Angie Navedo Rizzo

The Young Lords began as a Puerto Rican street gang in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in the early 1960’s. By the late 1960’s it had evolved into the Young Lords Organization (YLO), a revolutionary political and human rights group. The YLO fought against urban renewal programs, or as they called it “urban removal” programs, that were displacing Puerto Rican families from their Lincoln Park neighborhood. One of the Young Lordettes, Angie Navedo Rizzo (1951-2006), formed “Mothers and Others,” a sub-group that focused on women’s rights. She was very active, though, in the overall work of the Young Lords. In fact, when YLO leader Cha-Cha Jiménez was incarcerated (a time when the powers-that-be assumed the YLO would crumble), Navedo Rizzo took over the reins and kept the organization running strong. Reflecting many years later on her YLO days, she said, “Kids today need to see that they can make a difference, that there is hope.”

Why this stop? A bit south of the Belmont Red Line/Brown Line/Purple Line station is the Lincoln Park neighborhood, a core area of the Young Lords’ organizing actions. The headquarters of the Young Lords Organization was a bit north of this station.

Watch Cathy Adorno-Centeno, daughter of Angie Adorno, talk about her mother and the Young Lords in this interview with José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez.