Pablo Guzman, who shifted from a leader of the Puerto Rican activist group called the Young Lords to a respected reporter at WCBS New York, has died in New York at 73. He had suffered from cardiac arrest.
Paul Guzmán was born in Manhattan in 1950. His family moved to the South Bronx during his childhood. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science in 1968, then enrolled at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. He also studied in Mexico, where he became more interested in activism, and started going by the name Pablo.
Guzman was part of an activist group called Sociedad de Albizu Campos, which turned into the Young Lords in 1969.
Co-founded by Guzman, the Young Lords constructed mounds of trash, and lit them on fire to protest inconsistent garbage pickup. They briefly occupied a hospital in the Bronx and turned it into a free clinic, The New York Times reported. They took over a church and offered free breakfast to children.
Sanford Garelik, who was New York City Council president, called the group “terrorists.”
Guzman was minister of communication for the Young Lords. He presented lively press conferences and developed close relationships with reporters.
He spent nine months in federal prison in Florida for resisting the draft, then returned to New York in 1974 to find the Young Lords with a new name, the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Party, and a new focus. He departed the organization, and it soon disbanded.
Guzman then wrote for The Village Voice and hosted radio shows, before becoming a reporter for WNEW New York, which during his run became Fox affiliate WNYW.
He moved to WNBC before a long run at WCBS, from 1996 to 2013, as senior correspondent. “Avuncular, witty and erudite, he was at home interviewing children and mobsters, sanitation men and diplomats,” said the Times.
Guzman married Debbie Corley in 1990. She survives him, as do their two children.
