In Memoriam : Piri Thomas, Author of “Down These Mean Streets” dies

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, “Down These Mean Streets”, Thomas describes his struggle for survival as a Puerto Rican/Cuban raised on the rough 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 and 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, and he vowed to use his street and prison know-how to reach hard core youth and turn them away from a life of crime.

In 1967, with a grant from the Rabinowitz Foundation, both his career and fame as an author were launched with the autobiography, “Down These Mean Streets”.

After more than 25 years, the book is now considered 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.”