{{Short description|Latinx and feminist activist}} '''Iris Morales''' (born 1948) is an American activist for Latino/a civil rights, filmmaker, author, and lawyer based in New York. She is best known for her work with the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican community activist group in the United States and her feminist movements within the organization.<ref name=":022">{{Cite web |last=Isaad |first=Virginia |date=2018-07-27 |title=Latina Reads: 12 Puerto Rican Writers Whose Books You Need To Add To Your Reading List |url=https://fierce.wearemitu.com/identities/latina-reads-12-puertorican-writers-whose-books-you-need-to-add-to-your-reading-list/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Fierce |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Latinas in the United States : a historical encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |others=Ruíz, Vicki., Sánchez Korrol, Virginia. |isbn=0-253-11169-2 |location=Bloomington |oclc=74671044}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Iris Morales was born in New York in 1948 to Puerto Rican migrant parents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iris Morales |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100208765 |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hobson |first=Janell |title=Women Creating Change: 1950-Present |url=https://www.albany.edu/faculty/jhobson/wss100/1950_present.html |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=University at Albany, State University of New York |archive-date=2021-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014045917/https://www.albany.edu/faculty/jhobson/wss100/1950_present.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her father worked as a hotel elevator operator, and her mother worked as a sewing machine operator.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Latino history and culture : an encyclopedia |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-78402-829-9 |editor=Leonard, David J. |location=Armonk, New York |oclc=891677645 |editor2=Lugo-Lugo, Carmen R.}}</ref> She went to Julia Richman High School, where she attended meetings of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the NAACP.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Thomas, Lorrin R. |title=Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights |author2=Lauria-Santiago, Aldo A. |date=29 September 2017 |isbn=978-1-351-67872-8 |edition=1st |location=Milton |oclc=1097153817}}</ref>
In high school, Morales was highly inspired by Malcolm X and Don Pedro Albizu Campos, because there was little understood about Puerto Rican history.<ref name=":42">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El2ngqPpAHg&list=TLGGOR4iGYmVfO4yMTAzMjAyMg |title=Las Mujeres Rebeldes - The Rebel Women with Iris Morales |date=2016-12-01 |last=Black Liberation Media |access-date=2025-03-03 |via=YouTube}}</ref> This, along social movements such as the Black Panther Party, inspired Morales to become an activist.<ref name=":42" /> As a teenager, she became a tenant rights organizer in her East Harlem neighborhood and protested the Vietnam War. She studied political science at City College, where she joined the Black student organization and co-founded Puerto Ricans Involved in Student Action (PRISA), the school's first Puerto Rican student organization.<ref name=":13">{{Cite news |last=Gonzalez |first=David |date=1996-10-16 |title=Young Lords: Vital in 60's, A Model Now |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/16/nyregion/young-lords-vital-in-60-s-a-model-now.html |access-date=2020-09-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":232">{{Cite web |last=Estevez |first=Marjua |date=2018-10-11 |title=The Revolutionary Latinx Who Brought Feminism to a 60s Leftist Group |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/iris-morales-feminist-latinx-young-lords/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas, Lorrin. |title=Puerto Rican citizen : history and political identity in twentieth-century New York City |date=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-79610-9 |location=Chicago |oclc=655231527}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Thomas, Lorrin |title=Puerto Rican citizen : history and political identity in twentieth-century New York City |date=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-79610-9 |location=Chicago |oclc=655231527}}</ref><ref name=":322">{{Cite web |date=2017-03-22 |title=Through the Eyes of Rebel Women with Iris Morales |url=https://www.fivecolleges.edu/calendar-of-events/listings/node/162536 |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Five College Consortium }}{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
