Beating the Barrio: Piri Thomas and "Down These Mean Streets"

Author(s): James B. Lane

Source: The English Journal, Vol. 61, No. 6 (Sep., 1972), pp. 814-823
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/813983
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 Beating the Barrio:
Piri Thomas and Down These Mean Streets

James B. Lane

Department of History
Indiana University Northwest
Gary, Indiana

inner conflict facing a youth who hoped

PIRI phy,
Thomas' provocative
Down These Meanautobiogra-
Streets, to achieve self-esteem and respect in this
dramatically captured and transmitted environment without succumbing to vio-
the reality of growing up in the Puerto lence, drugs, cynicism, or other alluring
Rican "Barrio" district of New York but debilitating antidotes to soothe his
during the 1940s and 1950s. Graphically rage or allay his sense of nobodyness.
the author etched the panorama ofInEast the 1960s most Americans still had a
Harlem, the color and noises and passions
fragmented image of Puerto Ricans, even
and moods that coalesced among its though
teem- large-scale immigration from San
Juan and its surrounding villages had
ing tenements. With its bustle and bluster
and deadening sameness, the Barriobeen
wasunderway for more than a genera-
both liberator and enslaver and was the tion. The newcomers were feared as
scene of daily tragedies and small tri-
strangers, known incorrectly from vi-
sions conjured up in movies such as
umphs, of pyrrhic conquests and frustra-
tions.' West Side Story and abstractly viewed
A testimony of almost total recall,
en masse or in superficial stereotype as an
Down These Mean Streets captured the
emotional, gregarious, impulsive, scary,
sensual people. Social scientists tried to
IPiri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets bridge this gap of understanding by dis-
(New York: Knopf, 1967). A Signet paperbackcovering normative traits and cultural
edition has been published by New American patterns of behavior by which to de-
Library. All subsequent page references are toscribe New York's Puerto Rican com-
this edition.
Thomas, whose full name is John Peter munity with coherence and clarity. Yet
Thomas, refers to himself as "Piri" throughouttoo often the conclusions of the experts
the book. "Barrio" means village, locality, or failed to reduce the haziness, and their
district. Extending from 97th Street to 125th
Street and from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue, its subjects remained two-dimensional card-
center in Manhattan was around 110th Street board characters.
and Lexington Avenue. Oscar Lewis' La Vida, the best an-
814

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 PIRI THOMAS AND DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS 815

thropological study of curly

Puerto Rican
haired, intense Porty-Ree-can-Un-
immigrants, constructedsatisfied,
a "culture ofand always reaching."
hoping,
poverty" model of more Cynical
than seventy
enough to realize that survival
behavioral traits common meant
to the poor in
"copping for himself," he never-
theless revealedNei-
capitalistic and colonized countries. ambitions which tran-
ther simplistic nor burdened with
scended his moral
background; and his writing
mixed bitterness
judgments, La Vida is largely with humor. An Amer-
a collec-
tion of personal, taped caseican-born
histories son that
of immigrant parents,
reveal both positive and negative mani-
whose close-knit home was threatened by
festations of the culture of poverty.
poverty and prejudice, Piri was wracked
Nevertheless, the reminiscences with racialare
insecurities
less and a confused
intimate and personal than Down Thesesense of self. He loved his father but
Mean Streets, which is a lamented remembrance that the parent had to work
without middleman that both corrobo- like a mule and had come to question his
rates and proves the exception to Lewis'
own worth. He worshipped his mother
culture of poverty model. Ironic, butun- thought her reveries about Puerto
apologetic, and realistic, Piri Thomas'
Rico and her ethical and religious ad-
book contains the confusions and subtle- monitions were irrelevant to his own
ties and ambiguities that are the stuff of life. Molded more by the street with its
human life and at times defy categoriza- gangs and thieves and junkies, Piri in his
tion.2 adolescence continually strove for recog-
nition as a man, "un hombre." Success
PIRIbustible
Thomas' personality was a com- with
mixture of unique instincts,
one's peers meant having machismo
or heart and maintaining "rep" or status
parental and cultural values, and environ- by being unafraid of any new experi-
mental attitudes adapted to survive and ence (pp. 9-10).
achieve a sense of manhood in East Piri had ambivalent feelings toward the
Harlem. In a prolog, the author intro- Barrio. It was a lively, homey enclave in
duced himself as a "skinny, dark-face, the midst of the cold, hostile world of
New York City. And yet it was like an
2Following is a partial list of books on aspects
unclean prison where he and his family
of the Puerto Rican immigrant experience
which are relevant to the themes of Down had to share space with rats and roaches
These Mean Streets. Christopher Rand, The in squalid tenements which were swelter-
Puerto Ricans (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1958); Oscar Lewis, La Vida: A Puerto ing in the summertime and frigid in
Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty-San winter. The poetic prolog evoked the
Juan and New York (New York: Random paradoxical moods of love and hate,
House 1965); Oscar Lewis, A Study of Slum anger and hope, gaiety and melancholy
Culture: Backgrounds for La Vida (New York: that reoccur and conflict with one an-
Random House, 1968); Elena Padilla, Up From
Puerto Rico (New York: Columbia University other throughout the book. He likened
Press, 1958); Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. his neighborhood to "a great big dirty
Moynihan, Beyond the Melting Pot, SecondChristmas tree with lights but no f-----*
Edition (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1970); Pa- presents." The streets glittered after dark
tricia C. Sexton, Spanish Harlem (New York:
with bright colors and were alive with
Harper & Row, 1965); C. Wright Mills, Clar-
ence Senior, and Rose K. Goldsen, Puerto the sounds of "cars and curses" and "joys
and sobs that make music," he continued.
Rican Journey (New York: Russell & Russell,
1967); Oscar Handlin, The Newcomers (Cam- The night temporarily hid the "garbage-
bridge: Harvard University Press, 1959); Law-lepered streets," ameliorated the hurt and
rence R. Chenault, The Puerto Rican Migrant
in New York City (New York: Columbia *Editor's Note: This version of the word is the
editor's, not that of Thomas or of the author
University Press, 1938); Dan Wakefield, Island
in the City (New York: Corinth Books, 1959). of this article.

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816 ENGLISH JOURNAL

the numbness and made "clean the unmoved by his return and even unaware
dirty-
faced kids." The Barrio's climate, so that he had left. He "hadn't even worked
turbulent and visceral to the emotions,up a sweat," the boy lamented. But on
was fundamentally hostile to self-reflec-another occasion, when Piri was hos-
tion or contemplation. Suspicious of the pitalized from a fight, his father bought
outside world, Piri accepted the bravado him a pair of roller skates (pp. 14-18,
22-23, 31-33, 47).
life-style of the street, savoring its ex-
citment and accepting its dangers. The Mrs. Thomas saw it to be her tradi-
Barrio was both a secure haven and an tional duty to provide her children with
enchanting prison. Only after leaving ample
its amounts of affection and moral
boundaries did he discover himself. and ethical advice. Unlike her husband
she
Ironically, he identified and resolved hisdid not begrudge Piri his dark skin.
In subtle ways she encouraged him both
inner confusions first while living amid
condescending whites in the sterile to be deferent to his elders and manly
suburbs of Long Island, then on awith triphis peers, but she suffered in agony
into the South with a black friend when
and, he came home bloodied from a
finally, in the enforced isolation fight.
of a After an Italian youth blinded Piri
temporarily
prison cell. In each case Piri desired to with gravel, his father
return to his old neighborhood (pp. wanted
9-10, to know the details of the story
18, 294-310). in order to wreak revenge, whereas his
mother's reaction was to get him to a
P IRI'S father,
sullen a hardworking,
man who proud,
seemed distant and
hospital without delay. Piri's relationship
with his mother was open and even flirta-
unknowable to his son, bore the scars tious,
and in contrast to the invisible wall that
ravages of the Great Depression. During
separated him from his father. Once. after
Piri slammed the door, his mother told
the 1930s he drifted from job to dreary
job digging ditches, going on and offhim to reenter the house properly. Exag-
relief and finally finding temporary gerating
fi- his care the second time, his skit
nancial security in an airplane factory
caused his mother to explode with laugh-
when World War II began. Short- ter. Piri wrote: "I joined her and we just
tempered from overwork and on the
laughed and laughed. I kissed her and
went into the back room feeling her
verge at times of fleeing the family which
he loved but could not provide properlyfull-of-love words floating after me."
Then he called out: "Hey, Moms, how
for, he was like a caged bull, frightened,
come you're so pretty, eh? How come,
frightening, fierce, and vulnerable. Dur-
ing the infrequent moments wheneh?"
he (p. 28).
played games with his five children, he
P IRI'S mother instilled in him
was "the best Pops in the whole world, a ro-
even though [he] don't understand usmantic temperament and an idealized
vision of womanhood as a virginal and
too good." But he seemed to resent Piri,
whose dark skin resembled his own, and
sheltered state. She taught him that the
physical and psychological frigidity of
treated him less warmly than the other,
New York, the "snow in the hearts of
light-skinned children. In vain Piri
sought his father's attention and respect,
people," was an unnatural state of affairs,
by a cute joke that went unappreciatedforeign to their homeland of Puerto Rico.
or by holding his breath under waterAnd ineven though Piri could identify less
with his mother's "isla verde" than with
the bathtub as "Pops" walked out of the
"Jack Armstrong, the All-American
room. Once, after being thrashed un-
Boy," his favorite radio program, still he
fairly, Piri ran away from home, hoping
shared her dreams vicariously and eagerly
to worry his father. But the parent was

