For a group of young, working class, Black and Brown Puerto Ricans in New York City, they too asked themselves this question as they lived through the harsh realities of poverty.

Post World War II, many Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States in search of “better opportunities” after their island was absorbed by U.S. control due to its newly instated Commonwealth status in the 1950s. In El Barrio, these newly arrived Puerto Ricans were faced with discrimination and sought to survive in a systematically neglected neighborhood. They were commonly racially profiled by the media as “junkies, knife-wielding thugs” and “welfare dependents,” according to historian Johanna Fernández.

Colonialism, imperialism, and poverty called for a socially and politically conscious group to arise and resist such systems of injustice. Nourished and mentored by groups and leaders resisting police brutality such as Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party – as well as inspired by the Young Lords in Chicago, who resisted gentrification and engaged in mutual aid efforts – the Young Lords Organization (YLO) of New York was formed in the Summer of 1969. As a Black and Brown Puerto Rican-led Socialist group, they had a connected vision of solidarity within El Barrio and abroad, believing that the values of Socialism would lift their people out of their neglected neighborhood. They also advocated for the self-determination of Puerto Rico, a land that continues to be unjustly ensnared in a colonial relationship under the boot of the United States. 

The Young Lords were a highly educated group of young people who studied Socialist and Marxist theory and were informed by revolutionary movements in Puerto Rico and across the globe. They struggled through big questions like how to bring about the fall of an exploitative imperial and capitalist system. But when they went door-to-door preaching this message to their family members and asking their neighbors what they needed, the Young Lords found that all their community wanted was for someone to pick up the trash that was piling up on their streets. As historian Dr. Jorge Juan Rodríguez makes clear, “To their surprise, and to some, their frustration, the people didn’t ask for the fall of capitalism, they didn’t ask for the abolition of the police. The people said they needed the garbage picked up.”

The Garbage Offensive was the first direct action that the Young Lords organized in protest of the sanitation department’s refusal to clean the streets of El Barrio. Health issues persisted as a result, and impacted Black and Brown neighbors. The Young Lords decided to pick up all the uncollected trash, pile it into an eight-foot wall, and set the trash pile on fire. From that day on, the sanitation department came to pick up the trash regularly.

Their actions did not stop there. They continued to tackle health disparities born out of environmental racism as their canvassing led them to recognize how the high rates of Tuberculosis, lead poisoning, drug addiction, and other health issues were disproportionately impacting their Black and Brown neighbors. In collaboration with the drivers and workers, the Young Lords took over and “liberated” an X-ray truck and drove it to El Barrio to test hundreds of their neighbors for TB. In 1970, the Lincoln Hospital was famously known as the “Butcher Shop” because of heavy neglect towards Black and Brown patients within a crumbling building. Without much convincing, the Young Lords collaborated with willing physicians, nurses, and hospital staff to barricade themselves inside and demand better and more accessible patient care for all. A new Lincoln Hospital was built, free from the lead poisoning that many patients would leave with. Preventative medicine and an acupuncture-based drug detox program served patients at the height of the heroin epidemic. The creation of the very first Patient Bill of Rights also came from this initiative, a bill that revolutionized healthcare today by advocating for the fair treatment of all patients without discrimination.

Another infamous takeover by the Young Lords was their 11-day occupation of the First United Methodist Church in December of 1969. Renaming it The People’s Church, they hosted a free breakfast program and daycare for children, organized a clothing drive, and held liberation classes where people could learn Spanish and know more about Puerto Rico’s revolutionary history.

New theology and praxis were created out of the smashing tensions between church members and young Socialists with visions of liberating Puerto Rico and El Barrio. Some of these Young Lords had abuelas and tíos who were a part of this very church that they occupied, who disagreed with their beliefs. Other members, including the pastor himself, who had recently arrived to the city from Cuba, were troubled by the words “Socialism” and “Marxism,” and for that reason refused the Young Lord’s request to use their space for their social programs.

But the Young Lords became prophets, too, when they reminded the church that Jesus was a mere man and explicitly called out the church for actively being in “sin” for not addressing the material needs of their community members. “Before long, local grandmothers began delivering pots of food to the Puerto Rican radicals through church windows” Fernández describes. The Young Lords held such tensions where grander visions of liberation were catalyzed by picking up trash and where “sin” was named as not materializing your faith to meet the needs of your neighbor. This is where we can begin to learn how our faith calls us to move into a life of radical solidarity.

Consider the mutual aid efforts and the direct actions that the Young Lords organized, through these reflection questions. I encourage you to form a group and go through these reflection questions in community. Do not be discouraged if the answers are not entirely clear in this exercise. Find peace knowing that more answers will come by actively practicing solidarity, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes:

Recall the Lincoln Hospital takeover where the Young Lords collaborated with willing physicians, nurses, and hospital staff to barricade themselves inside and demand better patient care. 

• Zooming out, name the people involved in the takeover.
• Why was it easy for the Young Lords to convince the hospital staff to join their action?
• Why was collaborating with hospital workers important?
• What were the results of this action? Did it only benefit the people in Lincoln Hospital?

The Garbage Offensive was a direct action formed from the Young Lords canvassing and talking to their neighbors about what they needed.

• Why do you think the Young Lords were confused and frustrated when their neighbors told them that the trash needed to be picked up in their neighborhood as a response to their vision of a revolution?
• Who were the people most impacted by living in a polluted neighborhood? 
• Why is creating intentional relationships an important aspect of building solidarity? 
• How is picking up trash in their local neighborhood connected to a vision of a new world?

Reflection Questions

After reflecting on these above questions alone or in a group, in your own words, describe how charity is different from solidarity. If you are in a group, find and highlight similar characteristics in your answers.

• What are the values that drive charity?
• What are the values that drive solidarity?
• How can charity produce or ignore harm?
• What do you think are characteristics needed to live a life in solidarity with others?
  • Going deeper, name your social location (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, economic status, etc.). How does solidarity look different as an ally? 
• What are the values behind your faith practices?
• How does your faith stand in the way of solidarity? How does your faith facilitate solidarity? What can this ethically look like? If it is helpful, recall a time when religious beliefs stood in the way of being in solidarity with someone. Recall a time when religious beliefs facilitated ethical solidarity. Ponder the differences among these interactions and name them.