Benjamin "Yellow Benjy" Melendez (August 3, 1952 – May 28, 2017) was best known for brokering the gang truce in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

and

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

(

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) in 1971. At that time, he was President of the

Ghetto Brothers The Ghetto Brothers were a gang and music group founded in New York City's South Bronx in the late 1960s with the motivation to uplift young Latino and Black men in their community. History Founded in New York City's South Bronx in the late 19 ...

, a mainly ethnically Puerto Rican South Bronx gang, and lead

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

ist of a musical group also known as the Ghetto Brothers. Melendez was heavily involved in the rise of Puerto Rican nationalist consciousness among

Nuyorican Nuyorican is a portmanteau word blending "New York" (or "Nueva York" in Spanish) and "Puerto Rican," referring to Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, their culture, or their descendants (especially those raised or currently livin ...

youth, having forged connections with the

Puerto Rican Socialist Party The Puerto Rican Socialist Party (, PSPR) was a Marxist and pro-independence political party in Puerto Rico seeking the end of United States of America control on the Hispanic and Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. It proposed a "democratic worke ...

. Melendez's family, including Melendez himself, were

Converso A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...

s (

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

crypto-Jews), practicing their religion in secret even in the 1970s while being part of a

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

community. Melendez was a subject in the 2015 documentary, '' Rubble Kings'', which depicts events leading up to and following the

Hoe Avenue peace meeting The Hoe Avenue peace meeting was an important gathering of gangs that took place in the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. stat ...

. Melendez died May 28, 2017, at the age of 64.Former Ghetto Brothers Gang Leader & Subject Of "Rubble Kings" Benjy Melendez Has Died
/ref>

Authored works

References

1952 births 2017 deaths Gang members American people of Puerto Rican descent Deaths from kidney disease {{NYC-stub