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"DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS" (THOMAS), "DON'T BE AFRAID, GRINGO" (ALVARADO) & "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X"
Term Paper ID:20536
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Essay Subject:
Examines cultures of suffering, impact on individuals, social fight for peace & justice.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines cultures of suffering, impact on individuals, social fight for peace & justice.
Paper Introduction:
This study will examine the cultures described in Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, Don't Be Afraid, Gringo (the story of Elvia Alvarado, translated and edited by Medea Benjamin), and The Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley). The study will include consideration of the "hardships of life" experienced by the subjects in the three books and suggestions on how the cultures might live in greater harmony and peace.
Down These Mean Streets is the story of a self-described "skinny, dark-face, curly-haired, intense Porty-Ree-can---unsatisfied, hoping, and always reaching," who tells himself "Get angry, get hating angry, and you won't be scared" (Thomas, 1991, p. x). It is the story of poverty, oppression, violence, and a growing despair which the author is able to articulate. In the first page of the book, we read of domestic violence, a clearly
Text of the Paper:
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With respect to solutions sought and found, however, Malcolmand Alvarado are closer than Thomas and Malcolm. We want you to educate your people. Malcolm's plea at the end of the book mirrors the plea of Alvarado tothe American people. Both Thomas and Alvaradorecognize that the problems they face are systemic, socio-political, andlong-standing. When we were all inside we closed the doors and locked the employees and the director in. We are dealing inAlvarado's story with similar despair to that described by Thomas in hisbook, but the perspective of Alvarado is quite different from that ofThomas. New York: Harper Perennial,1987.Malcolm X. Thomas and Malcolm rebel, and their rebellion landsthem in jail. 75). The conditions that once set Honduras apart from its neighbors are quickly vanishing. Like I feel way down deep somewhere the urge to put my arm down beside his in humble-pie attitude and take my place among my boys . poppa," animals foraging in garbage,yelling, and, above all, the fear and sense of injustice that the authorfeels as a child. knew that every Negro who did not challenge on the spot every instance of racism, overt or covert, committed against him and his people, who chose instead to swallow his spit and go on smiling, was an Uncle Tom and a traitor, without balls or guts, or any other commonly accepted aspects of manhood! As with Alvarado, Malcolm believed in both community andindividual effort. . Don't Be Afraid, Gringo. x). The study will include considerationof the "hardships of life" experienced by the subjects in the three booksand suggestions on how the cultures might live in greater harmony andpeace. He accepts thefact that he will have to continue to make such courageous choices if he isto have any real hope of survival. . There is one major difference between the problems experienced byThomas and the problems experienced by Alvarado, and that difference is inthe solutions sought. As Alvarado says, "the United States is the one calling the shots inCentral America" (Alvarado, 1987, p. . (Alvarado, 1987, p. 37). (Alvarado, 1987, p. It is through making choices for himself which express his resistanceto the misery around and inside him that Thomas is able to begin toovercome his despair and hopelessness and crippling rage. "I'm thinking that God is always with us---it's just us that aren't with him" (Thomas, 1991, p. New York: Ballantine, 1992.Thomas, Piri. Don't be afraid, gringos. The treatment of the rich and the poor by the government is radicallydifferent in Honduras, just as it is in the United States in Thomas'experience. Alvarado seeks solace in religion, as does Thomas, but Alvarado ismore determined to seek her own solutions rather than wait for God to do itfor her and her people: I feel I know Christ because they talk about him so much in the Bible and everywhere . In Alvarado's culture, the people recognize thatnothing of substance can be done without the people joining together as aforce much more powerful than that of any individual. As stated earlier, Thomas' recovery is a matter ofhis taking advantage of the services available as an individual. aid money; there is greater poverty as the military consumes more and more of the government budget; and there is more repression and less room for peaceful dissent (Alvarado, 1987, p. And I have hope (Alvarado, 1987, p. New York: Vintage, 1991.----------------------- 6 There islittle doubt that he had entered a stage in which he was setting aside thepolitics of separation and hatred and violence for a more open-heartedapproach to social, economic and racial justice. And remember, we're right there with you! In both countries, the authorities--the police or the military--- are seen by the authors as extensions of the wealthy; their job is toprotect the rich and their property against any danger posed by the poor:"When a poor man is in trouble, [the soldiers] are nowhere to be found.But when a rich man needs help, they show up in no time" (Alvarado, 1987,p. But I don't feel I know God . . We need you to join the struggle. First, no individual canmake it out of such conditions on his own. (Thomas, 1991, pp. . This study will examine the cultures described in Down These MeanStreets by Piri Thomas, Don't Be Afraid, Gringo (the story of ElviaAlvarado, translated and edited by Medea Benjamin), and The Autobiographyof Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley). . (Malcolm X, 1992, p. . The story of Piri Thomas is not simply the story of one half-black,half-Puerto Rican man struggling to survive in one inner city of the UnitedStates; it is the story of every individual who not only struggles tosurvive in poverty and crime and despair and drugs and terror and rage, butwho uses the tools available to begin to climb up the long road torecovery. In that respect, theperspectives of Thomas and Alvarado are quite different. His trip to Africasoftened his positions and his heart, although he never abandoned theconviction that the solution was not an individual one, butinstead was social and political. I thank God for the water, because what kept me walking all that time was my faith and hope. I have this faith. It is clear, however, that part of her doubt about God is due to aconviction that it is up to human beings to do their part in bringing aboutbetter conditions on earth. 