Chapter Summary Of The Book 'Down These Mean Streets'

Family from Another World

The book “Down These Mean Streets” is a book that a lot of people should read. Especially for people to realize how a family that came straight from an island come and live at a different and unknown. A dark skinned Puerto Rican is looked at with a lot of criticism. Speaking spanish but being dark skinned people say is a blessing. But for my own experience, I had also experienced racist experience and comments. A person from another world is not always accepted at a new land or place. It is very hard for them to adjust and get accepted by the new people around them. It is not easy. Like people from the United States like to call immigrants aliens, they are basically aliens. They get looked at differently and criticized

Where anything can happen to you with a wrong look or comment. The author had to show how strong of the person he really is and has to show that he can fight and become that strong individual. Drug and violence takes a very big place in this book. A resource said “Piri is born into a poor Puerto Rican family living in Spanish Harlem. At a young age, he learns that to survive on the streets of Harlem he must assert a masculinity that depends on violence and domination.” The word ‘domination’ is very strong and with just that one word it shows that one has to be big and strong in that type of area Piri lived in. Sometimes there are paths that are broken and you have to learn how to find a new path that can make you continue to a better and successful place. Later on, the book has shown that dark skinned Puerto Ricans had to gain more respect than a light skin Puerto Rican. In some hispanic communities, it has been said that people with darker skin are more poor and has to work more than a light skinned person. But Piri shows that he is also proud to be a dark skinned Puerto Rican overall. He respects his roots and embraces it. He once said “I know that,” I said, “but I wasn’t a Negro then. I was still only a Puerto Rican.” This shows that he puts his own skin color to the side and represents his true roots as a Puerto Rican. To him, a skin color should not determine the person you are. Everybody is human and they come from the same place. There is always going to be someone that is lighter or darker than