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 PIRI THOMAS AND DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS 817

through their
returned her outward expressions open windows or make
of love.
Later he became infatuated with a love under half-drawn shades." The
beautiful, willowy, recently arrived im- of parks and playgrounds in East
paucity
migrant named Trina. He called her his demonstrated that the city plan-
Harlem
Marine Tiger after the ship ners whichprovided more room for automobiles
brought her to Ellis Island. Even than
though
for children. Filling the streets, back
Piri could not resist taking dope and and vacant lots were rebellious,
alleys,
dancing close with other girls ungovernable
in her boys and young men who,
in girl
presence and impregnating another the words of Patricia Cayo Sexton,
were "too old to be told what to do and
in her absence, still he resented anything
that stained her moral purity. It exas-
who, in their tragic idleness, have a way
of teaching 'bad things' to the young or
perated him when she became intoxicated
getting
at a party. "I really dig her. She ain't hip in trouble with other ethnic
and that's what I like," he declared. In
groups." Fear permeated the lives of the
his imagination she was his perfect foil,
more cautious Barrio residents, impairing
religious, white, patient, and old-fash-
their health and ability to work, coloring
ioned. Declining to touch her sexually
their trust of other people and tempering
before marriage, he explained, "I their
hadn'tspontaneity (Spanish Harlem, pp.
18-19, 116).
copped her. I wanted her, but I wanted
her right-church, white dress, the whole
bit. She was the one thing the T HIS subculture
streets of the slum was can-
weren't gonna make the mean way" (p. cerous on the primary institutional
19-22, 113-114, 162-63, 212). bonds of society such as the family, the
Child-rearing was fraught with church,ir-
the school, the community, and
reconcilable difficulties, Mrs. Thomas the government. The social disorganiza-
realized to her chagrin. The traits neces- tion of the ghetto bred cynicism, hatred
sary for survival in the Barrio, indepen- of authority, confused identity, inability
dence and a strong sense of ego, were the to defer pleasure, and violent impulsive-
most vulnerable in that impoverished ness. Piri suffered further from confused
setting. In Puerto Rico, community and senses of racial and national identity. Yet
work-group ties eased the parental bur- in A Study of Slum Culture, anthropolo-
den of control, and the values of familial gist Oscar Lewis concluded that the
respect and propriety seemed compatible Puerto Rican family had surprising "for-
with the peer-group values of masculinity titude, vitality, resilience and ability to
and manliness. But the culture of the cope with problems which would para-
street taught disobedience and disregard lyze many middle-class individuals. It
for customs and sensitivities. A Barrio takes a great deal of staying power to
maxim claimed that New York turned live in their harsh and brutalizing envi-
youngsters into savages, women into
ronment. They are a tough people, but
shameless and arrogant bitches, and menthey have their own sense of dignity and
morality and they are capable of kind-
into irresponsible rascals. By some stan-
dards, Piri's actions on the street seemed
ness, generosity, and compassion . . .
savage or barbaric, even though heTheir re-deepest need is for love, and their
life is a relentless search for it" (p. 49).
tained an enduring respect for his mother.
He was happiest and felt most free whenThis is an apt description of the Thomas
household.
he was fighting or acting cool or "spitting
Religion seemed irrelevant to Piri ex-
out of tenement windows at unsuspecting
people below, popping off with slingcept at junctures when he needed luck
shots, or even better, with Red Ryder
or supernatural support in order to escape
a predicament. In the Puerto Rican com-
BB rifles, watching the neighbors fight

