Cha Cha knew it was time to go home, to surrender.

- Cha Cha came and said, "Look, I don't want to deal with this anymore and I need to turn myself in, and can you take me to Chicago?"

And I said, "Oh, God, Cha Cha, I don't wanna do that, I don't wanna turn you in."

He says, "No, no, no, I want to do this right."

- [Narrator] Cha Cha returned to Chicago in December, 1972.

He beat the trumped up charges, but received the maximum sentence for petty theft for the lumber.

One year at Cook County Jail.

Upon release, Cha Cha returned to Lincoln Park and discovered the relentless pace of urban renewal had turned over the neighborhood.

Little trace remained that a vibrant Puerto Rican community had ever been there.

- They were right.

They were going to be displaced from Lincoln Park by wealthy residents, and the lakeside was going to be turned into a predominantly white, wealthy space.

- [Narrator] But Cha Cha Jiménez still had the fight in him.

Rather than using guerilla tactics, this time, he took a different approach.

In 1974, he announced a run for Alderman of the 46th Ward in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, another area where Latinos were being displaced.

The campaign marked a new form of activism for Chicago's Young Lords.

- I think it's a testament to the resiliency of Cha Cha Jiménez, and of others around, that that Rainbow Coalition, as much as the police wanted to kill it, as much as the FBI and those that were surveilling it wanted to defeat it, that it was too late.

The legacy was there, the politics were there, the ideas were there.

And those politics continued in a very, very real and significant way.

(melodious music) - [Narrator] Ultimately, Cha Cha received 39% of the vote and lost to machine-backed Daley Democrat Chris Cohen in the 1975 election.

But his political impact was yet to be realized.

In 1983, Cha Cha helped deliver crucial Puerto Rican votes to elect Harold Washington as Chicago's first Black mayor.

- We played a major role in that election.

It was a hundred thousand people in June of 1983 at Humboldt Park, and I was the only one on stage representing the Young Lords and introducing the newly elected mayor.

(crowds cheering) - You want Harold?

- [Crowd] Yes!

- You got him.

- [Narrator] The election of a minority mayor, with the support of other minority leaders, showed that what was once unthinkable was now achievable.

- Cha Cha Jiménez became an unlikely leader of his community.

He led with heart.

He believed in the power and brilliance of his peers, and helped them fight in their community for real revolutionary transformation.

- The Young Lords Organization 100% encouraged, inspired, influenced people's mentality around running for office, seeing it as something that's attainable and necessary for the progress of our people.

(melodious music) - [Narrator] 60 years after the founding of the Young Lords Organization, in September, 2023, a diverse group of activists and academics came together at DePaul University in service of reconciliation.

Cha Cha Jiménez, now in his 70s, was there to witness the university's plans to acknowledge the displacement of the Puerto Rican community.

- DePaul's gesture, to gift the city of Chicago and the Puerto Rican community the first historical marker honoring the origin of the movement, is an epic example of institutional reconciliation, reparative history, and amongst the most ascension gestures I've been able to witness in my time here.

(people applauding) - [Narrator] The marker was placed at the same building the Young Lords occupied in protest in 1969, now part of DePaul's campus.

- The historical marker is a tribute to the history of the Young Lords and the Puerto Rican community of Lincoln Park.

- This is a story about young people taking the reins of power to support their communities and meet their needs.

It's very easy to feel like all the problems are bigger than you and you can't make a difference.

And the heart of this story for me is, no, you absolutely can make a difference.

Collaboration, solidarity across groups, and respect, brought people together in a way that these young people were able to make change, and they're an exceptional example for young people today.

- [Narrator] As it was in Lincoln Park 60 years ago, gentrification is an ongoing concern for Chicago's Puerto Ricans.

But the Puerto Rican community is holding their ground in a neighborhood they have finally been able to lay claim to, Humboldt Park.

- You have a strip of land called Paseo Boricua, which is hard to miss.

You'll see nearly 60 foot tall Puerto Rican flags made of steel and iron.

Having literally these gigantic flags planted and saying, "If you're gonna move us, there's gonna be a fight for it.

We're not gonna repeat what happened in Lincoln Park."

They've learned a lot of lessons from that.

(people cheering) - [Narrator] Every June, Paseo Boricua hosts Chicago's Puerto Rican Day parade, part of a three-day extravaganza showcasing this proud and vibrant community.

- It's not just a big party with great food and great music, but it's a way to really intentionally engage the Puerto Rican community.

You can't help but be proud of your Puerto Ricanness.

- The legacy of the Young Lords, I think, is something that is very powerful.

The Puerto Rican youth that we impacted, we gave them like a springboard for them to continue, not with a feeling of being victims, but as being participants of the system that, you know, they have a right to enjoy.

- My father would say, "We're not done yet.

We'll let you know when we're done.

We're still going."

- What the Young Lords did is actually create a way for people to engage in politics in a very significant way.

It's a legacy that speaks to the making of a Latino political identity in the United States, and I think it's kind of cool that it was these kids from Lincoln Park that made it all happen.