Hanging on a ghetto cross: Piri Thomas and Latino Protestant popular religion.

My interest in popular religion has led me to search for those resources that witness to the spiritual and religious expressions of the Latino people in the United States and its territories. This area of interest has captured the attention of an increasing number of Latino scholars, providing a rich and provocative documentation. (1) This knowledge has challenged important tenets of traditional epistemological and theological reflection as well as dominant trends in the past and present mission and ministry with Latinos by mainline expressions of the Christian church in North America.

In this study I explore some valuable contributions of the Latino Protestant religious perspective by analyzing a selection of examples from the literary work of the Afro-Puerto Rican author Piri Thomas. My preference for the contributions of this author stems from the fact that his work is an important and provocative example of what is labeled Latino literature. Thomas is also one of the few Latino authors who have written about personal experience and convictions with the intention to stimulate a critical examination of the religious and spiritual expression of traditionally under-represented constituencies in North American society.

Literature as a locus of religious expression

In several of his recent publications, Luis N. Rivera-Pagan regrets the negligible attention given to literature as a focus of our creative and spiritual imagination. (2) While the homiletical exposition of religious leaders has paid attention to images of humanity and the sacred in literature, modern theological reflection has been mostly nurtured by the intellectual dialogue with representatives in the fields of philosophy and the social sciences. With few exceptions, theologians have neglected to reflect on the contributions of literature in exploring the dilemmas, enigmas, and yearnings of humanity. (3)

For Latin American theologians, this disregard of literature becomes unacceptable, given the significance of literature as the focal expression of the Latin American drama in all of its manifold complexities. For Rivera-Pagan, the need for a serious theological exploration of Latin American literature derives not just from the relevance that the creative symbolic expressions of this literature provides in response to the queries of religious and ecclesiastical concerns but also from the fact that the exploration of the myths, utopias, and faith immersed in this literature might be one of the ways to overcome the difficult predicament in which Latin American liberation theology finds itself. We live in a historical period aptly described by Elsa Tamez as one of messianic drought in which the horizons seem to close. (4)

Hispanic/Latina religious leaders in the U.S. view this dialogue between literature and theology as an important source of Hispanic/Latino theology. Yet, given the recent emergence of this theological perspective, the number of studies available in this area are few and mostly from a sociological or literary perspective. (5) In addition, while Latino authors usually follow an interdisciplinary approach, most of the studies of Protestant popular religion explore this topic from a theological perspective, or a viewpoint that takes one's own denominational tradition as a lens from which to interpret the significance of this religious expression. (6)

My choice of the literary work of Piri Thomas aims at enriching these efforts, not just by selecting a Latino author for whom literature becomes a preferential vehicle of expression, but because his particular contributions challenge not only a dominant literary genre in Latino literature but other theological efforts at this task.

Piri Thomas and his literary contributions

Born of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City's Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas's struggle for survival, identity, and recognition began at a very early age. The vicious and cruel street environment of poverty, racism, and street crime experienced in New York City's ghetto streets led to his own involvement with crime. In 1955 he ended up in prison for armed robbery. After serving seven years of incarceration and hard labor, he rose above his violent background of drugs and gang warfare, using his street and prison experience to reach out to young people and turn them away from a life of crime. In 1967 he published Down These Mean Streets, now considered a classic of its kind. This provocative and psychologically penetrating autobiographical novel launched his career and fame as an author, winning him instant and lasting acclaim. (7)

Thomas's literary contributions are part of what Puerto Rican cultural critic Juan Flores describes as the literature of "lowercase people." In U.S. Latino literature, "lowercase literature" is a literature deriving from sources other than those identified with formal education and cultural literacy. While authors of this literary genre are clearly familiar with the works of classical and contemporary literature, their perspective never leaves the Latino world that borders on destitution and is intricately associated with blackness and the African American experience. For Flores, there is a significant distinction between this type of literature and other variants of Latino literary expression. The distinctive feature of Latino "lowercase literature" lies not on its thematic concerns or stylistic features but on the differential sociological placement and grounding of the writing and social identity of its subjects. For "lowercase" Latino writers, their work stands face to face with social experience, however harsh and saturated with mass culture, with its characters, voices, and story lines, all recognizable inhabitants of the mean but real streets. (8)

My interest in Thomas's work originated in the late 1980s when I read Antonio M. Stevens Arroyo's excellent anthology of writings, speeches, prayers, hymns, and other documents that summon the Latino people in the U.S. to a new articulation of their faith. (9) In my estimation, the particular contribution of Thomas in this continuing project lies in provoking a more comprehensive exploration of Latino Protestant popular religious beliefs.

