Harlem, New York. Circa 1950. Young Puerto Rican Piri Thomas is growing up in El Barrio—Spanish Harlem. A place where you’re either down to back up the friends on your block, or you’re down to leave. Piri grew up and was nurtured in El Barrio, and during this book it shows when he is telling the story of his life. From cutting out of the house at 3am when he was 12 years old, to getting out of prison when he was in his late 20s. This is a story that shows the highest level of community, respect, and consequences to negative actions.
Piri Thomas up in the “ghetto” of El Barrio, although with the conditions of the town as a whole everything could have been considered a “ghetto.” While growing up there he learned a lot about community, possibly not knowing it until later in his life when he needed to rely on people. He had his group of 10-15 friends, and although what they were doing together was highly illegal (things like robbing liquor stores, or smoking “pot sticks”), he became close with those friends and felt at home on his block of 104th street. A couple years later he moved into an Italian neighborhood. They like to ridicule him, calling him things like “spic” or “nigger.” After all, he was a dark skinned Puerto Rican, un moreno. Here he learned that the community he grew up in made him the strong-minded individual that he was. In his comfort zone he could thrive and stay out of trouble, or at least stay in friendly trouble. It taught him the lesson of making the right friends, and doing whatever you needed to do in order to keep them.
During the middle of the story, when he is 16 years old, Piri moves out of the house. Not by force, but by choice. His family moved to Long Island, a place where white people run the schools and streets. A place where he felt uncomfortable enough, to drop out of high school after sophomore year, and movie back to El Barrio in order to be with his amigos. This is where he ran into real trouble. He starting peddling drugs in order to get by, for not many places want to hire a 16-year-old high school drop out. After about a month of selling tecata, heroin, he became addicted. He reached out to his old friends, his old community, and asked for the help of getting off the drugs. They accepted his plead and helped him get off of the drugs, and back on his feet.
He struggled afterwards, eventually landing himself on a Naval ship for a couple of years, so he could travel south and get away to learn who he himself was. He always ended back to Harlem though, and when he was 21, he found himself back on the streets of El Barrio. He was looking for easy money, so he got involved with one of his old amigos and a couple of his friends. They started doing hold ups. At first just a couple hundred dollars from liquor stores and bars, split four ways. Then they went for the grand finale, a nightclub that was filled with over 200 people. When it all went wrong, he found himself with a bullet in his chest, facing 5-15 years in state prison for armed robbery and shooting a police officer.
In prison he really learned what happens when you make bad choices. Not only did he get himself in prison, but also when his parole was up after 5 years, he got himself another two years minimum added because of his behavior while in the state penitentiary. He thought he was done, he no longer had reason to live, nobody that wanted to see him on the outside. He nearly killed himself on drugs in prison, but he stuck through. He remembered his childhood, as long as he remained cool and thought about the outside, he could get out. 2 years later he was released on parole.
His return home was a sad one. He confronted old lovers, friends, and family. Only to see that they had all changed, along with is neighborhood as a whole. He was on his own now. However, he was okay with it, knowing that a new life of sanity and normal tendencies would be the best life. This is the true story of a man who learned from his mistakes, and came back from a hard upbringing and a rough life, to a successful man with the respect of a poor one.
This novel taught me a lot about Harlem in the 50’s. Starting with the fact that there wasn’t just Harlem, but Spanish Harlem as well. The streets were generally from the 100 block to the 130 block around Lexington ave. Robberies and crime was the life of a normal person growing up in Harlem, and an honest person was a rarity. I’m excited that this was just my first plunge into the world of 50’s Harlem, and I have a whole semester of opportunities and perspectives to learn more about it.
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