the winters [Music] but the Puerto Ricans even though they were U.S citizens were not considered Americans they were considered foreigners you had white store owners you had white landlords along with a white police white gangs Jewish and Italian would at random attacked Puerto Ricans and sometimes families that were walking together we knew when to go home this meant of poor people [Music] we had seen their suffering and the discrimination then we ourselves had lived it as the Next Generation Puerto Ricans not only migrate into the United States they migrated a civil rights movement [Music] my senior year in college Martin Luther King was assassinated [Music] there were riots in 125 cities in the week after Martin Luther King was killed not one not two 125 cities in the United States had riots who was dying in the Vietnam War who was going hungry you can't trust the government they're gonna kill you National movements in this country begin to rise in a way that had never happened you couldn't be living during that period of time and not be impacted by the Black Panther Party [Music] primary objective of the panther party is an established revolutionary political power for black people we want freedom the power to determine the destiny of our own community even though I was born in Puerto Rico most of us were born here and we weren't going to take the kind of abuse that they were heaping on our parents we were going to insist on respect [Applause] I was approached by Mickey Melendez he had grown up in East Harlem and he played baseball with my two cousins so gradually we started meeting just trying to figure out what we could do to improve the situation of the Puerto Rican community one of the things that we do all the time was read the Black Panther paper and there was this announcement of the Puerto Rican organization and it was called the Young Lords we met with one of the leaders of the young lawyers in Chicago Jose Chacha Jimenez and he gave us the go-ahead to start the East Coast wing of the young Lords [Music] foreign [Music] the young Lords didn't drop from the sky one day and all of this happened we were part of a Continuum of history of a legacy that had gone before us for that Revolution it was in the United States yourself hooking up with black people with Native American Asians with other Latinos to form a united front has impressed people to wage against the reality [Music] I started out as a Cadre in the young Lords in 1969. I became Deputy minister of Education I was a co-founder of the women's caucus I was the first chairman of the younglos party we are ideological in that we believe in the principles of socialism and that we believe in Cooperative effort and that we believe in unified struggle it's all about Pride it's all about Community it's all about being together it was one of the co-founders of the young Lords organization in New York City [Music] now there's a real movement in the sense of people committed to social change we were convinced the Revolution was coming any moment I had various positions in the young Lords Deputy minister of education and health and I was minister of defense I was 14 years old when I joined the young Lords it was not unusual for people that young to join a revolutionary organization I became part of the defense Ministry [Music] when you joined to be a full young Lord you left home you quit your job if your family didn't if you had a spouse or whatever that didn't want to be a part of them you left them so when we said you're a young Lord 25 hours a day we meant it I became the first woman on the Central Committee of the young Lords we were coming from a place of love and of respect but we also didn't take any [Music] within 10 minutes we barricade ourselves inside of the hospital foreign what was to go and what exits to cover [Music] we're not here to hurt you don't resist us you know that's the only way that you're not going to get her if you resistance you make it hurt [Music] we had people with baseball bats and with nunchucks because we had to impress upon the New York City Police Department that if you came in there was going to be blood [Music] foreign [Music] I was a third year resident at Lincoln in July of 1970 I was on call maybe went to sleep but two or three in the morning and I heard this commotion outside I wasn't sure what it was my job was to go into the administrator's office and to ask the administrators to leave foreign [Music] we have been asking for these changes to take place here in the South Bronx at Lincoln Hospital for over a year and you've paid no attention to us and you've called the cops on us so now we're putting you out [Music] over the hospital we're gonna run it you're out I will walk you through your car [Music] [Applause] thank you we made it clear that there was a new Administration and to accentuate who we were we put a Puerto Rican flag a giant Puerto Rican flag outside the hospital at a sign that said Lincoln Hospital the people's Hospital [Music] I went to the window and looked outside and I turned around to my friend Fitz and I said wake up the revolution is here [Music] I was Administrative Assistant to John Lindsey I got the phone call from the mayor and he said the young worlds have taken over Lincoln Hospital they've had hostages the chief of police is holding back waiting for you this is really off the chart and how do we solve the music [Music] this is a place where people are going for emergency treatment ambulance is coming in and going out people are being admitted operations have to go forward and that could cause a life we addressed immediately and we went downstairs to see what was happening it was kind of overwhelming [Music] the South Bronx was one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States every Health indicator was always a priority one of the things that begins to develop in our community is a high incidence of tuberculosis and we began to see it as an epidemic the way the TB testing works the young Lords would go out every Saturday a couple of days later you had to go check so if it was positive then you needed to get an x-ray to confirm whether or not you actually had TB so of course we didn't have an x-ray machine the city had this huge TV truck an x-ray Mobile TV truck but where they assigned little TB testing truck to go was an affluent area where probably no one had TB we then decided to do was we were going to take over the truck so the truck parts we took over the truck we put the two technicians in the back of the truck I was in the cabin of the truck now mind you the technicians they initially were very scared I mean this is a takeover they were being kidnapped basically for practical purposes once we got to the place and they saw the number of people lined up they just stayed there all day they gave great statements to the Press the technician said that they had never Illustrated as many people as they had that day by Nightfall when people stopped coming the police came and took the truck but we had already made the point that there was a tuberculosis problem the city was not addressed foreign we had established a certain level of Fame and respect in the community we also learned that doing actions on a Sunday did good news I was covering the movements for social change the civil rights movement of the 60s and Along Came the young Lords they were so smart about being packaged in such a way to be seductive for the camera young Lords looked around and found an issue that had to touch the hearts of anybody whose heart was not frozen and that was a terrible quality of Medical Care inside the Mario [Music] [Applause] and so these media hip kids came up with a plan to occupy institutions to get attention [Applause] [Music] the next occupation that was really interesting it was in the Bronx Lincoln Hospital [Music] [Applause] but why Lincoln Hospital what we want this rally for is to express our desire to have community worker control of Lincoln Hospital a hospital that for some time has been condemned 15 years to be exact paint is chipping from the emergency room our uncles our grandmothers our mothers have died in that hospital and nobody has pushed malpractice suits not the politicians who we've elected nor the officials that's supposed to speak for the Puerto Rican people it was one of the dirtiest hospitals I've ever said for them if you would walk in the emergency room you would see blood stains on the walls you see blood stains on the floors you know the cart that they bring around that has like the little cups with the pills in when they're dispensing medications to the patients they'd be roaches in the cups and to go in for a kidney transplant or surgery on your right kidney and end up with having your left kidney removed people would leave surgical instruments inside of patients the infant mortality rate was unbelievable that is a fact the infant mortality rate in El Barrio is three times that of the national average that it's a fact when you have to see a mother die in childbirth you then understand God what are we doing in this country why is it that she has to die Lincoln Hospital is a butcher shop and we go there and get butchered no political we live political the toilet paper we buy is political Not only was there print journalism and television but also the police this was an invasion of city property it was quite a threat and of course it's illegal so it got hot as you would say the police came with everything they had it was Unreal the press conference announcing that we had taken over the hospital that we had demands community worker control of the hospital higher wage for the workers at the hospital preventative health programs a very important demand was the provision of child care daycare is [Music] for the involvement of women and we announced that we were not leaving until the city made a firm commitment to building the hospital some of the nurses and other Hospital staff were very anxious and some were immediately embracing the young Lords they weren't young Lords themselves as far as I know but they were embracing their platform so that created a lot of tension that we walked in Felipe is there and I guess it was Gonzalez I sit Davidoff and Barry Goddard Lindsay's top negotiators tell us are you guys out of your mind do you know you just took over City Institution and Barry God over went off on the side we say look this is real simple this is not going to be resolved By You By Us building hospital today [Music] there are nearly a million Puerto Ricans in New York today among the chief beneficiaries of the Puerto Rican migration are the city's hospitals before the Takeover of Lincoln Hospital we started aligning ourselves with Hospital workers many of the workers they were also patients because they lived in that same community and that was the health revolutionary Unity movement atrium H wrong was a group that was started by black and Puerto Rican Hospital workers I got a position as a community mental health worker at Lincoln Hospital in 1967 I was like a nice kid but I was very strong politically and everyone knew what My Views were I was the co-chair of the health revolutionary Unity movement of the hospital the northern Bronx and other communities do have their new building Lincoln Hospital still not getting what we need we have 360 000 people in South Bronx New year Lincoln hospitals must belong to us [Music] I happen to be not only involved in atrium I kind of quit my job at Lincoln Hospital and I became a member of the young Lord's party here's where Mickey Shone Cleo sill was shown because they had already established a relationship with the Revolutionary doctors in there [Music] [Music] this was over a long period of time of study of work in the community of going into the administrator's offices of demonstrations we did everything before the Takeover we had no tethers holding us back the conditions are so bad how can we not do it [Music] appreciations between the young Lords and the hospitals Administration are still underway and more and more Hospital workers are being attracted to the young Lords program for Hospital service improvement is your emergency room service adequate absolutely not it could not possibly at be adequate in the physical plant that we have at Lincoln Hospital we desperately need a new physical plant as to Davidoff said it's already been worked on and I slammed my house it's not being worked on that's why we're here you guys taking your time this is not Politics as Usual man we're doing this because we need to do it I went to the Pediatric Ward and spent the day there giving care I don't have any recollection that the young Lords interfered with any of the medical activities we recognize that sometimes to make radical or significant change you have to do something dramatic Yoruba what's happened what's happened now is that while we were negotiating and while we were trying to reach some