== The Young Lords == alt=The Young Lords logo painted on a wall.|thumb|The Young Lords logo.The Chicago-based Young Lords, a leftist group of Puerto Rican youth activists inspired by the Black Panthers, established a branch in New York in 1969. Morales joined the group that year, after meeting Young Lords founder José Cha Cha Jiménez at a conference in Denver.<ref name=":232"/>
Her work as a leader in the Young Lords spanned five years in the 1960s and 1970s. She served as deputy minister of education and co-founder of its Women's Caucus.<ref name=":113">{{Cite web |date=2016-06-19 |title=Bio |url=https://irismoralesnyc.wordpress.com/biography/ |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=IRIS MORALES |language=en}}</ref> Morales served as minister of information for a period.<ref name=":522">{{Cite web |last=Cruz |first=Jermaine |date=1999-03-05 |title=Iris Morales, former minister of information for the Young Lords Party, will speak and show film at Cornell, March 13 |url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/03/iris-morales-former-minister-information-young-lords-party-will-speak-and-show-film |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Cornell Chronicle |language=en}}</ref> Morales resigned from the Young Lords, which was struggling with infighting and targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program, in 1975.<ref name=":722">{{Cite web |last=Parra |first=Daniel |date=2020-06-24 |title=Former Young Lords Reflect on Protests, Racism and Police Violence |url=https://citylimits.org/2020/06/24/former-young-lords-reflect-on-protests-racism-and-police-violence/ |access-date=2020-09-28 |website=City Limits |language=en-US}}</ref> The party effectively disbanded the following year.<ref name=":322"/>
=== Feminist movement === Morales worked to create a second revolution within The Young Lord's Party, seeking to deconstruct the patriarchal sexism that followed women at the beginning of their journey in the Young Lords Party.<ref name=":123">{{Cite web |date=2017-01-17 |title=1.17.17: Women of the Young Lords, Google's Impact on Hate, & A Quilter's Dilemma |url=https://www.nhpr.org/word-of-mouth/2017-01-17/1-17-17-women-of-the-young-lords-googles-impact-on-hate-a-quilters-dilemma |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=New Hampshire Public Radio |language=en}}</ref>
She along with other women of the Young Lords party disputed the machista values outlined in the 13-point program written and published by the Young Lords male members that ultimately supported machista views, pointing out the duality of their statements to that of the initiatives of The Young Lords Party.<ref name=":42"/>
Morales worked on political education and literacy efforts, as well as attempting to change the machista culture of the organization.<ref name=":232"/> She advocated for women's inclusion in leadership and helped co-found the Women's Union and its corresponding publication, ''La Luchadora''. Her work on women's representation in the Young Lords paved the way for the organization's pioneering lesbian and gay caucus.<ref name=":022"/><ref name=":62">{{Cite web |last=Nadal |first=Lenina |date=2017-04-17 |title=Lifting Up the Struggles of the Mujerxs of the Young Lords Party: Reflections on Iris Morales' Book |url=https://mijente.net/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Mijente |language=en}}</ref> On November 11, 1970, Iris Morales along with Denise Oliver, Nydia Mercado, and Lulu Carreras, were highlighted an article in The New York Times.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Klemesrud |first=Judy |date=1970-11-11 |title=Young Women Find a Place in High Command of Young Lords |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/11/archives/young-women-find-a-place-in-high-command-of-young-lords.html |access-date=2022-03-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> This feature was the first documentation and acknowledgment of women's involvement in the movement in the mainstream media.<ref name=":123" />
In addition to her fight for the feminist cause within the Young Lords, she also used her position in the organization to advocate for abortion access and against forced sterilizations, and an increase to birth control accessibility.<ref name=":62" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Martinez |first=Jael |date=2019-08-06 |title=50 Years Later, the Young Lords' Legacy Remains in East Harlem |url=https://remezcla.com/features/culture/young-lords-east-harlem-legacy/ |access-date=2020-09-28 |website=Remezcla |language=en-US}}</ref> The women's caucus continued to advocate for safer abortions for women of underrepresented backgrounds.<ref name=":123"/> Among the causes that the organization undertook during this period included establishing a free breakfast program for New York's youth, creating a lead poisoning prevention program, founding a daycare so Latina women could seek employment, and advocating for the decolonization of Puerto Rico.<ref name=":232"/>