One cannot assume that Thomas's literary work is a clear and undisputed representation of mainline Protestantism in the U.S. While in several interviews he has affirmed the importance of spirituality for his life and his respect for all religious expressions including a preference for Pentecostalism, (10) his bitter and pervasive experience of discrimination led him to part company with institutionalized forms of religion. However, one of the most significant contributions of Thomas's works is his ability to communicate what Vitor Westhelle describes as the two particular and important dimensions of the word Protestant, from a popular perspective. For Westhelle, one of these important dimensions is an expression of protest, and the other is an unequivocal profession of faith. Concurrently they communicate the good news through the dynamics of the pain produced by this proclamation. (11) In this regard Thomas's legacy is an important witness to the enduring contribution of Latino Protestant popular beliefs in the US.

Confessing the faith, nitty-gritty

In his anthology, Stevens Arroyo places passages from Thomas's writings in a section where he highlights some crucial challenges for the development of a Hispanic Church in the U.S. For Stevens Arroyo, one of these fundamental challenges is articulating a theological perspective that in its affirmation of the faith and cultural identity of Latinos provides grounds for the recognition of a sociohistorical subject both challenging and enriching the witness of the whole church in North America.

The selections from Thomas's writings are taken from his second book, Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand, where he continues his autobiographical narrative focusing on his religious conversion to Pentecostalism and concluding with a description of his present commitment to people rather than institutionalized forms of religion. (12) These segments recount some vivid encounters of the author with the arrogant and racist attitudes portrayed by representatives of the religious establishment, along with his painful yet determined efforts toward a witness of faith that is true to his understanding of the gospel.

In one of the stories he is challenged by Lenny, a young white minister from the South coming to work with the youngsters in the ghetto. Thomas is asked to introduce him to the kids and their families. Lenny's attitude in relating with Puerto Rican and Black kids of the neighborhood raises the concern of the author who confronts him.

"For God's sake, Lenny," I continued. "The Bible and Christianity aren't
nothing new here in El Barrio. We got more storefront churches than
Carter has liver pills. They may be poor but they are beau-coup sincere.
The trouble is with the outside people from nice well-to-do churches who
sincerely send people to work among us armed with all the knowledge of
the Bible and a complete lack of understanding about what makes us tick.
Christ sakes, Lenny, if you come to spread God's word, then just come
and let us teach you about our humanity, and don't look on us like
something that lived in the Stone Age." (13)

Another and more crucial encounter takes place with John, originally his partner in a project with hard-core teenage gangs, aimed at changing their lives by way of Christian practice and teaching. Taking the kids from the club to worship services at churches in the suburbs led the author to experience both the piety and the contempt of the middle class and white church in relating to the faithful from the ghetto. His reaction is to confront John, who encouraged this evangelistic initiative, with the racist and contemptuousness of its approach. John reproves what he perceives as the author's insolent comments and suggests bringing his angry feelings to God in prayer. The author responds,

Prayers gotta be strengthened with some kind of action, John. Without
disrespect, amigo, if you've read history, too, you'd know many people
have been taught to pray and when they finished praying and looked
around, their land and respect was gone--taken away by the ones who had
taught them to pray. (14)

In a witty and penetrating reflection on the nature of this predicament, the author points to the heart of the problem. Those from the ghetto are treated with disdain because they are considered inferior.

I had noticed things I hadn't dug before or perhaps hadn't wanted to dig
in the white Christian/ghetto relationship. It was like we weren't
equals. It was as if they were the chosen ones--despite the teachings in
their Bibles--like they were sent to save us by getting us a hearing
with Christ. But like it had to be on their own terms. (15)

For the author, our witness of faith demands integrity and showing respect for the dignity of human beings, who all are products of God's gracious creative initiative. Those living in the ghetto are not basura (litter) or inferior. They are rather the ones suffering the consequence of human greed and injustice. They should be considered as equals and treated with fairness. They are our brothers and sisters and, as such, deserve our love and affection. In fact, their witness of faith is not merely informed by the gospel, but their integrity and endurance under the severe context of the ghetto recover the fundamental confessing dimension of Christianity characteristic of its emergence as a marginalized and persecuted community in the first century. Prophetic leaders throughout history have challenged the church to remain faithful to God's Word in the midst of ideological manipulation, oppression, prejudice, and idolatry.

Hanging on a ghetto cross

The last part of the book reveals some valuable insights of the author in responding to this difficult condition. As the narrative continues, the relationship between him and John keeps deteriorating. Thomas decides to leave the job, as he becomes aware of the growing animosity between himself and his partner. His decision to resign leads to a climactic experience with John, who resents what he conceives as the author's irrational and insolent attitude.

