In Memoriam : Piri Thomas, author of “Down These Mean Streets” dies at 83

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Piri Thomas, the author known for the best-selling book “Down These Mean Streets ” has died today (October 17, 2011).

He was 83.

In his best-selling autobiography, Thomas describes his survival as a Puerto Rican/Cuban raised on the streets of New York.

Born Juan Pedro Tomás, of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City’s Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas began his struggle for survival, identity, and recognition at an early age.

The vicious street environment of poverty, racism, and street crime took its toll. As a result, he served seven years in prison doing hard labor.

But, with the affirmation that he had not been born a criminal. He rose above his circumstances and violent background of drugs and gangs. He vowed to use his street, prison know-how to reach hard core youth. His mission was to turn them away from a life of crime.

In 1967, the Rabinowitz Foundation grant launched his career and fame as an author through the autobiography.

More than 25 years later, readers now regard the book as a classic.

In “Down These Mean Streets”, Piri Thomas made El Barrio (the neighborhood) a household word to multitudes of non-Spanish-speaking readers.

A front-page review in the New York Times book review section May 21, 1967 stated:

“It claims our attention and emotional response because of the honesty and pain of a life led in outlaw, fringe status, where the dream is always to escape.”