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 818 ENGLISH JOURNAL

munity, religionbelieved wasthat almost the

uncaring teachers weresole
un-
province of womenworthy and the
of their elderly.
elevated Piri's
status. Indicative
mother was a Seventh Day Adventist,
of the unimportance of school in Piri's a
member of a Protestant sect which made life is the fact that he hardly mentioned
up in fervor what it lacked in size to theit in Down These Mean Streets except
Catholic church to which most Puerto
for an occasional unpleasant anecdote.
Ricans belonged. Once when Piri came
One morning he struck a sullen-faced
lady who refused to allow him to use the
home bloodied from a fight, she told him
that Jesus taught nonviolence. "Sure,bathroom. Fleeing the building with the
Momma," he answered sardonically.principal
In in close pursuit, he found refuge
police custody after being seriously
in his tenement house. A formidably-
wounded in a gun battle, he waved away built black woman who lived below him
forced the principal to back down and
a priest, saying that he was not a Catholic
or anything else. Yet he prayed that depart.
his Not until he entered prison did
victim survive his bullet wounds. In jailPiri discover the excitement of formal
he temporarily joined the Muslim faith learning (pp. 70-73).
and took the Arab name Hussein Afmit
Ben Hassen. But, during a nervous break- P IRI had no interest in government
down, he unthinkingly recited the Lord's except for those institutions which
Prayer rather than a Muslim liturgy affected
to him in a direct way, such as
regain his balance and keep from "flip- relief agencies and the police. Concerning
ping" and "blowing my top." Afterward the Works Project Administration, the
he concluded, "Guess I've been a Chris- New Deal relief program, he said cyni-
cally: "If a man was poor enough, he
tian too long." Awaiting a parole hearing,
he knelt and "asked the Big Man to over-could dig ditches for the government."
look my blanks and to make a cool way After his father lost his WPA job on
for me .... Maybe I won't be an angel, account of fighting with the foreman,
Piri and his mother applied for Home
but I do know I'll try not to be a blank,"
he promised. Once out of jail, however, Relief. While he served as an interpreter
for his mother, he was sickened and
he had less need for the serenity and com-
fort of God. Rather he needed "to feel embittered by the patronizing and suspi-
the street, and smell it and hold it be-cious demeanor of the governmental
tween the fingers of my heart." Religion bureaucrats. The Home Relief office put
seemed an unwanted obligation which he the Thomas family on a steady diet of
again discarded for a time (pp. 36, 228,welfare corned beef. At a pet store Piri
277, 286, 301-04). traded these and other rejected cans for
pigeons which the family found more
Despite his mother's hopes that edu-
cation become an avenue to success for edible than the corned beef. World War
him, Piri viewed school as a fraudulent
II brought some economic relief, causing
bore. "School stunk," he decided, "only
Piri to write sarcastically: "A lousy rum-
chumps worked and studied." Viewing ble had to get called so we could start to
most instructors with antipathy, he live better. I thought, "How do you
wrote: "I hated the crispy look of the
figure this crap out?" Franklin D. Roose-
velt was no savior to him (pp. 18-23,
teachers and the draggy-long hours they
took out of my life from nine to three- 47-54).
thirty." Piri's parents, like most PuertoEach time that his family moved to a
Ricans, thought of teachers as surrogatenew apartment in Spanish Harlem, Piri
parents whom their children should treathad to undergo a ritualistic confrontation
with deference. But they did not want with the local gang, usually by battling
its strongest member. A fourteen-year-
them to beat their sons and daughters and