==== ''La Luchadora'' ==== ''La Luchadora'' was a 12-point program that was written and co-founded by Iris Morales. The paper was an act to promote the history of women and their rights within the Young Lords Party at a time when women were rarely highlighted. ''La Luchadora'' contested against rape and violence that existed within and outside of the organization. The women's caucus used this platform as a way to remove themselves from the traditional roles of women in the kitchen, and ascend into positions of action. The program was discontinued by the Young Lords' leadership soon after its creation in May 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Castro |first=Giselle |date=2021-10-01 |title=Meet Iris Morales, Former Young Lords Leader and Latinx Rights Activist |url=https://www.popsugar.com/node/48503003 |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=POPSUGAR Latina |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=AboutYoungLords |url=http://palante.org/AboutYoungLords2.htm |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=palante.org}}</ref>
== Further education and career == After the dissolution of the Young Lords, Morales continued her Latina feminist activism and pursued a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law.<ref name=":422">{{Cite web |title=Iris Morales |url=http://www.redsugarcanepress.com/authors/iris-morales/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Red Sugarcane Press |language=en-US}}</ref> At NYU, she became the first Puerto Rican to receive the highly competitive Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship, a full-tuition public service scholarship.<ref name=":232"/>
As a lawyer, she worked as an attorney and director of education at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1996-10-18 |title=The Puerto Rican Civil Rights Movement |url=http://www.democracynow.org/1996/10/18/the_puerto_rican_civil_rights_movement |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Democracy Now! |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":13"/> She was also a co-founder and the executive director of the New Educational Opportunities Network, a media nonprofit serving young people of color, which was defunded after five years.<ref name=":522"/><ref name=":14" /> She later worked with Manhattan Neighborhood Network's community media center in Spanish Harlem<ref name=":322"/><ref name=":10">{{Cite web |date=2017-01-31 |title=Iris Morales: Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords: 1969-1976 |url=https://womenscenter.unc.edu/event/iris-morales-eyes-rebel-women-young-lords-1969-1976/ |access-date=2020-09-28 |website=Carolina Women's Center |language=en-US}}</ref> and served as director of the Union Square Awards, a city government project recognizing grassroots activists.<ref name=":522" />
Morales returned to school again and earned an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.<ref name=":422"/>
=== Writing === Morales continued her activism through literature, founding Red Sugarcane Press to publish works relating to the Latinx community.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-18 |title=Iris Morales Presents Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords Party |url=https://rax.rochester.edu/s/1676/21/1col.aspx?sid=1676&gid=2&pgid=11454&cid=17548&ecid=17548&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=14444 |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=University of Rochester |language=en}}</ref>
Morales wrote ''Through The Eyes Of Rebel Women, The Young Lords: 1969-1976,'' a book that focuses on her experiences in the feminist movement within the Young Lords Party.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Shanice |date=2016-12-05 |title=Iris Morales Gives Voice To Women Of The Young Lords 'Through The Eyes Of Rebel Women' |url=https://www.vibe.com/features/viva/iris-morales-through-the-eyes-of-rebel-women-471613/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=VIBE.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The book was published through Red Sugarcane Press, Morales' personal small publishing house, in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simón |first=Yara |date=2016-11-29 |title='Through the Eyes of Rebel Women' Tells the Stories of the Female Members of the Young Lords |url=https://remezcla.com/culture/through-the-eyes-of-rebel-women/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Remezcla |language=en-US}}</ref> This project allowed Morales reflect on the experiences of being a part of the party, both the pleasant and unpleasant ones alike.<ref name=":102">{{Cite web |date=2017-01-31 |title=Iris Morales: Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords: 1969-1976 |url=https://womenscenter.unc.edu/event/iris-morales-eyes-rebel-women-young-lords-1969-1976/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222200047/https://womenscenter.unc.edu/event/iris-morales-eyes-rebel-women-young-lords-1969-1976/ |archive-date=2017-02-22 |access-date=2020-09-28 |website=Carolina Women's Center |language=en-US}}</ref> Morales' intentions for her book are that many are not only able to learn about the history of The Young Lords women but continue to learn lessons that continue to be applicable to the modern activist movements.<ref name=":123"/>
Her other works include the anthologies ''Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century'' and ''Voices From Puerto Rico: Post-Hurricane Maria/ Voces desde Puerto Rico.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Urbina-Ruiz |first=Nicole-Antoinette |date=2022-05-24 |title=Wafi Media's Latino Top Book Recommendations |url=https://todowafi.com/literature/2022/05/24/wafi-medias-latino-top-book-recommendations/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Todo Wafi |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-04 |title=El Pueblo Se Levanta Ayer & Hoy (The People Are Rising Then & Now) |url=https://pioneerworks.org/programs/el-pueblo-se-levanta-ayer-y-hoy |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Pioneer Works}}</ref> She also published a children's book, ''Vicki and A Summer of Change! ¡Vicki y un verano de cambio!,'' with co-author Raquel M. Ortiz. The story focuses on the main character, Vicki, who is determined to make a change in her community by joining the Young Lord's Party and serving her community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pagan |first=Paige |date=2021-10-09 |title=Vicki and A Summer of Change! ¡Vicki y un verano de cambio! |url=https://socialjusticebooks.org/vicki-and-a-summer-of-change-2/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Social Justice Books |language=en-US}}</ref>
Morales has contributed to recent scholarship on the history of the Young Lords, writing forwards for ''The Young Lords: A Reader'' in 2010 and ''Palante: Young Lords Party'' in 2011.<ref name=":232" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=The Young Lords |url=https://nyupress.org/9780814722428/the-young-lords |access-date=2020-09-28 |website=NYU Press |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":722" />
=== Filmmaking === In 1996, Morales directed the documentary ''Palante Siempre Palante'' to educate new audiences about the Young Lords Party.<ref name=":14">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3od8Bnmt40 |title=Afternoon Tertulia: Iris Morales ¡Palante, Siempre Palante! |date=2022-03-18 |last=Center for Puerto Rican Studies-Centro |access-date=2025-03-03 |via=YouTube}}</ref>
Morales appeared in the 2021 ''New York Times'' documentary ''Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care'', about the 1970 Lincoln Hospital takeover through which the Young Lords requested proper funding and infrastructure to respond to overwhelming health care needs, a local tuberculosis epidemic, and other issues.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_ALMA1NMk |title=How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care {{!}} Takeover {{!}} Op-Docs |date=2021-10-12 |last=The New York Times |access-date=2025-03-03 |via=YouTube}}</ref>
== Recognition == {{Wikiquote}} In 2019 Iris Morales was named one of North Star Fund's 40 for 40.<ref>{{Cite web |title=North Star Fund's 40 for 40 |url=https://northstarfund.org/40yearsbold/40-for-40/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=North Star Fund |date=17 April 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2020, she was honored as a Latina Trailblazer by LatinoJustice PRLDEF.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-11 |title=2020 Latina Trailblazers Honoree: Iris Morales |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylVYaLp9te0 |website=Latinojustice PRLDEF on YouTube}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Young Lords|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morales, Iris}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Activists for Hispanic and Latino American civil rights Category:Civil rights activists from New York (state) Category:American documentary filmmakers Category:American feminists Category:American women writers Category:City College of New York alumni Category:Hunter College alumni Category:New York University School of Law alumni Category:People from East Harlem Category:Puerto Rican documentary filmmakers Category:Puerto Rican feminists Category:Puerto Rican human rights activists Category:Puerto Rican women activists Category:Puerto Rican women writers Category:American women civil rights activists Category:Young Lords