Iris Morales

THROUGH THE EYES OF REBEL WOMEN:

THE YOUNG LORDS, 1969-1976

This first account about the experiences of the women members is a "story within a story" told from the inside out. The Young Lords emerged in New York in the late sixties to fight poverty, racial and gender inequality, and the colonial status of Puerto Rico. Women in the Young Lords organized to build a people's movement and fought the “revolution within the revolution” believing that women’s equality was inseparable from the society’s progress as a whole.

Written and edited by Iris Morales, THROUGH THE EYES OF REBEL WOMEN consists of essays, interviews, and primary source documents. Morales chronicles the revolutionary rise of the Young Lords, the role and contributions of its women members, and the group’s decline.

Included are interviews with former women members conducted for the film ¡Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords and edited specifically for the book. Photographs and articles written from 1969 through 1973 complete the volume. The entire narrative affirms that social movements do not develop in a vacuum but arise to spearhead solutions to the injustices occurring in society.

In the book's Introduction, distinguished historian and women’s studies scholar, Dr. Edna Acosta-Belén, writes: “These women activists are ... the brave feminist warriors who battled for equality in intersecting (not isolated or separated) arenas of class, race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality; part of that noble league of defenders of universal human rights.”

Ericka Huggins, human rights activist, former Black Panther Party member, and political prisoner, summarizes: “As I read this book, I was continually inspired by the history of the Young Lords and the great women within it. Iris Morales writes a story that parallels the story of the women in the Black Panther Party and women throughout the globe. The structural and interpersonal work we must do to uplift humanity always starts from the inside out!”

Through the Eyes of Rebel Women is a must-read for everyone interested in the people's movements of the 1960s and 70s.