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 PIRI THOMAS AND DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS 819

old newcomer to 104th Street, mused about

he hadthe tortured
to world that en-
fight Waneko, the leader of gulfed himTNT's,
the and blew him about. He com-
in a manner that would impress his street
pared the mean op- to a clip machine
ponent without humiliating him.
which takes After
and takes and "keeps taking,
successfully holding his till own, hea bade
it makes cat feel like every day is
the neighborhood to movesomething over and that's gotta be forgotten."
lift
its wings to gather him in Nevertheless,
because, he inadded
his that "there's good
words, "I'm one of yourthings, baby too,chicks
man. Like standing together
now." He became Waneko's war coun- with your boys, and feeling like a king"
(pp.
selor, but his place was only as secure as65-66, 79, 112).
the next day's experiences. "In Harlem
JHE Thomas family managed to stay
you always lived on the edge of losing
rep. All it takes is a one-time loss ofintact in the Barrio but slowly came
heart," Piri wrote (pp. 44-59). apart after they moved to Long Island,
Gangs furnished the camaraderie and too far from his friends, too close to the
poisoned racial prejudices of the white
sense of belonging that Piri and his com-
panions longed for so desperately.world.
On Having saved money to provide
better opportunities for her children,
stoops and in back alleys the members
maintained an air of bravado and bel-
Mrs. Thomas was surprised when Piri
ligerence, bragging of their physical protested
and against leaving Spanish Harlem.
A friend had told him that the "paddies"
sexual prowess and, in Piri's words, "yak-
hated Puerto Ricans and Negroes. But
king about everything we knew about
and about what we didn't. . . ." They
his first impressions were good. He was
wore special coats and berets and attracted
had by the neatness and planned
female debs who came to their fights.
activities of his new school. Only after
Together they maintained their turf several
and months did it become clear to
him that he was an outsider who might
planned recreational activities, social and
participate in a basketball game but could
antisocial. Their life-style was "all part
of becoming hombre," Piri said, "of not mingle on a dance floor. Some class-
mates
wanting to have a beard to shave, a considered him a Negro and
shunned him accordingly. One girl
driver's license, a draft card, a 'stoneness'
which enabled you to go into a bar like flirted with him and then insulted him
a man. Nobody really digs a kid" (pp. condescendingly to her friends when she
25, 62). thought he was not listening. At times he
On the street each gang member feared wished that his hair were straighter and
losing esteem by not consenting to a new his nose sharper like his brothers' but
adventure, whether it involved smoking then would realize the foolishness of his
pot, snorting heroin, challenging a rival shame. Within six months he left home
gang, or stealing lemonade from a gro- and fled the antiseptic white world of
cery store. No exploit was too risky or Long Island for the exciting, familiar
degrading if the group willed it. For confines of the Barrio. But the streets
example, one day in order to enliven their were a tough place for a homeless youth
boredom, Piri and his friends visited an to survive, more a brutalizing maelstrom
apartment where homosexuals lived. Each than a lively playground. After wearing
had silent misgivings and mocked the out his welcome from friends and rela-
drag queens to ease their nervousness and tives, he drifted around, once stealing ten
self-consciousness, even as they danced dollars from a young unwed mother who
and drank and finally had sexual en- had befriended him. He spent half the
counters with their hosts. High on pot money on a room and half of it for pot
in the midst of the unnatural orgy, Piri (pp. 86-101).

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 820 ENGLISH JOURNAL

at New Orleans, Mobile, and Galveston.

PERSONAL experiences
Thomas' ideas on race.shaped Piri
In Harlem
Sitting on the back of buses and being
he had disliked moving into anturned
Italian away from segregated diners, Piri
neighborhood but reached a d6tente with
experienced the torment and insults that
the local gang when he refused to squeal from the Dixie caste system.
emanated
on a youth who threw gravel in his face
"I felt like maybe I bought a ticket to the
during a fight. But any thoughtswrong
aboutTechnicolor Movie," he said. He
his being assimilated into thecursed
white a restauranteur, shocked a prosti-
world ended after Long Island.tute While
by telling her first that he was a
still living at home, he briefly Latin
datedanda then claiming that she had a
white girl who enjoyed going with him
black man's seed inside her, and finally
to the Barrio. On a train with her he battled a white sailor on board ship. After
heard two men curse him with racial the fight ended, a West Indian messman
named Isaac told him that he would not
epithets. In anger, he got off the train
with her, seduced her roughly in a field,
survive the white world unless he got a
and never saw her again. While he killer's
was instinct. "Unless you're willing
with her, he had said to himself, "Damn
to kill at the exact moment you have to,
it, I hate you-no, not you, just your
you'll be a pussy bumper for the rest
damn color. My God, why am I in of the
your life," Isaac said (pp. 39, 120-87).
middle?" Like many dark-skinned PuertoPiri's belligerent race consciousness iso-
Ricans, for awhile he emphasized lated
his him from his family. His brother
Jos6 had declared himself to be white
Latin heritage to differentiate himself
because he did not have lips "like a
from Negroes. He and a friend applied
for a salesman's job. Mr. Christian,baboon's
the ass." Neither he nor any other
interviewer, turned down dark applicants
members of the family could understand
like himself and hired whites only. Fum-
why Piri had to hang around with Brew.
ing that some "paddies" felt that "white
His parents' marriage began to disinte-
is the national anthem of the world,"grate
he when his father indiscreetly ro-
told a friend that white people "slipmanced
an a young, green-eyed white mis-
invisible rope around your balls and hang
tress in an effort to bolster his ego. This
saddened his wife and angered his son.
you with nice smiles and 'If we need you,
we'll call you' " (pp. 35-42, 93-94, 101-
Having affairs was a traditional assertion
07, 126). of manhood in Puerto Rico, but respect
After encountering this discrimination, for family dictated that they be kept
Piri gravitated closer to black friends, secret, which Mr. Thomas disregarded.
not to lose his ethnicity but to find him- His wife suffered from the humiliation,
self racially. Even as a youth, he had and the disgrace contributed to a physical
admired the cocky gait and street man- and emotional decline which eventually
nerisms of young blacks, writing that killed her. Soon after her death, Piri tore
"those cats were so down and cool that
up a picture of the mistress which he
just walking made a way-out sound."
pilfered from his father's wallet. After
Some blacks befriended him, and Piri his father struck him for his thievery,
found that co-victims of poverty had Piri screamed that he was a ridiculous
more reason to unite than to be enemies. "Mistuh Blanco in natural black-face,"
Living among blacks caused Piri to rejectalmost attacked him with a carving knife,
white culture. His friend Brew, a black and then left home for good (pp. 190-
militant who had left the South after94).
striking a sadistic white racist, taught
him racial pride. The two friends jour-ACK in Harlem again, Piri soon got
neyed South as seamen and made stops involved in crime and dope as anti-

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 PIRI THOMAS AND DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS 821

dotes to despondency. Hecorrespondence

fell in lovecourses, and earned a
with a girl named Trina, high
butschool
herdiploma.
per- Commenting on his
sonality had less impact on eclectic
him thanthirst the
for learning, he compared
himself to
ways of the street did. Soon he was "hunga kid in a candy store who ate
down" on heroin, taking it every
into type
his of candy. In prison his future
veins
several times daily. Even though
became he
more important to him than his
kicked the habit once, he went back
reputation fortomachismo, and he stayed
it out of nervousness from clear joining
of a fight anda a prison riot in order
group of armed robbers. On one
to win job
parole. Buthe
part of him irrationally
shot a policeman and was intoturn
wanted participate in the hopeless riot
because
wounded and captured. "Jesus, the ideal of comradeship had
I thought,
I finally shot me some Mr.beenCharlies.
so strong and I necessary a by-prod-
shot 'em in my mind oftenuct of his willhe
enough," to survive (pp. 235-37,
241-45, 275, 284-86).3
wrote. When his father visited him in
jail, he wanted to embrace the man he
had loved so much but could not erase T)IRI'S return to the Barrio after serv-
the shield that had come between them ing six years in prison was the climax
(pp. 194-229, 258-59). of the book, and he implied at the end
that his rehabilitation would be long-last-
Prison was a purgatorial experience for
ing. Seeing Spanish Harlem again seemed
Piri, one that was both expiatory and
redemptive. At first he awaited trial on like entering a helter-skelter Promised
Murderer's Row at the Tombs, uncertain Land. "It was like all the bright bulbs in
whether his victim was dead or alive, the stores, windows, and lampposts were
listening to inmates from other floors screaming just for me. I heard all the
leeringly cry out that the "chair is quick noises I'd missed for so long-screaming
and greasy." Sentenced to a five- to broads, crying kids, hustlers, dogs yap-
fifteen-year prison term for armed rob- ping, and cats making holes in mountains
bery and felonious assault, he entered the of garbage," he wrote. Even though im-
sterile but frightening routine of life be- personal housing projects had mutilated
hind bars, replete with jaded sex, police some of the friendly confines, he found
brutality, and racism. At various times that the Barrio's "heart was still there."
Piri felt like Dracula, a penned-up mon- But his girlfriend had not waited for him.
key, and a prisoner of war. "My life Meeting her and her husband briefly, he
became a gray mass of hatred," he wrote, realized that yesterday's romantic dreams
which almost crazed him on several occa- would go unrealized. He began breaking
sions. The final days of his sentence wereparole by smoking pot and seeing mar-
especially unbearable and brought on the ried women and tasting all the pleasures
prison malaise commonly known aswhich had been denied him in bondage.
shortitus. Nevertheless, jail forced him But one night after coming back from a
to be in isolation and led him to be re- wild party, he confronted his bleary-
flective and introspective. In contrast eyed
to image in the mirror and decided to
the present-oriented life on the street,end
he "being sh--* in a cesspool."
contemplated his past experiences and At the end of the book, he turned
down heroin from a friend whose phys-
postponed pleasure to the distant future.
"For the first time I was aware that I ical and psychological decline he did not
didn't know myself, outside of the fact
3Oscar Handlin wrote: "For Thomas, a long
that I ate when hungry, slept when
jail term is the means of expiation and leads
sleepy, and got laid when horny." ultimately
He to redemption." Handlin, "Reader's
learned trades, devoured information
Choice" in Atlantic, 219 (June 1967) 130.
from a variety of books, enrolled in
*See Editor's Note on page 815.

