Young Lords Position Paper on Women
Puerto Rican, Black, and other Third World (colonized) women are becoming more aware of their oppression in the past and today. They are suffering three different types of oppression under...
...In hospitals, our women comprise the majority of the nurse's aides, kitchen workers, and clerks...
...Sometimes they are left alone, and all of us have read the tragic results in the newspapers of what happens to children left alone-'-they are burned to death in fires, or they swallow poison, or fall out of windows to their death...
...REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN Throughout history, women have participated and been involved in liberation struggles...
...In many societies, women had no right to be divorced, and in India it was the custom of most of the people that when the husband died, all his wives became the property of his brother...
...When a woman married a man she became his property and lost her last name...
...The daughter was guarded like a hawk by her father, brothers, and uncles to keep her a virgin...
...She was called "el brazo de oro" because of-her unlimited energy...
...Third World women have an integral role to play in the liberation of all oppressed people as well as in the struggle for the liberation of women...
...Women have always been expected to be wives and mothers only...
...Even now many doctors feel that these pills cause cancer and death from blood clotting...
...All the anger and violence of centuries of oppression which should be directed against the oppressor is directed at the Puerto Rican woman...
...They will use any rap, especially political, to get sex...
...The first abortion death in NYC under the new abortion law was Carmen Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican sister who died in Lincoln Hospital, Her abortion was legal, but the conditions in the hospital were deadly...
...The Third World woman becomes the most oppressed person in the world today...
...So they usually wait until they're home...
...The choice of motherhood is being taken out of the mother's hands...
...She became a brilliant commander, decorated many times for her military ability...
...They grow to expect that men will always beat them...
...0459 YOUNG LORDS PARTY...
...all they see everywhere is a pussy or a dick...
...The Central Committee of the Young Lords Party has issued this position paper to explain and educate our brothers and sisters about the role of sisters in the past and how we see sisters in the struggle now and in the future...
...Puerto . Rican and Black women are paid lower wages than whites and kept in the lowest positions within the society...
...We criticize those brothers who are "machos" and who continue to treat our sisters as less than equals...
...Second, they are oppressed as women...
...SOJOURNER TRUTH was born a slave in New York around 1800...
...Machismo has always been a very basic part of Latin American and Puerto Rican culture...
...The sisters also suffer abuse from the pimps, really small-time capitalists, who see the women as private property that must produce the largest possible profit...
...Both sets of children grew up very confused and insecure and dveoped negative attitudes about thp roles of women and men...
...between 1953-54, 4 out of every 25...
...BLANCA CANALES was one of the leaders of the revolution in Jayuya in 1950...
...She is sterilized to prevent her from having children, or she has to have a child because...
...planes...
...The wife had to have children in order to enhance the man's concept of virility and his position within the Puerto Rican society...
...her purpose is to have sons and keep his home but not to be a sexual partner.15 THE DOUBLE STANDARD, MACHISMO, AND SEXUAL FASCISM Capitalism sets up standards that are applied differently to Puerto Rican and Black men from the way they are applied to Puerto Rican and Black women...
...She was imprisoned in a federal penitentiary and sentenced to 50 years...
...We criticize sisters who remain passive, who do not join in the struggle against our oppression...
...As a matter of fact these things are considered nature for a man to do, and he must do them tro 'e co;.c 4...
...At home the role of the daughter was to be a nursemaid for the other children and kitchen help for her mother...
...She sewed the first flag of El Grito de Lares...
...Yet the majority of their women are home taking care of the children...
...We know that Puerto Ricans will not be around on the face of the earth very long if Puerto Rican women are sterilized at the rate they are being sterilized now...
...Another Panther sister, FRANCES CARTER, is imprisoned in Connecticut for supposedly being a member of a conspiracy...
...She scanned the sky with field glasses and when the enemy dropped bombs along the countryside, she wouid locate those which had not exploded and her teammates would go and open them and clear the road for traffic...
...Their military capability and efficiency has been demonstrated in so many instances that a woman's brigade was formed in the National Liberation Front of the North Vietnamese Army...
...they were owned by the husband...
...Everywhere our sisters are turned'into prostitutes...
...Both women had to be loyal to the man...
...In Eastern societies, men always had several wives and a number or women who were almost prostitutes, called concubines, purely sexual objects...
...Many sisters leave their children with a neighbor, or the oldest child is left to take care of the younger ones...
...In 1947-48, 7% of the women were sterilized...
...LOLITA LEBRON, together with three other patriots, opened fire on the House of Representatives in an armed attack in 1954, bringing the attention of the world on the colonial status of Puerto Rico...
...The result was 5 legislators shot, and one critically wounded...
...Then we can establish a socialist country that meets the economic needs of all the people...
...This was true in places all over the world...
...Because this society produces thesee conditions, our major enemy is capitalism rather than our own oppressed men...
...they are then called whores or prostitutes...
...She traveled in the north speaking out against slavery, and for women's rights...
...She was one of the most famous Black orators in history.17 KATHLEEN CLEAVER is a member of the Central Committee of the Black Panther Party...
...She is still in prison for this heroic act of nationalism...
...The Puerto Rican man tries to limit the woman's role because they feel the double standard is threatened: they feel insecure without it as a crutch...
...The Black Panthers are the vanguard of the Black liberation struggle in the united states...
...Her child was later taken away from her because of her political beliefs...
...Economically, Third World women have always been used as a cheap source of labor and as sexual objects...
...The wife was there to be a homemaker, to have children, and to maintain the family name and honor...
...Part of this genocide is also the use of birth-control pills which were tested for 15 years on Puerto Rican sisters (guinea pigs) before being sold on the market in the U.S...
...Third World sisters are caught up in a complex situation...
...These sisters are subjected to sexual abuse from dirty old men who are mainly white racists who view them as the ultimate sexual objects...
...She then draped herself in the Puerto Rican flag and cried, "Viva Puerto Rico Libre...
...Machismo is male chauvinism and more...
...the women's struggle is the revolution within the revolution...
...For her role in the struggle, she was imprisoned...
...A Sexual Fascist does not consider people's feelings...
...The husband ,must be sure that his new wife has never been touched by another man because that would ruin the "merchandise...
...Sexual Fascism is tied closely to the double standard and machismo...
...Our sisters in Vietnam have struggled alongside their brothers for 25 years, first against the french colonizer, then against the japanese invaders, and now against the amerikkkan aggressors...
...This situation keeps the Third World man divided from his woman...
...These jobs are unskilled, the pay is low, and there is no chance for advancement...
...They are suffering three different types of oppression under capitalism...
...The Puerto Rican man sees himself as superior to his woman, and his superiority, he feels, gives him license to do many things--curse, drink, use drugs, beat women, and run around with many women...
...MARIANA BRACETTI was a Puerto Rican woman who together with her husband fought in the struggle for independence in Lares...
...A woman who curses, drinks, and runs around with a lot of men is considered dirty scum, crazy, and a whore...
...Besides being a nationalist, she was a fighter for women's rights...
...At the point of armed struggle for national liberation, women have proved themselves revolutionaries...
...KAN LICH, another Vietnamese sister, fought under very harsh and dangerous conditions...
...Machismo means "mucho macho" or a man who puts himself selfishly at the head of everything without considering the woman...
...Because this society controls and determines the economic situation of Puerto Rican and Black women, sisters are forced to take jobs at the lowest wages...
...In factories, our men are worked like animals and cannot complain because they will lose their jobs--their labor is considered abundant and cheap...
...Capitalism defines manhood according to money and status...
...she cannot get an abortion...
...The daughters hear their fathers saying,"The only way a woman is going to do anything or listen is by hitting her...
...and by 1965, the number had increased to about 1 out of every 3 women...
...She was forced to have her child in prison, and was given no medical attention while she was pregnant...
...Abortions in hospitals that are butcher shops are little better than the illegal abortions our women used to get...
...It means that a man or woman thinks of the opposite sex solely as sexual objects to be used for sexual gratification and then discarded...
...La corteja became his sexual instrument...
...Puerto Rican and Black women make up over half of the revolutionary army, and in the struggle for national liberation they must press for the equality of women...
...BIRTH CONTROL, ABORTION, STERI LIZATION=GENOCIDE We have no control over our bodies, because capitalism finds it necessary to control the woman's body in order to control population size...
...But the writers of history have never given full acknowledgment to the role of revolutionary women...
...He could have children with this woman, but they are looked on as by-products of a sexual relationship...
...Our sisters are expected to prostitute themselves and take abuse of any kind or lose these subsistence jobs...
...The father applies this to the daughter, beating her so that she can learn "respeto...
...The Puerto Rican sister who involves herself is considered aggressive, castrating, hard, and unwomanly...
...In other parts of the world, women are fighting against imperialism and foreign invasion...
...We realize that under capitalism our sisters and brothers cannot support large families and the more children we have the harder it is to support them...
...All that they are expected to do is look pretty and add a little humor...
...Black and Puerto Rican sisters are put into a situation where jobs are scarce or nonexistent and are forced to compromise body, mind, and soul...
...He can do whatever he wants because his woman is an object with certain already defined roles--wife, mother, and good woman...
...Puerto Rican women will be neither behind nor in front of their brothers but always alongside them' in mutual respect and love...
...She was murdered when she yelled, "Viva Puerto Rico Libre...
...The most obvious example is the sisters hustling their bodies on the streets, but the other forms of prostitution are also types of further exploitation of16 the Third World woman...
...Her practice to "hit at close quarters, hit hard, withdraw quickly" proved to be valid...
...He takes out all of his frustrations on his woman, beating her, i-, ssina and limiting her freedom...
...In offices, our positions are usually as clerks, typists, and no-promotion jobs...
...On one hand, we feel that genocide is being committed against our people...
...The practice of sterilization in Puerto Rico goes back to the 1930's when doctors pushed it as the only means of contraception...
