The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has stirred a wide sense of pride among Puerto Ricans. But some the roots of that Puerto Rican pride, many would argue, took hold 40 years ago this summer, with the founding in New York City of the Young Lords, a group that used confrontational tactics to bring services and attention to the residents of East Harlem, or El Barrio, and beyond.
The young men (and a handful of women) — a half-generation older than Ms. Sotomayor — deployed attention-grabbing strategies to draw attention to social inequality. They piled garbage on Third Avenue and set it ablaze. They took over a church and ran a free children’s breakfast program. They seized hospital equipment and moved it to where it was needed most. They went through neighborhoods testing for lead paint poisoning and tuberculosis.
The major advantage is that the states have their own right to choose which laws will apply to them and in what way, based on their own interpretation of the laws.