    "Look, if you are angry at something, we can talk it out. Haven't we
always been able to reason things out?"
    "John," I cried, putting all kinds of brakes on my voice 'cause it
was jumping into all kinds of different angry octaves. "I didn't mind
you copping credit every time I turned in some guns. I even accepted a
lot of the other crap you were putting down as long it helped the kids.
But it's game time now.... Pure and simple, I QUIT."
    "You never had it so good Piri." John's voice lost its cool. "Well
I'm going to have it better, man. I QUIT."
    "If you quit, I'll see to it you never work around this area
again." (16)

John's sinister threat escalates as he fails in his various attempts to change the mind of the author. Shortly after leaving his job, Piri receives a call from the mother of one of the kids. Her son has been taken to the police station, and she has just discovered some guns in his room. She asks Piri to dispose of the weapons. Even though he isn't with the club anymore, he decides to help her. He calls John to bring the guns to the club so they can be taken to the police station. John responds with contempt:

You're not with the club anymore, so you don't have our backing. You're
violating the law by having those weapons in your possession." His voice
had a lot of innuendos in it. "... I'll be home. Bring all of them." His
voice sounded like some friendly undertaker. (17)

Piri gets the weapons and drives to John's house in the suburbs. John is waiting for him. He gives the guns to John, who responds by surprisingly turning them back to him.

"Why are you giving them back to me for? You said it was the club's
responsibility and I brought them to you. Where you at, John?"
    "I've already notified the state troopers and also the precinct in
New York that you are carrying a bag full of weapons. So I would advise
you to turn yourself in with them."
    I stood there stunned. Checking out my hearing, like I couldn't
believe what was coming out of his mouth. His face had sheer hate on it.
And I knew my face had contorted into some mask of hurting rage. My
voice came out between my teeth, "You know I'm on parole. You know I owe
over six years to the state."
    "You should have thought of that before you picked them up." (18)

John's betrayal provokes Piri to rage, but containing his anger he responds,

"You got it your way up to now, John, but it won't always be like that.
People will know where you are at some day." My words just bounced off
his door closing behind him. (19)

Realizing his dilemma, Piri calls Carl, the producer of a Christian film crew with whom he had made a documentary to promote the club's work with the kids of the neighborhood, and asks him for help to bring the weapons to the police station. Upon their arrival, the officers in charge take the guns and hand Piri a summons for a court appearance to respond to his participation in this incident. The thought of being imprisoned for parole violation drives Piri into a frenzy. His earlier prison sentence had been the consequence of embracing the violence of the streets, and now he is being punished for doing something right. For him, that seems wrong.

The day of his appearance Piri is tormented with anxiety as he makes his way up to the judge when his name is called. Listening to the magistrate, he wonders if he is in the wrong court. The judge surprisingly commends him for his fine civic performance and bades him continue with his good work. Still shocked by the gracious and unexpected outcome, Piri's mind leads him to reflect:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I swear to the hole in my one shoe, I just nodded and said something
like chevere to the judge and walked out of that court, mucho tall and
knowing deep inside me that for a short while there, I had hung between
walking out of that court with my pride and dignity as a man intact and
being sent back to prison for some more years of dehumanization. And I
knew that not everybody, except those like me, could ever fully
understand the agony of what had gone down for me these last seven days.
(20)

Deliverance comes as a gift. It is not the product of our own doing. For Piri, this central teaching of faith became true at the point when he felt destined to return to the horrible experience of prison. Hanging on a ghetto cross rendered by the scorn and deceit of evil forces, he encountered once again the gracious initiative of God he had experienced in the past through the loving care of his mother. Rather than seeking revenge from John and from those whose religious commitment cannot hide their prejudice, he went back to the streets walking tall, to continue in his struggle of love against racism, poverty, and injustice.

Hanging on the cross as a practice of faith

Westhelle argues in a recent publication that the most significant contribution of Protestantism in Latin America is its witness to what Luther understood as theologia crucis. For Luther, this central understanding of the gospel depicts a fundamental experience of the gospel. In fact, Luther preferred the phrase "a theologian of the cross" to "a theology of the cross" to emphasize that this theological notion referred to a theological praxis rather than a theological locus. (21)

Furthermore, it is Westhelle's conviction that the Protestant nature of Latin American liberation movements provides a more adequate understanding of Luther's teaching of the cross, as a theological perspective enabling our comprehension of God's self-revelation in history. His claim is that the 16th-century Protestant reformation and these Latin American militant movements share a common eschatological vision in which their mutual experience of exclusion and condemnation leads to the possibility of a true liberating experience. (22)

The final section of Piri Thomas's book serves as a powerful and persuasive witness to this conviction of faith. The concern of his wife Nita for Piri's irregular and decreasing participation in church services leads her to perceive in him an apparent spiritual decline produced by his unfortunate experience with John. A final conversation with her husband, however, helps clarify his unwavering expression of vital and resolute faith.

