Abstract
During the 1960s, the Lower East Side and East Harlem were among the principal contested terrains in New York City, and the emerging Puerto Rican community was being challenged on many fronts. As contested terrains, they were the arenas where transforming forces in American society were being articulated. Responses to these forces varied from neighborhood to neighborhood. Among the responses were groups organized around community development, particularly to fight urban renewal projects. In this essay, I examine a year in the life of the East Harlem Real Great Society/Urban Planning Studio (RGS/UPS). RGS/UPS emerged in a transition period in the development of Puerto Rican institutions. It combined several characteristics of groups organized during those years. It was founded by grassroots community youth; it was also a professionally staffed organization; it was structured around an advocacy model; and it valued its ethnic-specificity, its Puertoricanness. Its staff’s eagerness to speak for the needs and aspirations of Puerto Ricans was a clear example of ethnicity-based struggle.
Author notes
I would like to thank former RGS/ UPS staff that provided me with their insights and most of the historical background on the organization: Willie Vazquez, Harry Quintana, Victor Feliciano (founding members of RGS / UPS), RGS staff members Bruce Young Candelaria, Carmen Gloria Baba, Sara Myrta Cruz, and Jaime Suarez. I would also like to thank Bruce Dale who worked with the East Harlem Studio of Columbia University and with RGS/ UPS as a consultant. This essay is built around the personal recollections of those actors contacted and those of the author. It is also based on two proposals submitted by RGS/ UPS to the Ford Foundation and other foundations. In the proposals the philosophy of the organization is expounded and projects are discussed. The essay does not represent the opinions of those interviewed, nor is it the final work on RGS/UPS. I would also like to thank Professor Betty Woody of CPCS/U.MASS Boston for her critical suggestions on the manuscript.