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 822 ENGLISH JOURNAL

in its midst.
want to emulate (pp. 298, The book's subtlety tran-
307-14). The
scended the dichotomy
resultant autobiography was testimonyof viewing the
that Piri Thomas' aspiration to
Barrio in moralistic terms be orsome-
of good evil,
body triumphed overwomb or hisinferno. Even so, and
racial the backemo-
tional problems andcoverhisblurbneed
on the paperback
for quick, edition
egregiously advertised Yet
self-destructive gratification. the book as the
Melvin
Maddock commented story of a junkie,the
that thief, and attempted
mystery
killer trapped
of his change-of-heart was in hell.
"as dark and
provocative as one ofOther writers
his have noted the
Barrio allure
summer
nights.''4 of the Barrio. Patricia Cayo Sexton,
author of Spanish Harlem, described the
cacaphony of feeling which she dis-
R EVIEWERS hailed Down These
Mean Streets as a candid, penetrat- covered in East Harlem. "Given the pre-
ing, camera-eye portrait of Spanish Har- vailing folklore about crime in the slums,
lem that was neither glamorizing nor the stranger approaches with caution.
confessional. Katherine Gauss Jackson Once inside, he finds it difficult to break
noted that the dialog "is brutally of the loose. The population is diverse and en-
streets and spares the reader nothing in gaging. The street life is more vivid than
two languages." But she added that "its improvised theater. There is passion and
honesty is purging rather than offensive conflict," she wrote. Intending to visit
and the passion of life that comes through the district for two weeks, she remained
is inescapable and good." Melvin Mad- for two years. The most visible image
dock, writing in Life, called the book of the Barrio, she wrote, was the squalor
"a time-defying act of total return" and of the slum housing, the overcrowdedness
compared Thomas favorably with James and illiteracy and rootlessness of marginal
Baldwin and Claude Brown, whose books people caught in a hostile and individ-
about black Harlem were more didactic ualistic city. But underneath there were
and proselytizing than Down These "good omens and rays of light," she con-
Mean Streets. One reviewer wrote: "Sen- cluded (pp. ix-x). Journalist Dan Wake-
timental, rough-hewn, and unliterary asfield, author of Island in the City, echoed
his tale may be, behind it stands a sub-her sentiments. Entering Spanish Harlem
merged population group that has hadon assignment, he quickly encountered
few voices." Recreating the past andshouts from a Pentacostal revival, teen-
making understandable Puerto Rican-agers singing rock music, older men
American culture, the book was an his-gossiping, and a policeman twirling his
torical contribution that demonstrated nightstick. "No one who ever sat down
the continuity of New York's uniqueat a typewriter could walk through that
heritage of the omnipresence of strangers block without wanting to write about
it," said Wakefield, who moved into the
4The following reviews contain valuable in-
sights into Down These Mean Streets. Melvin neighborhood for six months (pp. 5-6).
Maddock, "The Knuckle-Hard Code of the Reviewers pointed out a number of
Barrio," Life, 62 (June 9, 1967); Oscar Handlin allegorical symbols contained in Down
"Reader's Choice,"Atlantic, 219 (June 1967)
These Mean Streets which synthesized
130; Elmer Bendiner, "Machismo," Nation, 205
(September 25, 1967) 283-84; Warren Sloat, the psychic effects of the ghetto. Some
viewed the central theme as one of con-
"Exploration of Color," Saturday Review, 50
(August 5, 1967) 33; Katherine Gauss Jackson, flict between man and an inimical en-
"Down These Mean Streets," Harper's, 234 vironment, as Piri sought to escape from
(June 1967) 109; Daniel Stern, "Down These
Mean Streets," New York Times Book Review
the dehumanizing feelings of inferiority,
(May 21, 1967) 1; "In the Arms of Lady hatred, and rage. In fact, he was able to
Snow," Newsweek, 69 (May 29, 1967) 96. survive the brutalities of six years in