    "John really has messed up your feelings about God, eh, Piri?"
    "No, Nita. He's just been instrumental in opening my eyes to where
the reality is at."
    ... "Wow, honey, don't you dig that to us people of the Barrio the
ghetto is our church, and the only way we're going to make a heaven out
of this hell is by getting together. Jesus honey, ain't I right?"
    Nita smiled. I could tell she knew where I was coming from. "Nita,
there ain't no such word as defeat. Diggit. Like them blind churches
better get to see where it's really at." (23)

For most of those who read Thomas's autobiography from a pious religious perspective, the author's rejection of institutionalized forms of religion may stand as a setback or a type of reversal to his old ways. To be sure, his experience with Lenny, John, and other churchgoing Christians from the white middle class was more than wanting. It led to a prejudiced, intolerant, and dehumanizing relationship for those who were considered of lesser value and treated as inferior. (24) For Piri, this was a sort of Babylonian captivity of the church, its leaders, and its institutional forms that needed to be changed and radically transformed. His strong belief in the gospel, mediated through a variety of religious institutional forms and living witnesses, (25) sustained him from the temptation of falling into this hypocritical stance, a return to the violence of his former life, or the downfall of nihilism. Having experienced the gracious and liberating gift of God's love in his own life, he was committed to a faith active in love through traditional or nontraditional forms of institutional religion. His choice to continue his witness of love through his street ministry with kids and their families and friends, as well as with those already in prison, led to creative forms of being the church as a sign and proleptic anticipation of God's eschatological reign in history. (26)

At the end of the book, as Nita leaves for a church service, Piri remains in their house along with their son looking out the window, reflecting on the future ahead. "We are going to walk tall or not at all, World," I told myself. Then I smiled and half aloud whispered, "Hey, Jesus Christ, I betcha' there must be a million ghetto crosses out there." (27)

Piri eloquently expresses what I believe is the vital and enduring contribution of the spirit of Protestantism from a popular perspective.

1. Among the many Latino and Latina scholars engaged in this area of studies are Virgilio Elizondo, Ana Maria Pineda, Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, and Harold J. Recinos. One of the most important works addressing this topic is Orlando Espin's The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism (New York: Orbis, 1997).

2. See Luis N. Rivera-Pagan, Mito, Exilio y demonios: Literatura y teologia en America Latina (Hato Rey: Publicaciones Puertorriquenas, 1996), and Essays from the Diaspora (Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 2002).

3. For Rivera-Pagan, some of these attempts have been unfortunately limited to a mere rhetorical decoration (Mito, exilio y demonion, 8). The following are a number of publications that explore the dialogue between religion and literature. See their suggestions for significant literature in this area of research. Art/Literature/Religion: Life on the Borders, ed. Robert Detweiler (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983); David Jasper, The Study of Literature and Religion (Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1989); Religion and Literature: A Reader, ed. Robert Detweiler and David Jasper (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000). Among the works focusing on the Latin American context see Gustavo Gutierrez, Entre las calandrias: un ensayo sobre Jose Maria Arguedas (Lima: Instituto Bartolome de Las Casas, 1990); Reinero Arce Valentin, Religion: Poesia del mundo venidero. Las implicaciones teologicas en la obra de Jose Marti (Quito: Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias, 1996); Raul Fornet Betancourt, Filosofia, teologia, literatura: aportes cubanos en los ultimos 50 anos (Aachen: Concordia Reihe Nonographien, Band 25, 1999); Antonio Melo Magalhaes, "Notas introdutorias sobre teologia e literatura," in Cuadernos de Pos-Graduacao, no. 9 (Sao Paulo: Instituto de Encino Superior, 1997): 7-40.

4. Essays from the Diaspora, 27. Also, Vitor Westhelle and Hanna Betina Gotz, "In Quest of a Myth: Latin American Literature and Theology," in Journal of Hispanic/latino Theology, vol. 3, no. 1 (August 1995): 5-22; and Elsa Tamez, "Cuando los horizontes se cierran: Una reflexion sobre la razon utopica de Qohelet," in Cristianismo y sociedad 33: 123 (1995), 7. The above-mentioned works by Rivera-Pagan are important contributions in addressing this challenge. They provide a valuable historical and analytical survey of mostly, but not limited to, Latin American authors, bibliographical resources, and significant stages in this area of study. They also stand as some of his constructive contributions in provoking and moving forward this area of research. My goal in this study is to join Rivera-Pagan, Gotz, Westhelle, and others in this important effort by highlighting the contributions of Latino/a authors in the U.S.

