Former ASPIRA club members, or ASPIRANTES, as they are known, include ACLU's Anthony Romero, former Bronx Borough President and New York City democratic mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer and actor Jimmy Smits.
In 1974, the consent decree issued in PRLDEF’s suit Aspira v. New York City Board of Education became central to the United States’ establishment of bilingual education programs in schools across the country.
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The riots, directly and indirectly, inspired the creation of many Puerto Rican community organizations, such as the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago (SACC); the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO); the Bickerdike Revedelopment Corporation; and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ASPIRA Association.The primarily Puerto Rican national movement of the Young Lords was founded by Jose Cha Cha Jimenez and began officially on September 23, 1968; two years later.
As a member of Aspira and the student council he was a leader in struggles which ultimately led to the creation of the Roberto Clemente High School.