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 PIRI THOMAS AND DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS 823

prison largely because itsthe codes

mountaintop
were yet."
so In 1967 when the
youthful
similar to street life. In both anger
places within Spanish Harlem
drugs
tempted the weak to forget overflowed
ambitions into and
a riot, Piri could sympa-
surrender to temporary thizebliss.with
A and understand, if not con-
News-
week review, entitled "Indone,thethe violence.5
Arms of
Lady Snow," quoted a drug-addicted
Sadly he realized that the rioters were
prison-mate of Piri's as asserting
sayingtheirshortly
manhood, just as he once
before his death: "That's had my woman,
to prove his machismo by the self-
Lady Snow. I love Lady Snow.
defeating act .of. shooting
. I a policeman.
The 1967 At
can't forget about Lady Snow." riot times
signalled a new Puerto
Piri succumbed to the embrace of Lady
Rican-American militance, an emergence,
Snow, but he overcame however chaotic, of social protest in
it by retaining
a residue of confidenceplace
and of courage.
submission to authority. The
Critic Elmer Bendiner compared new direction ofon
life violence, no longer
the street to the ordeals and ceremonial simply reflected in antisocial individual
jousts of feudal times. Constant testing gang acts, sprang in part from the black
of manhood allowed the successful com- civil rights movement and in part from
batant to enter into a communion of feelings of cultural pride that Piri
comradeship with his peers. Perhaps the had been espousing. Piri grieved
Thomas
most perceptive reviewer, Melvin when Mad-he learned of the riot while on a
dock, compared the bittersweet Barrio lecture visit. He rushed back to the
with a schizophrenic father who inBarrioturn to help reduce tensions, finding
was affectionate and malicious to his himself unable to hate the police or wish
child. The strict but loving parent, Mad-
destruction on the establishment. Darting
dock wrote, was often preferable or toatand fro, still talking the language of
least more exciting than the insipid, the street, he was jeered by some youths
tolerant one. and taken into the confidence of others.
He had no role to play on that day of
PIRI Thomas did not use the successful rage, but an enormous task of rebuilding
publication of his book as an avenue and reconciliation awaited him during
of escape from his roots. He worked in the days that followed.
Puerto Rico and in the Barrio rehabili- In 1963 Nathan Glazer and Daniel P.
tating junkies and establishing a writing
Moynihan wrote, in Beyond the Melting
and film workshop. Travelling widely Pot,
as that the Puerto Rican migration
a lecturer, he maintained his ethnicity added
and "to a rather tough and knowing
urged minority groups to have pride in of New York characters a new type,
cast
themselves. An optimistic militant and
softer and milder, gayer and more light-
pragmatist, he called himself a religious
spirited" (pp. 130-31). Even though the
man but was skeptical as to whether mean
God streets had made Piri tough and
intervened on behalf of the poor.knowing,
His he had a warmness of spirit
workshop, located at East Harlem that shone bright and transcended the
Protestant Parish, produced a visual com-
poverty of his environment.
plement to Down These Mean Streets, a
film entitled "Petey and Johnny." Prais-
5Piri Thomas, "From Arson to a Thousand
ing Budd Schulberg's Watts workshop
Candles," Saturday Review, 50 (September 23,
in a flowery review, Piri told his black
1957) 78; Piri Thomas, "A Nightmare Night in
"brothers and sisters" to keep swinging
'Mi Barrio'," New York Times Magazine
and wailing, because "we're gonna reach
(August 13, 1957) 17, 70.

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