5. See for example the suggestive study of Ana Maria Diaz-Stevens, "In the Image and Likeness of God: Literature as Theological Reflection," in Hispanic/Latino Theology: Challenge and Promise, ed. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Fernando F. Segovia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 86-103, or Elena Olazagasti-Segovia, "Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing: The Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Young, Bicultural Girl," in Hispanic/Latino Theology, 45-62.

6. See Samuel Solivan, "Sources of a Hispanic/Latino American Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective," in Hispanic/Latino Theology, 134-48; Angel Santiago-Vendrell, "Popular Religion as a Unifying Factor in the Latino/a Religious Community: A Pentecostal Proposal in US Latino/a Ecumenical Theology," Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12:1 (2003), 129-41; and the important study edited by David Maldonado, Protestantes/Protestant: Hispanic Christianity within Mainline Traditions (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999).

7. For more detailed information about his life and writings see www.cheverote.com.

8. Juan Flores, From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 167-88. In an earlier study on this subject Flores provides a history of Puerto Rican literature in the United States in which he argues that the contributions of Piri Thomas, Nicholasa Mohr, and others including Edward Rivera and Pedro Pietri belong to a literary genre that he calls popular, ethnic, minority, testimonial, or non-canonical literature. This literature produced by Nuyorrican authors (Puerto Ricans living in the United States) shares with the literature of other traditionally underrepresented communities in the United States (Chicanos/as, African Americans, etc.) its resistance of assimilation to the social, economic, political, and cultural values of the dominant sectors of North American society, along with an intentional interchange and collective affirmation of the complementary nature of their struggles. Juan Flores, La Venganza de Cortijo y otros ensayos (Rio Piedras: Ediciones Huracan, 1997), 131-55.

9. Antonio M. Stevens Arroyo, Prophets Denied Honor: An Anthology of the Hispanic Church in the United States (New York: Orbis, 1980).

10. See the interview Piri Thomas had with Dorothee von Huene Greenberg available at www.cheverote.com.

11. Vitor Westhelle, "Prefacio," in Jose D. Rodriguez, Justicia en nombre de Dios: Confesando la fe desde la perspectiva hispano/Latina (Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology Hispanic/Latino Ministry Program, 2002), xii.

12. Piri Thomas, Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand (New York: Doubleday, 1972).

13. Thomas, Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand 325-26.

14. Ibid., 259.

15. Ibid., 257.

16. Ibid., 333-34.

17. Ibid., 343.

18. Ibid., 344-45.

19. Ibid., 345.

20. Ibid., 348-49.

21. Vitor Westhelle, Voces de Protesta en America Latina (Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 2000), 111-20.

22. Westhelle, 107-27.

23. Thomas, 359-60.

24. In a recent conversation with the Puerto Rican anthropologist and MCC pastor Rev. Dr. Pablo Navarro, I was persuaded that today we need to add to these differences gender, sexual orientation, and non-Christian religious convictions.

25. In his first autobiographical book Thomas describes his experience with the religion of Islam. See Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets, 288-97. In the second he narrates his conversion to Pentecostalism. In both books he mentions his appreciation for a number of religious leaders that supported and inspired his spiritual life. In an interview with Humberto Cintron, Thomas provides a brief assessment of his understanding of and hope for the future contribution of religious institutions for the well-being of human beings. See "An interview With Piri Thomas by Humberto Cintron," at www.cheverote.com/reviews/cintroninterview.html.

26. In his thoughtful study on the church as a sign and present anticipation of God's reign, Jose D. Rodriguez-Rivera provides a persuasive and provocative study from a Latino Protestant perspective on the temptation felt by church leaders throughout history to confuse institutional forms of the Christian Church with God's promised reign in history. For this author the experiences of grassroots Christian communities emerging in Latin America and other Third World countries constitute creative forms of being the church today led by the power of God's Spirit, challenging institutional forms of religion and its leaders to a new reformation. Jose D. Rodriguez, La Iglesia, signo y primicia del reino: Reflexiones pastorales desde el Caribe y America Latina (Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Hispanic/Latino Ministry Program, 2003).

27. Thomas, 361.

Jose David Rodriguez

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago