The Young Lords are widely recognized for having paved the way for the politicization of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland and for their entry into the Civil Rights Movement. This study repositions the dominant historical narrative to focus on the origins of the Young Lords Organization in the city of Chicago. Organizing around the issue of gentrification in a notoriously schematized city, the Chicago Young Lords adopted an educational strategy that was the pragmatic imperative of a trans-cultural and transnational social justice movement. The YLO newspaper was the principle crusader for their message of local and global justice and community empowerment. Its didactic content and revolutionary aesthetic stand out as part the affecting rhetorical strategy in their urgent call for Puerto Rican empowerment, coalition, local and global action. [Key words: Young Lords Organization, Chicago, Puerto Ricans, gentrification, civil rights, sixties]