 | |
| Founded | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Jorge Batista, Victor Marrero, Cesar A. Perales |
| Focus | Using law, advocacy and education to protect opportunities for all Latinos to succeed |
| Location | |
| Origins | Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund |
Key people | Juan Cartagena, President & General Counsel (2011–2021) Lourdes Rosado (2021–present) |
| Website | http://www.latinojustice.org/ |
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, long known by its former name the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, is a New York–based national civil rights organization with the goal of changing discriminatory practices via advocacy and litigation. Privately funded, nonprofit and nonpartisan, it is part of the umbrella Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund was founded in 1972 by three lawyers, one of whom, Cesar A. Perales, became the president of the group for much of its history. PRLDEF played a key role in the installation of bilingual education in New York City schools, and soon became the most important legal advocacy group for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland. The group became known for the part it played in redistricting battles, for its opposition to civil service exams it thought discriminatory, and for its attempts to combat anti-Latino sentiment especially as arising from the debate over immigration to the U.S. It changed its name to the current one in 2008 in order to reflect demographic shifts in the Latino population in New York and elsewhere.