kind of a settlement the first thing that we had come up with was that we would be clear and we would be free to negotiate as long as they move the pigs back they said they're going to move the pigs back and while they were saying this they tried to sneak a pig in to yank one of the Lords out to yank one of our brothers out because this was going down we then had some look we know where you at this is a breach of good faith and we can't deal anymore I'm gonna have to leave now because they're trying to mobilize now and I have to go to you this is real simple we don't resolve this for you right now the next thing they're coming is the guys with the guns you don't want the guys with the guns coming today [Music] the police hated the young Lords and they loved the opportunity to get us all in one place because the young Lords had seen the killing of Fred Hampton the leader of the Chicago Black Panthers by police officers they had reason to be afraid we were terrified that they were going to come in there and they were going to beat us into oh and no one was going to help us and the end of Deputy Mayor finally said look the police want to come in here we're trying to keep them out we cannot announce that we're going to build a new Lincoln hospital but I give you my word that if you leave we'll build a hospital we'll build a new hospital I like people to be too optimistic we were skeptical never once that we put down our garden and begin to trust them so we had to make a decision at that point well stay in here and forced the mayor's hand and have the police come in or do we figure out a way to declare a victory and leap the cops began to mobilize and someone came up with the great idea of giving a scrub coats and stethoscopes the police around at the hospital but there was one exit that they had not covered it was the hour where the workers and patients were also going home so we Blended in with the patients in the hospital staff that was leaving the building we walked out in between the police cars which had lined up around the hospital so yes just walk by like nothing's happening but you're scared to death foreign [Music] there was no one there was no one left [Music] [Music] by the end of the day the world knew that young lawyers took over Lincoln Hospital [Music] my master was maximum damage minimum loss of life [Music] we were willing to put our lives on the line to demand Quality Health Care but you don't always win [Music] even if all the changes demanded by the young Lords are made there still won't be enough money enough space and enough staff to meet the needs of this poverty-stricken community [Music] so here's a young woman 31 years old mother of two kids prior to she had been hospitalized for her heart condition Carmen Rodriguez was from the South Bronx she was pregnant and in addition to her pregnancy she had rheumatic heart disease her doctors recommended abortion because of rheumatic heart disease and that wasn't her charge but the doctors did not have Carmen's medical record and they went ahead and did a saline abortion well that was not the right decision to make if you knew she had rheumatic heart disease because saline would put significant stress on the heart she went into a coma she never woke up so of course the community was enraged because the chart was there but he didn't bother to read it this was something that should not have happened and it was very I mean take a deep breath when I say that was very tragic I mean the whole hospital was and this was within days of the Takeover now the time for us to say we're not going to sit by and allow more common Rodriguez abortions here we have to begin to stand up for the people the Puerto Rican people to death enough we said that it's genocide against third world people black and Puerto Rican people and that's why we're charging the city with murder thank you the death of Carmen Rodriguez and the Takeover made the city build a new hospital in South Bronx [Music] had we not organized that occupation and they would never have done it they would have just continued to make promises and not build the new Lincoln Hospital [Music] foreign the other thing that was significant after the Carmen Rodriguez death was the drafting of the patient Bill of Rights [Music] to be treated with dignity that was the first demand treat people with dignity and respect when they come into the hospital for care we have a patient's Bill of Rights that's found in every hospital room in the United States which has been significantly watered down compared to the original patient's Bill of Rights [Music] these are the ones that were watered out door-to-door preventative medicine programs to choose the doctor you want to have to have free daycare centers in all Hospital facilities [Music] to receive free health care one of the fundamental things that we believe was that Healthcare was a right and not a privilege 45 years later I think people are beginning to kind of understand that capitalism should have a say in the policies and the procedures community control is really a part of our work and everybody played a role we wanted a revolutionary change to the health system in this country and we still do there may not be a young Lords right now or they may not be a black panther party but guess what a lot of us are not dead and we're communicating this to a young generation that's going to carry that struggle Forward Health Care was never a consideration for poor people it's something that we fought for poor people fought for throughout U.S history [Music] Healthcare is a bigger issue today than it was back then the issue hasn't changed [Music] fundamentally I am a revolutionary and I believe in dressing nice I believe in vacations and you know I believe in taking care of your children and buying houses revolution has nothing to do with that Revolution is a desire to change the Class cast and race system of the United States of America that's what it's about and here we are 50 years later talking about the in-laws what it says is that a good act can never be erased a revolutionary act cannot be erased they captured the heart of the people to be moved to the streets and change doesn't happen if you don't have people on the streets [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] to all who had to survive let's say to my brothers and my sisters [Music] [Music] to all who came before we say nothing [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]