Newark ’74: From Rebellion to Excellence
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Newark’s Puerto Rican Rebellion of 1974
Listen to Dr. Mercedes Valle
speak on her experience growing up in 1950’s Newark
AR: “Can you tell us a little more about your experience in school? Did you run into a lot of other Latinos?”
MV: “When I went to school in Newark, there were not a lot of Latinos. When we started school, there were not a lot of Latinos. We lived on the first floor on Mulberry Street in Newark, and there was another Latino family on the second floor. They had already been in school, and they were much more situated. So, I have to say that they helped us a lot in terms of understanding the school system. They would lend me books to read. They would help us a lot because we didn’t speak English the first year. We were home most of the time.”
“Being in school, I did feel different. Most of the population was Italian at that time in Newark. Some of them were nice. Other people were prejudiced, and they did not seek us out a lot or anything. With that family on the second floor, that support system that I felt we had, that really made a difference for us, for my brother and my sister, who were also struggling with the new culture and in a place that–Newark at that time, that was in the late ’50s, was very racist.”
CITATION: Valle, Mercedes. Oral History Interview, July 13, 2018, by Aziel Rosado, Page 3, Rutgers Oral History Archives.
Online: https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/valle_mercedes.pdf (Last Accessed: September 6, 2024).
Listen to Dr. Mercedes Valle
speak on witnessing the Newark 1974 Puerto Rican Riot
AR: “This is kind of fast forwarding, were you around for the Newark Puerto Rican Riots of 1974?”
MV: “Yes, I lived here in Newark at the time of the riots, and I saw a lot of destruction. I belonged to a group in Newark, too, another youth Latino, Puerto Rican youth group that started with Ramon Rivera, who was the founder of La Casa, which is one of the largest Latino organizations in the country now. They provide a lot of social services. He was the founder. We organized, and we would go out and do different protests during the riots. So, I saw a lot of destruction in Newark. It was kind of a scary time, too, but people were out there.”
AR: “When they first occurred, did you know why specifically or what specifically was going on, because there was a lot going on at the time?”
VR: “Well, we knew that there was a lot of discrimination in Newark because Newark also was not a Latino city like it is now, or African American. Back then in Newark, it was predominantly a Jewish community. All the stores, Downtown Newark, Springfield Avenue were predominantly Jewish. Everything was really whites. Puerto Ricans and African Americans had no power here. You could see the signs that people wrote on the walls, “A brother,” all the different slogans. A lot of places had to close down. It became a dead city after a while because what happened was everybody moved out. Everybody became terrified. They left the city; we stayed.”
CITATION: Valle, Mercedes. Oral History Interview, July 13, 2018, by Aziel Rosado, Page 6-7, Rutgers Oral History Archives.
Online: https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/valle_mercedes.pdf (Last Accessed: September 6, 2024).
Listen to Robert Mercado
speak on growing up in Newark, NJ.
AM: “You mentioned briefly how Newark has changed, but what was it like when you were growing up? Were there many Latinos? What was the population, if you can remember?”
RM: “When we moved to Summer Avenue, we were one of two Hispanic families. It was a predominantly white area, at the time, and we were the second Hispanic family on the block. Then, as the years passed, [there were] more Latinos and, in particular, more Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans were the most Hispanics that lived in the North Ward. Then, it was Cubans, and then slowly, you have Dominicans, and then, over the years, you had a more diverse Central and Southern American population.”
CITATION: Mercado, Robert. Oral History Interview, November 19, 2021, by Aryana Mercado, Page 2, Rutgers Oral History Archives.
Online: https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/mercado_robert.pdf (Last Accessed: September 6, 2024).
Listen to Robert Mercado
speak on the changing demographics in North Newark
AM: “You said it was a predominantly white neighborhood growing up. Did that, at all, affect how you were growing up, or was it quickly changed to Puerto Ricans?”
