aight...I thought I'd try this after reading Mark Anthony Neal's blog, which is just crazy inspiration. (http://newblackman.blogspot.com) I thought that his words on Chester Himes were something to aspire to. I mean...I have been trying to fish through this mad noise called my mind to find some kind of clarity on my own take on Nuyorican experience(s). For people who are'nt in the know, that would mean Puerto Ricans born and/or raised in the NYC, a significant proportion of those in the world in the close of the first decade of this century who can trace descent to the island-archipelago in the Caribbean sea. OK... so I was trying to think of some rough analogues to Himes among these folks, of whom I can claim to belong, but it aint that simple. Piri Thomas was a candidate, I thought, until I realized that aside from his experiences with crime and the like, that "otherworldy/underworld" that Neal cites as driving the interest of whites with the Blaxpoitation genre, I recalled reading somewhere that Down These Mean Streets received much critical acclaim. This did'nt happen to Himes, according to Neal. Ok...so I thought Miguel Pineiro. Same problem there... he got a Tony for Short Eyes. Anyone else come to mind? No, not to mine at least. Of course, Hime's publications, as Neal documents, appeared in the years before Brown vs. Board and the Montgomery Bus Boycott took the world by storm. Piri and Miguel's work benefitted from the post civil rights/Black Power years as "authentic" voices of what Jesus Colon referred to on the preface of his 1973 publication as the "Puerto Rican Problem". But they were authentic, even if Pineiro seemed to lay it on thick at times. In other words, these "otherwordly/underwordly" things occurred to these and many other folks representing that first of generations named "Nuyorican". So what gives? Where is the Puerto Rican Himes...writing in the pre civil rights period... about being locked up...or just about struggling to make ends meet in NYC just after WW II. Any ideas? These blogs are supposed to be occassionally interactive, right?
By the way..I am living in Puerto Rico since 2002...in a self imposed exile of sorts from my place of birth...the Bronx. I say of sorts because anyone who knows how much rent has gone up since I left knows it aint no joke getting back. Anyway..thanks for reading this first blog entry.
