The vision of El Puente as a welcoming, safe bridge, enjoining all of us to rise up together for peace and justice is rooted in the history of the Young Lords Party and the Young Christian Worker movement. Prior to Luis' founding of the Young Lords Party in Massachusetts, he, along with the core leadership of El Puente's initial development team was a "60's" activist member of the Young Christian Worker Movement (YCM). The YCM at Transfiguration R.C. Church was part of the worldwide Young Christian Worker Movement through which Paolo Freire, in Brazil, and others such as Gino, Frances, Judi and Daniel Agostini as well as Luis, in Williamsburg, learned what is now referenced as the "Freirian" principles of liberation. The principles, stemming from the Young Christian Worker practice and call to "see, judge and act" on behalf of one's own interest as a member of the oppressed and not on behalf of the dominant power structure's need or ideology, were the seeds that would later give rise to El Puente's mission.

Transfiguration Church, then (along with the legacy of the Young Lords) is the bedrock of the early development of El Puente. Not only did El Puente's mission emerge from the 60's culturally based, human rights activism of Transfiguration Church youth, but many of El Puente's young members in the early 80's sprang from the Transfiguration Church Youth Center as well as the Jornada movement at other Williamsburg Catholic churches such as All Saints, Epiphany, Most Holy Trinity, and St. Peter and Paul. After El Puente's opening on July 21, 1982, as winter crept in, El Puente was housed for over a year at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. By the mid-80's, the First Spanish Presbyterian Church was actively involved and, today, El Puente's Bushwick Center is anchored at St. Barbara's R.C. Church. El Puente's first center and its present headquarters is the former St. Mary's of the Angels R.C. Church.

Other members of the initial development team beyond Transfiguration and St. Peter and Paul Churches include the following:

• Eastern District YMCA (Wheel Project)
• The Door
• Greenpoint Hospital
• Habitantes Unidos
• Jonathan Williams Houses Community Center
• Johnny Colon East Harlem Music School
• Los Sures United Housing and Development Corporation
• Williamsburg Arts and Culture Council for Youth (WACCY)

Greenpoint Hospital (of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation) supported the staff of the development team and The Door took on the role of primary consultant in the design and initial development phase of EL PUENTE'S holistic program model.