...Only recently, a 19-year-old coed, ANTONIA MARTINEZ, was killed in Puerto Rico in a demonstration against the presence of amerikkan military recruiting centers...
...ANGELA DAVIS is a Black revolutionary sister who is being hunted by the f.b.i...
...Puerto Rican and Black sisters are made to prostitute themselves in many other ways, The majority of these sisters oAf the street are also hard-core drug addicts, taking drugs as an escape from oppression...
...In the past, women were not educated, only the sons got an education, and mothers were respected for the number of sons they had, not daughters...
...Puerto Rican women are not expected to know anything except about the home, kitchen, and bedroom...
...The centers that already exist are overcrowded, expensive, and are only super-baby-sitting centers...
...This condition still exists today...
...ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE...
...The Puerto Rican and Black man either leaves the household or he stays and becomes economically dependent on the woman, undergoing psychological damage...
...Today Puerto Rican men are involved in a political movement...
...In Latin America and Puerto Rico, the man had a wife and another woman called la corteja...
...We are fighting every day within our Party against male chauvinism because we want to make a revolution of brothers and sisters--together--in love and respect for each other...
...Daughters were worthless and the only thing they could do was marry early to get away from home...
...Machismo means physical abuse, punishment, and torture...
...These standards must be understood since they are created to divide oppressed people in order to maintain an economic system that is racist and oppressive...
...Third, they are oppressed by their own merit...
...At the same time, giving Puerto Rican and Black women jobs means the Puerto Rican and Black man is kept from gaining economic independence, and the family unit is broken down...
...She is viewed by the brothers as sexually accessible because what else is she doing outside of the home...
...They are respected by the rest of the community for being good cooks, good housewives, good mothers, but never for being intelligent, strong, educated, or militant...
...In all of these jobs, our sisters are subjected to racial slurs, jokes, and other indignities such as being leered at, manhandled, propositioned, and assaulted...
...In Latin America, the people used duenas or old-lady watchdogs to guard the purity of the daughters...
...When he marries her...
...She refused to conform to the traditional customs concerning Puerto Rican women and at one point cut her hair very short...
...The man could have set her up in another household, paid her rent, bought her food, and paid her bills...
...Sexual fascists are very sick people...
...Also he has the attitude that he cannot really prove his manhood until he has slept with a Black or Puerto Rican woman...
...HISTORICAL In the past women were oppressed by several institutions, one of which was marriage...
...Central Committee Bronx, N.Y...
...In many cases our sisters are told that their tubes are going to be "tied," but are never told that the "tying" is really "cutting" and that the tubes can never be "untied...
...The facts that her man cannot get a job and that her family is dependent on her for support means that she hustles money by any means necessary...
...Puerto Rican and Black men are looked upon as rough, athletic, and sexual, but not as intellectuals...
...She had to be sure to be a virgin and remain pure for the rest of her life, meaning she could never experience sexual pleasure...
...Puerto Rican and Black women are used to fill working-class positions in factories, mass assembly lines, hospitals, and all other institutions...
...A Puerto Rican man will beat his woman to keep her in place and show her who's boss...
...and is on their 10 most wanted list because she has always defended her people's right to armed self-defense and because of her Marxist-Leninist philosophy...
...The daughters grow up with messed-up attitudes about their role as women and about manhood...
...Another nationalist woman was LOLA RODRIGUEZ DE TIO, a poet who expressed the spirit of liberty and freedom in "La Borinquena" in 1867...
...Most Puerto Rican men do not beat women publicly because in the eyes of other men that is a weak thing to do...
...DAY CARE CENTERS One of the many reasons why many sisters are tied to the home and cannot work or become revolutionaries is the shortage of day care centers for children...
...the Puerto Rican and Black man's manhood is taken away by making the Puerto Rican and Black woman the breadwinner...
...Women had no right to own anything, not even their children...
...She emptied a .45 automatic from the balcony of the Congress on to the colonial legislators...
...The aggression is also directed at daughters...
...at the same time take insults and other indignities in order to keep the job...
...The only way to eliminate prostitution is to eliminate this society which creates the need...
...Day care centers should be free, should be open 24 hours a day, and should be centers where children are taught their revolutionary history and culture...
...After her fiance was killed in action, she sought and got a job with a time-bomb detection team...
...On the other hand, we believe that abortions should be legal if they are community controlled, if they are safe, if our people are educated about the risks, and if doctors do not sterilize our sisters while performing abortions...
...Their illness s caused in part by this system which mouths puritanical attitudes and laws and yet exploits the human body for profit...
...LA THI THAM was born in a province which was constantly bombarded by u.s...
...PROSTITUTION Under capitalism, Third World women are forced to compromise themselves because of their economic situation...
...First, they are oppressed as Puerto Ricans or Blacks...
...These standards are also applied differently to Third World peoples than they are applied to whites...
...A man could'ave several wives in order to show other men what wealth he had and enhance his position in society...
...We say, change the system so that women can be freely allowed to have as many children as they want without suffering any consequences...
...ilan...
Vol. 4 • October 1970 • No. 6
