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- Title
Nuyorican mestizaje or la gran familia neorriqueña in Piri Thomas's Down These Mean Streets.
- Authors
AMBIO, MARISSA L.
- Abstract
In keeping with a transinsular approach, this paper proposes that the narrative of the "Great Puerto Rican Family" informs Down These Mean Streets (1967) and Piri's conception of race and gender. Piri's interactions with his mother and her representation throughout the novel are of central interest since she is Piri's most immediate connection to the Island. Through their conversations, Piri hears his mother's recollections of the Island, which, in turn, are appropriated and transformed by Piri in the creation of his own memories and thoughts. Down These Mean Streets thus rewrites the gran familia puertorriqueña within the U.S. context, making it, as one might propose, the "gran familia neorriqueña." This new rendering of a traditional literary trope offers a paradigm of the diaspora that exposes earlier misconceptions. And while not devoid of contradictions, the gran familia neorriqueña offers insight in approaching representations of race and gender in the novel.
- Subjects
THOMAS, Piri, 1928-2011; PUERTO Rican history; DOWN These Mean Streets (Book); PUERTO Rican Americans; PUERTO Rican literature
- Publication
Centro Journal, 2021, Vol 33, Issue 2, p36
- ISSN
1538-6279
- Publication type
Article