“Here we are,” she said.
“Just where we should be,” I answered.
Growing up, I was not one to go on marches or hold up protest signs. In retrospect, I realize much of my time was taken up simply trying to survive the turmoil of my parents’ life. Not only did we suffer the usual stresses of being poor, but my father’s solution to our situation was to drink. My solution was to watch television. I escaped what was going on around me by losing myself in television shows like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. The only social event that shook me was seeing the Montgomery Bus Boycott on television when I was six years old. I secretly worried I’d be separated from my lighter-skinned relatives if we ever found ourselves in Montgomery, Alabama.
Further into the 1960s, when the country raged with people marching to protest the war in Vietnam, and students railed against authority by taking over their college campuses, I was content to watch from the sidelines. By 1968, I was in Pittsburgh, preoccupied with the new and strange phenomenon of attending Carnegie Mellon University. There, I got swept up in the Civil Rights movement, probably figuring I’d pass myself off as an African American and sneak into society that way. I did not think of the plight of Puerto Ricans. Why would I? We seemed invisible even to me.
There weren’t too many of us on television, salsa music was almost never heard outside of our own communities, and I wasn’t aware of any books written about our experience. Like many, I accepted this as being the norm … that is, until the Young Lords put us on the map.
I could feel the upheaval in El Barrio when I visited my grandmother Guadalupe Serrano Manzano and cousin Evelyn, who lived on 111th Street and Lexington Avenue, right near the First Spanish Methodist Church. Suddenly, we were not people on the margin of society looking in; we were speaking out for recognition and rights just as loudly as everybody else! Still, I could not figure out where I fit in. What social change could I help implement? I wanted to be an actress and was barely in the habit of reading a newspaper.
In the early 1970s, I was part of a group of artists who were asked to create a skit in celebration of Three Kings Day for El Museo del Barrio. I met Pedro Pietri at that gathering. Consequently, it was reading his desperately funny poem “Suicide Note from a Cockroach in a Low Income Housing Project” that nudged my social consciousness awake. Social change through humor! Now, that was an idea I could get behind. Suddenly, I was obsessed with all things Puerto Rican, and now, I wonder if my newfound sensibility helped me land the part of Maria on Sesame Street, a show dedicated to social change through humor! Maybe.
Evelyn Serrano’s social awakening happens in a much more condensed manner. She makes all the realizations I made over the years during the Young Lords’ eleven-day occupation of the First Spanish Methodist Church.
The Young Lords were real. They did set garbage on fire, have clothing drives, get kids checked for lead poisoning and tuberculosis, and offer political education classes; they both inspired and brought attention to an ignored segment of society.
Pietri’s poem “Puerto Rican Obituary,” which is in his collection of the same name, was the inspiration for chapter twenty-four in this book. His family were members of the First Spanish Methodist Church and he did read “Puerto Rican Obituary” there.
But I want to be clear that this book is a work of fiction. Political education classes were taught by the Young Lords themselves, not by neighborhood grandmothers. I know that during that time the Young Lords were visited by many prominent people who included Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Budd Schulberg (who did show the movie The Battle of Algiers), Pepe y Flora (who did entertain, though perhaps not on New Year’s Eve), and Gloria Rojas and J. J. González (who were real television news reporters who covered the occurrences).
I have fictionalized the order of events during the eleven-day takeover to help tell Evelyn’s story.
Also — though there was a singing group called Los Canarios who sang about the social conditions of Puerto Ricans in the Bronx, the group called Los Pajaritos who sing about the Ponce Massacre is also fiction.
The Ponce Massacre and El Grito de Lares were true events.
Those who know the geography of El Barrio will note that I have taken liberties with that as well, and I am assuming that there could have been a five-and-dime where I have placed it.
If Evelyn Serrano used some politically incorrect statements, she meant to offend no one. She is simply a product of her time.
Sesame Street was indeed first aired in November 1969.
The term “Nuyorican” to denote a person of Puerto Rican ancestry born in the mainland was coined in the 1970s, a few years after the time this book takes place. It should also be noted that not every non-English word I use is Spanish! Some are Spanglish, some regional, and some, I think, are particular to my family.
Evelyn’s mother is like all the mothers I knew who always ate last, usually standing up, and who seemed to work more hours than a day has. I admit I’ve never met anyone like Evelyn’s abuela, but reading about the Ponce Massacre tells me that those women must’ve existed.
