The Centro gave the word early last January. In five tenements along West Newton Street in Boston's South End, the rent strike began. A handful of Puerto Ricans, nine families in all, refused to pay their rent until the slumlord brought the buildings up to Housing Code standards. He responded by turning off the heat one night in the apartment of one of the strikers and her four children. But they held on.

The strike on West Newton Street was a catalyst. It was a political awakening for Boston's six to seven thousand Puerto Ricans. Most of them had come straight from the island a year or two before; others had spent a few months in New York; they couldn't speak English; they had no idea of their rights or duties under American law; and, politically, they were helpless.

A year ago last May, a board of South End clergymen had acted to meet the problem. They hired Carmelo Iglesias, a Puerto Rican co-worker of Saul Alinsky in New Jersey, to organize the Spanish-speaking people of the South End, most of them Puerto Rican, into a force that could resist exploitation by slumlords and businessmen, attract federal help, and catch the wayward eye of City Hall.

After the rent strike, the reputation of the Centro de Accion (Action Center), Iglesias' organization, burgeoned. The people were angry now, and they began to notice the Centro's activities. The rat holes and broken sewer pipes in the five tenements had shocked Health Department officials so that they condemned the buildings, and the displaced families found homes which were at least a little better.

Iglesias and a new assistant, Alfredo DeJesus, picked education as the next mobilizing issue. Last spring they marched 40 children and their mothers down to the headquarters of SNAP (South End Neighborhood Action Program), the local branch of the War on Poverty. The group demanded that SNAP give them funds to start their own version of Head-start, a tutoring program for pre-school children. Reginald Eaves, director of SNAP, gave his consent, and appropriated $700 to pay for textbooks and supplies. Several mothers volunteered as teachers, and the "Action School" opened in a local church.

Off and Running

The Centro was off and running.

Meanwhile, the temper of another minority group in the South End and neighboring Roxbury--the Negroes--had infected the Puerto Ricans and the agencies that worked with them. Iglesias raised the cries of "Puerto Rican Power!" and "Self-government." While this might have seemed an excess of bravado for a man trying to mobilize 6,000 people, the agencies began to react.

First, SNAP got another visit. Seventy-five people, led by DeJesus, who has lived in the South End longer than almost any other Puerto Rican--18 years--stood in the street oustide SNAP's cramped offices and demanded that SNAP hire five Puerto Ricans. In September, three months later, the five began work.

SNAP's acquiescence has had unexpected and dismaying results for the Centro. Today Puerto Rican leaders still claim that they represent a united front aimed at organizing the people, but, in fact, competing centers of power are emerging and threatening that solidarity of purposes.

DeJesus has replaced Iglesias as head of the Centro. The old chief is now working for the Community Assembly for a United South End (CAUSE), a group formed last spring by Mel King, a Negro. CAUSE's goal is to bring Negroes and Puerto Ricans together for more grass-roots power.

DeJesus is a worthy successor. He knows the South End well, and since August, when he took over, the Centro has rapidly expanded its activities. Two weeks ago he and two of the five Puerto Ricans hired by SNAP, Ivan Gonzalez and Tony Molino, unveiled another acronym--APCROSS (Association Promoting Constitutional Rights of the Spanish-Speaking APCROSS is a corporation, which means that it can solicit federal and state funds for employment, housing, and health programs directly, without depending on SNAP. A power struggle over the control and scope of APCROSS seems to be shaping up.

"I learned that $37,000 was available from the Poverty Program for job development in the South End," says DeJesus. "I incorporated APCROSS to get this money and money in the future. APCROSS, which is really just the Centro with a different name, will take over all activities for the Puerto Ricans. SNAP will just take care of the Negroes."

Apartment Dreaming

Tony Molino, a short, slim, young man, has different ideas. "Ivan and I dreamed up APCROSS in my apartment. We invited Alfredo to join us later on. We want APCROSS to be completely independent of the Centro. The minister's board still pays Alfredo his salary, and we want to be free of any possible church influence. In fact, I can envision APCROSS ultimately taking control of the Centro."