RM: “In the beginning, when we moved there–over the first like five, ten years–there were very few Latinos, and we were subject to–I won’t say racist behavior–but we weren’t always welcomed in certain neighborhoods. We worked in Carvel Ice Cream, for example. My brothers and I all worked at this particular ice cream spot in the town next to us, which is Belleville, which is right next to North Newark. That was a predominately white neighborhood as well, and we were always subject to verbal and adverse behaviors by the community, by the police. They were not welcoming to Hispanics at that time. Over the years, the neighborhood began to change, and then, we began to see more Hispanics, more African Americans, and slowly, the white population began to leave, and then, we began to see an influx of Latino population.”
CITATION: Mercado, Robert. Oral History Interview, November 19, 2021, by Aryana Mercado, Page 3, Rutgers Oral History Archives.
Online: https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/mercado_robert.pdf (Last Accessed: September 6, 2024).
Listen to Juan Cartagena, Esq.
speak on police discrimination
“Do you know how many arrests result in no conviction? You know how many people get arrested for no reason at all? In the streets of [New] Jersey? For no reason. I’ve been picked up for no reason, literally picked up off the streets of Jersey City, just walking with a basketball under my arm in gym shorts and a t-shirt; picked up off the streets, like most Latinos and blacks in the City of Jersey City. Picked up, taken to a precinct, spent about four hours in a precinct, then finally let go when they realized that I was who I was. When I told them who I am, you know—I am not a druggy I am just—I was four blocks from my house. I was walking to a basketball court with my nephew, of all things, and when I finally—I didn’t have I.D., porque [because] who goes to—¿quién tiene una cartera? [who carries a wallet] when they go to play basketball, right? So uh, they insisted that I send somebody. So I had to call my house and had to ask one of my nephews—older nephews—to bring my I.D. So he finally came with an I.D.; and they finally let me go.”
Listen to Juan Cartagena, Esq.
speak on social movements during the ’60s
“By the time I got into high school, however, that was a turning point because I went to a public high school that was in a racially mixed and changing—very fastly changing—urban environment so the whole revolution of the sixties was visited upon my high school—the same way it was visited upon the rest of urban America. By the time I left high school, my high school was 60 percent Puerto Rican. There was no way anybody was gonna mess with us ’cause we were big. And we were not only big but we were big and proud of who we were, and we were active. So we would protest anything and everything and, and speak up against injustices. Uh, the whole black power movement was—it enormously affected me because my friends, well most of my friends, were black. Uh, a half of my friends were white but even the white friends that we all had knew our struggle because they heard it from us.”
Listen to Carmen L. Martínez
speak on how protests against police brutality evolved into the Puerto Rican Riot in Camden, NJ
“I think people blame the Puerto Rican community for that [the riots]. I was there the day the riots started. We were… across the street. We were right in [front of] City Hall. I’ll tell you what happened. I don’t know if you know that what happened [to spark the riots] was that this man was stopped for a ticket violation and the cops, two cops beat him up and he died as a result. And the Puerto Rican community wanted… the mayor to do some[thing], or [for] the police to do something about those two cops; because people who are decent people, like law–abiding people, saw… that [the police officers] were beating on this man. So… we all formed a group and… met with the mayor, and the mayor [Joseph M. Nardi, Jr.]… didn’t want to do anything.
And then… I remember that day there was a whole group of people in front of City Hall. I was there with one of the girls whose father was a Freeholder. And we just went there. I mean, if it was going to be a riot people wouldn’t have [brought] babies and carriages and all. It was a group, it was peaceful. But… we saw these cops [wearing] helmets and [gas] masks going in through the back. And then… it seemed like one guy went into this restaurant and he came back and he said something, and I remember the [bull] horns [saying], “Don’t, don’t pay attention! ¡No le hagan atención [don’t pay any attention]! Stay where you are, stay where you are!” All of a sudden cops came out throwing tear gas.
And… I was there that day and that was…not [meant] to be, este, un riot. How was it [that] it came [from a group] that… felt [something] should have been done [about] these policemen [and their brutality]”