When we think of revolutions, we think of big public displays of violence, but revolutions come in all shapes and sizes. I’ve always been interested in people’s internal revolutions because those are the ones that govern their everyday actions and, by progression, a community’s life.
I want to thank the former Young Lords, not only for sharing information with me but for being who they were in 1969. Specifically, Iris Morales, Felipe Luciano, Juan González, Pablo “Yoruba” Guzmán, and Denise Oliver-Velez.
I would also like to thank my cousin Evelyn Manzano Daniels for reminiscing with me about El Barrio.
Iris Morales’s DVD ¡Palante, Siempre Palante! was instrumental, as was Young Lord Mickey Melendez’s book We Took the Streets.
To see remarkable footage of the Ponce Massacre, go to YouTube and search for La Masacre de Ponce, 1937.
For a strong sense of the times, read Pietri’s Puerto Rican Obituary, published by Modern Reader.
I thank Andrea Pinkney, my sure-handed editor at Scholastic; my agent, Jennifer Lyons, for her unwavering support; and my husband, Richard Reagan, for reading and copyediting everything I write, with good cheer.
SONIA MANZANO has affected the lives of millions since the early 1970s as the actress who defined the role of Maria on the acclaimed television series Sesame Street. Sonia has won fifteen Emmy Awards for her television writing and was twice nominated for an Emmy Award as best performer in a children’s series. Adding to her list of credits, Sonia has been named by People En Español magazine as one of America’s most influential Hispanics. This is Sonia’s first novel. She lives in New York City.
Below is a list of the Young Lord articles I referred to in this book. For a fee they can be found on the NYTimes.com website.
“East Harlem Youths Explain Garbage Dumping Demonstration”
BY JOSEPH P. FRIED (AUGUST 19, 1969)
“8 Hurt, 14 Seized in a Church Clash”
BY MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN (DECEMBER 8, 1969)
“Puerto Ricans Again Ask Church to Make Room for Food Program”
(DECEMBER 15, 1969)
“Puerto Rican Group Seizes Church in East Harlem in Demand for Space”
BY MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN (DECEMBER 29, 1969)
“Young Lords Give Food and Care at Seized Church”
BY ARNOLD H. LUBASCH (DECEMBER 30, 1969)
“Church Seeks Writ to Bar Young Lords”
(DECEMBER 31, 1969)
“Militants Vow to Continue Protest at Harlem Church”
(JANUARY 4, 1970)
“Church Occupiers Ordered to Court”
BY MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN (JANUARY 6, 1970)
“105 Members of Young Lords Submit to Arrest, Ending 11-Day Occupation of Church in East Harlem”
BY MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN (JANUARY 8, 1970)
Copyright © 2012 by Sonia Manzano
All rights reserved. Published by Scholast
ic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Manzano, Sonia.
The revolution of Evelyn Serrano / Sonia Manzano. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: It is 1969 in Spanish Harlem, and fourteen-year-old Evelyn Serrano is trying hard to break free from her conservative Puerto Rican surroundings, but when her activist grandmother comes to stay and the neighborhood protests start, things get a lot more complicated — and dangerous.
ISBN 978-0-545-32505-9 — ISBN 978-0-545-32506-6 1. Puerto Rican families — Juvenile fiction. 2. Puerto Ricans — New York (State) — New York — Juvenile fiction. 3. Grandmothers — Juvenile fiction. 4. Grandparent and child — Juvenile fiction. 5. Identity (Psychology) — Juvenile fiction. 6. Protest movements — New York (State) — New York — Juvenile fiction. 7. East Harlem (New York, N.Y.) — Juvenile fiction. 8. New York (N.Y.) — History — Juvenile fiction. [1. Puerto Ricans — New York (State) — New York — Fiction. 2. Family life — New York (State) — Harlem — Fiction. 3. Grandmothers — Fiction. 4. Identity — Fiction. 5. Protest movements — Fiction. 6. East Harlem (New York, N.Y.) — History — 20th century — Fiction. 7. New York (N.Y.) — History — 20th century — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M3213Rev 2012
813.6 — dc23
2012009240
First edition, September 2012
Jacket design and image created by Elizabeth B. Parisi, with images by Afton Almaraz/Getty and Buena Vista/Getty
e-ISBN 978-0-545-46958-6
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (9780545469586) Page 13
