Pablo Yoruba Guzmán’s life and lasting legacy honored at People’s Church in East Harlem
East Harlem, NY –A serious sancocho was made this past brisk Saturday afternoon in El Barrio. Every story told of a man who spoke for those who could not; who fought for Black and brown lives; who saw purpose in rainbows; who mentored, saved, and was saved; and who laughed mightily. “Pablo Yoruba Guzmán loved us!” said LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, author of the book “Village.” “He had more credentials on his pinky finger than anybody! He was Debbie’s lover and Sally’s son. Guzmán’s life is a star quilt,” added the Harlem-born and -bred poet.
The service opened with a mojuba (or moyuba) in the Yoruba language and Lukumi to praise God, the Orishas, and the ancestors. The spiritual invocation, led by Babalawo Baba Ifa Ade Awo, called Pablo Yoruba Guzmán by name to pay homage to his life’s works and now his ancestral legacy.
The service, helmed by Mickey Melendez, a lifelong friend and comrade of Guzmán, celebrated this activist-turned-New York broadcast icon. Despite the frigid cold, the service brought a cast of trailblazers, activists, cultural icons, and truth-telling leaders of radical and revolutionary love to East Harlem.
In the late 1960s, Melendez, Guzmán, and a small cadre of young activists were part of “the most consequential social, political, and cultural movement of our generation,” recalled Melendez, co-founder of the New York chapter of the Young Lords Party (YLP). Together, YLP members fought against systemic racism that was reflected in the lack of essential services rendered to Puerto Rican and Black American communities, compared to other parts of the city. The group spearheaded programs to provide health care, child care, and breakfast to underserved, poor, and working-class Black and Latino communities. The Young Lords also fought against police brutality, U.S. imperialism, and militarism.
“Pablo Yoruba Guzmán was an integral part of a generation that birthed, nurtured, and developed transformative intergenerational leadership in NYC and beyond,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of the social services organization UPROSE. “He best represented the brilliance and nimbleness of a strategic movement able to navigate through all the power structures created to ensure our undoing. The lessons are the foundation of my work in the climate justice movement.”
Juan González, also a lifelong friend and YLP co-founder, who shared his recorded remarks from Chicago, underscored Guzmán as a communications maverick who established an incredible rapport with New York media, which garnered unprecedented news coverage of YLP collective actions, such as the takeover of The People’s Church and Lincoln Hospital.
In his unwavering crusade against injustice, and over his lifetime as avocation and vocation converged, Guzmán earned the public’s trust. He both respected and understood the power of his platform. “In the tradition of the Young Lords, through his journalism, Guzmán served as a bridge among diverse communities,” reflected Wilson Valentin-Escobar, a professor at the New School and a co-curator of the “¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York” exhibit at Loisaida Center. “He understood the importance of listening and true dialogue, as well as the ethics and politics of speaking for and/or speaking with. There is activism in that!”
Friend and CBS reporter Tony Aiello uplifted Guzmán’s humanity and ability to get the best stories because of his empathy and connection to the people. He likened the late reporter to his namesake, Pablo, as in Picasso, for his ability to keep the essential and paint a narrative with words that was at once gripping and honest.
“Pablo cared about making the world a better place for everyone in it,” said attendee Rose Arce, vice president of former television news broadcaster Soledad O’Brien’s production company and a former CBS producer. “His legacy asks us to consider the people around you and lift up the most vulnerable,” she added.
Denise Oliver-Velez, the first woman to be elected to the YLP’s leadership board, the central committee, relayed the significance of their YLP cohort coming together at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Transfixed by her anecdotes, the audience shared in collective laughter when she said, “He left as Paulie Guzman and returned as Pablo Yoruba Guzmán!” when discussing how a transformational trip to Mexico decolonized Guzmán.
Among the first Afro Latinos in the largest and most influential media market, Guzmán embraced his identity as a Black man of Afro Caribbean heritage. In her closing remarks, Dr. Johanna Fernandez, author of “The Young Lords: A Radical History,” emphasized that he “built common cause with Black Americans and other oppressed people, and was among the notables present when the late Fred Hampton announced the Rainbow Coalition in Chicago.”
After a long private struggle with illness, the pioneering human and civil rights activist and beloved reporter died of a heart attack on Nov. 26, 2023. He is survived by his wife Debbie, mother Sally, children, and extended family.
To view Guzman’s service in its entirety, go to the People’s Church YouTube Channel at “Celebrating Pablo Yoruba Guzman (youtube.com)”
Neyda Martínez Sierra is an associate professor and director of the New School’s Media Management Graduate Program in the School of Media Studies, a Sundance Documentary Fellow, and a producer of the award-winning nonfiction films “LUCKY” and “Decade of Fire.” A contributor and member of the editorial board of NYU’s Latinx Project portal, Interventions, her article “Past is Present: The Young Lords Party Revisited” is featured online and in their latest print anthology.
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