← Piri ThomasStories from El Barrioby Piri ThomasStories of Puerto Rican life, community, and resilience in East HarlemFind on Amazon↗About the authorPiri ThomasPiri Thomas wrote Down These Mean Streets, a searing memoir-novel of growing up Puerto Rican and Black in Harlem that is one of the most important documents of Latino American experience in the twentieth century.More by Piri ThomasDown These Mean StreetsPuerto Rican boy navigates racism, gang violence, and spiritual awakening in New York→Savior Savior Hold My Hand→Seven Long Times→