267). He watches men fix heroin in the hallway after runningaway from home to try to "whip Poppa back with worry" (pp. 91). 317). xxi). The book is a horrific tale of the growing up of Thomas, and of hisability to survive conditions which are unbearable simply to read about.It is the story of addiction, cruel racism, violence, and a rage thatflares up regularly but is always simmering just under the surface of everyencounter. It just goes to show that here in Honduras wedon't get anything unless we fight for it (Alvarado, 1987, p. I was a down stud, and despite all my Bible lessons and trips into the world of the Big Man, it would take a lot of time to fully dig God; but at least I knew He was there. 63). Malcolm declares that I tell sincere white people, "Work in conjunction with us--- each of us working among our own kind." Let sincere white individuals find all other white people they can who feel as they do --- and let them form their own all-white groups, to work trying to convert other white people who are thinking and acting so racist, Let sincere whites go and teach non-violence to white people! Sometimes I think that if God really does exist, then why hasn't he come around to spend some time with us so we can get to know him? You appealed to him 'cause you're to him like a virgin would be on the outside, a first cop." . 7). Down These Mean Streets is the story of a self-described "skinny,dark-face, curly-haired, intense Porty-Ree-can---unsatisfied, hoping, andalways reaching," who tells himself "Get angry, get hating angry, and youwon't be scared" (Thomas, 1991, p. 38). Second, even with suchresources available, they will be meaningless unless the individual makesthe choice to use them. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. That question --- "So what do I do?" --- could be the question, askedin all urgency and despair and rage, which would most accurately representthe state of mind or soul of the major character in each of these threeworks. Thomas essentially tells the story of one man who isbeginning to overcome those conditions, through his own efforts and throughthe efforts of the community which gives the individual a chance to put hisdesire to live better into action. . This is not to underestimate his conviction that his first commitmentwas to his own people, for to him the black people were the most oppressedin his culture, the culture of the United States, as Alex Haley emphasizes: [Malcolm] . We disconnected his telephone and left a few campesinos to keep watch over him . She particularly blames theReagan-Bush administration for aggravating conditions which existed priorto 198 . Malcolm suffers as anindividual minority in a land ruled by the white majority, just as Thomasdoes. She speaks of walking along a mountain road,very thirsty, and praying for water: And after walking for miles, I finally come upon a stream. Malcolm and Alvarado,however, seek to alter substantially the cultures in which they live.Alvarado seeks change through political and social organization. It is the story of poverty,oppression, violence, and a growing despair which the author is able toarticulate. It is a world in which there islittle humane inter-relating, simply because so much energy is taken upthrough the work of merely surviving. Malcolm and Thomas suffer from poverty, from racism, from drugs andviolence and despair. Alvarado is more aware of the detailsand causes of such deplorable conditions, especially in terms of thehistorical impact of governmental policy. The story of Malcolm X is a combination of the stories of Thomas andAlvarado. The hardships faced by Alvaradoand her people are similar to those faced by Thomas and his American,ethnic ghetto/barrio culture --- poverty, fear, rage, hopelessness, thestruggle to merely survive, violence, etc. . From those of you who feel the pain of the murdered, the disappeared, the tortured, we need more than sympathy. We marched into the director's office and told him that it was high time he started working for the campesinos, not the landowners. (Malcolm X, 1992, p. . . The evolution of Malcolm X was for from complete at the time he wasassassinated, so we will never know the final form of that evolution.Whatever form it was to take, however, it is clear that Malcolm was movingin a direction which was less separatist, less violent, less hateful. Thomas essentially argues that the hardships of life in the barrioor ghetto will always exist, and that it is up to the individual toexercise his or her free will to survive those hardships and to achievesome sort of individual peace by taking advantage of the help available. . 328-329). For example, we hear his thoughts as heflirts with the temptation of fixing heroin again: Don't this bring me back a long time, don't I feel a yen for that kick? . Keep your spirits high. Alvarado, on the other hand, is arguing for a much more comprehensiveand socio-political solution. 146). And, like the Bible lessons said, first would come faith, and then would come understanding . We want you [Americans] with us in this struggle. Don't I feel a something like him, like my eyes want to follow that fuckin' needle's thirst and trace the push and current of the tecata through the highways and byways of my man's coughing veins. There is a sense of urgency in every scene --- the urgency ofneed, of fear, of despair: "You damn fool," I said, "couldn't you see what was happening? 92). Again, Thomas seeks anindividual solution, simply because that is, at his particular point ofrecovery, all that he can reasonably consider. policy in Honduras is that in the name of preserving democracy, the United states has managed to polarize Honduran society as never before. Nevertheless, Thomas finds a measure of salvation in serving hisprobation dutifully, in God, in sobriety, and in accepting the fact thatrecovery from the dreadful conditions in which he lived would be a slow andpainful process. We decided that the only option left was to take over the INA offices. In the first page of the book, we read of domestic violence, aclearly dysfunctional family, hunger, "frightened silence," "noise andhassling," "whipping from . . Alvarado isarguing that the Honduran people cannot save themselves or their country,but must have the cooperation of the American people and the Americangovernment as well: We're not asking for food or clothing or money. In other words, as much as Malcolm clearly believed that realcultural change for the better could only come from organization amongblacks and whites who believed in justice and equality, he also believedthat it was up to the individual to stand up for those principles at everyopportunity. Malcolm,on the other hand, goes through a religious conversion, which includessocial and political factors certainly, but which more importantly is basedon the role of God and ethnic identity in the recovery of the culture ofAfrican-Americans. Malcolm's extraordinary evolution as a man and as a leader of African-Americans has been well-chronicled in recent years, thanks in large part tothe film of his life based on the book under consideration. We want you to denounce what your government is doing in Central America. There is a similarity between her story and that of Thomas',however, in that both she and Thomas are arguing that the solution to theproblem is both internal and external. Down These Mean Streets. . Before Reagan took office, democracy had begun to sprout roots,the military was beginning to loosen its grip on the country, civilianpower was growing, and socioeconomic conditions were gradually improving.After 198 , however, the United States made Honduras a staging ground forthe battle against the rebels in Nicaragua, and, as a result, conditions inevery category of major concern grew worse throughout the country: The irony of U.S. Theculture of the United States is more individualistic than the morecommunity-oriented culture of Honduras and Central America, so this is asmight be expected. 377). It would be reasonable to assume that Thomas as well, once he is moresecure in his individual sobriety, would follow the same path towardimproving relations and "getting along better." Works CitedAlvarado, Elvia. I already told him I'd give him back his stuff, and no dice; that motherjumper wants to punk me and he said if I didn't punk out, him and his boys would jack me up. There is more ostentatious wealth, with generals and politicians living high on the hog; there is more corruption, with vicious power struggles over the spoils of U.S. I have this same faith that god will help us win our struggle. For Thomas, thesolution is personal, while for Alvarado, the solution is social andpolitical. Both her father and husband are clearlyalcoholics, and part of her fear is rooted in the fact that her fatherphysically abused her mother. There must be communityresources available to help the individual. . . Piri Thomas lives in a world--in and out of prison --- in whicheverybody is looking out for themselves. " . . Again, her story is not essentially her own struggle --- as is thecase with Thomas --- but rather the struggle of her entire country and itspeople. When one is every day and nightconcerned with staying alive it is clear that he or she will be unable toexercise altruistic muscles. So what do I do?" (Thomas, 1991, p. Who knows what the truth is? 3-4). The same drug-related domestic violence visited upon Thomas isvisited upon Alvarado as well. Or why hasn't someone who's spent time with him recently come back to tell us what he's like? Alvaradois more concerned with the specific impact of the foreign policy of theUnited States on the conditions of life of the Honduran people than withthe individual's struggle as separate from that socio-political reality. We want you to organize your people. His experiences with "white" Muslims in his world travelsenlightened him to the fact that he had been unnecessarily provincial inhis view of who was an ally and who was an enemy. Don't Be Afraid, Gringo is Elvia Alvarado's attempt to reach thepeople and government of the United States with respect to the destructionwrought in Honduras by decades of American involvement in the exploitation,corruption and oppression of the Honduran people. . . . Thomas is saying that theindividual cannot save himself, but must have help from community resourcesif he is to overcome addiction and hopelessness and poverty. Her boyfriend did not beat the children shehad with another man, but he refused to care for them as he would latercare for the children they had together (Alvarado, 1987, p. That lousy shit was courting you, making time with you, like you've done on the outside with broads. In her story about the struggle for land in Honduras, we readof the peoples' efforts to acquire power through organization: . I was in charge of watching the front doors . We went in five at a time, five more, five more, five more--- until there were 3 of us inside, men and women. The "answer" provided by this book to the problems experiencedby Thomas and his family and friends is two-fold. 458). (Alvarado, 1987, p. Hehad found a measure of peace in his religion and in his sense that anyindividual--white or black---could join the struggle for peace and justicein his culture. It is not enough for Alvarado to considerthat an individual here or there might be able to liberate himself orherself by taking advantage of whatever help might be available. Some of this recovery and acceptance is found in hisattitude toward a God in which he had been previously unable to believe: There, in the semidarkness, I had found a new sense of awareness. The culture of Malcolm X is the same as the culture of Thomas,and their stories---up to a point---are similar. . The people were able to achieve their goals in that effort: "The nextday all 1 5 of the campesinos were freed, and the ten groups got the landthey were fighting for.
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