The Young Lords: A Radical History by Johanna Fernandez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my second or third time to read this book and it remains as stunning as ever. Between the Young Lords and FALN, as well as many dozens of other groups, most continental Americans would be shocked to know that many such nationalistic Puerto Rican groups have essentially been at war with the US Federal government for over 120 years or roughly since the US government (and military) fucked PR over along with Cuba, Costa Rica and the Philippines once the Spanish-American War (it with its own spurious portrayal by the US government with the help of mainstream media, most especially the NY Times) was over. Think I’m exaggerating? All of these countries wanted their independence after finally throwing off the Spanish yoke, but ample public and private evidence shows the US basically felt these new American colonies didn’t have people sufficiently experienced or intellectually capable of self-rule so America would have to take over. Look at NY Times op-eds from the late 1890s. Many Filipinos didn’t care for the American governments’ attitude and intentions, so be honest — how many of us were ever taught in school about the 3-year Philippine-American War of 1899-2002? The one resulting in over 25,000 combatants killed as well as literally hundreds of thousands of Filipino citizens? Right, that one! One of many we’re NEVER taught about because such US colonial atrocities must always be covered up. God forbid an American territory should want its independence with the result of their own version of the US Revolutionary War but in those cases, the Americans (i.e., the English government America rebelled against) ruthlessly puts down an action largely like our own in the late 1700s because, well, it’s us, not the damn British or Spanish! Right? Don’t believe me? This company’s website doesn’t allow reviews to include any URLs elsewhere so feel free to take a look at the US State Department’s Historian Office’s own small entry on the subject.

My point? It may seem like I’ve gotten off track, but I guess I just wanted to give examples of victims of unspoken, unadmitted yet consistent US foreign policy for over 100 years, and many in Puerto Rico would argue theirs has been the worst case and frankly has never ended. Why would there have been hundreds of nationalist groups like by the Young Lords and FALN if significant nationalistic feelings haven’t existed, and remain, from the beginning? I spent over 50 years wondering why Puerto Rico always showed up at election time, and there were always mentions of many of its citizens wanting US statehood, yet it would always return to essentially being the unacknowledged, unwanted little American brother, even as newer territories were ushered into statehood. Such as Hawai’i. Oh, Hawai’i was the victim of a US-backed illegal government overthrow in which we kept the longtime queen of an ancient sovereign country and government basically imprisoned in her own home for years while groups of largely western imperialists pillaged the country as it was pulled kicking and screaming at gunpoint into becoming a US state? Don’t believe me? Look it up. We’re NEVER taught about that in school, right?

But meanwhile, Puerto Rico with over 120 years as a US territory, is forever denied statehood while it has been used for everything from chemical dumping grounds to military weapons testing to human experimenting to insidious torture histories to continuous oppression and on and on. Is it any wonder groups like the Young Lords emerged in America during the ’50s and ’60s to fight for PR independence? FALN may have gotten greater notoriety during the ’70s and ’80s because it bombed so many more US targets than any other “radical” groups the FBI was after but it’s debatable if it would have even come into its own known existence without the leadership and example of the Young Lords.

I’m ending this review prematurely because I’ve been typing for so long now, in the middle of the night, and I’m tired, but there’s much more to be said about this book and what it represents yet I can’t continue at the present. If this topic were to interest anyone, confirmable information can be found and other resources like this book can be purchased to give one a history lesson they perhaps never expected or wanted. Yet as ugly as it is, it’s a big part of our history — something I imagine Howard Zinn might have addressed (or perhaps he did?) in his history classes and books on hidden American history. Sometimes it feels like there’s more of that then known, “approved” American history we do actually learn about in school while growing up.

So, strongly recommended, even if some readers won’t care for it. I suspect that might be because they won’t want to admit to certain geopolitical realities rather than accept certain premises (or realities) too potentially uncomfortable for the government and media to even let the American public know. Finally, I’d hope it’s obvious to all that our government has never really deviated from its foreign policy objectives and strategies since then, just by looking back over event of the past 20-30 years. We’ve learned much from our sins and mistakes, haven’t we…?

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