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Student Activities for Amigo Brothers
- What is true friendship?
- What effect can sports have on a community?
- How can sports have a positive impact on people? A negative impact?
- Can true friendship survive competition?
Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas are seventeen-year-olds who have grown up best friends in New York City. They are boxing fans and have trained for years in the sport. They are each other’s best sparring partners. Though they are completely different in their appearances (Antonio is lean and slick, while Felix is stocky and muscular), they both have the same training ethics and dreams of fighting greatness.
Each boy has been quite successful, with gold medals to prove it. After a series of fights, the two boys are informed that they are set to fight each other. They continue to train together, but they sense something starting to come between them. Neither wants their fight to impact their friendship.
After a week, Felix asks how they should deal with their upcoming fight. How are they supposed to fight each other, possibly hurting one another, each wanting to win, and still remain friends? They mutually decide that they will be professional about the fight, as they each want to win. They won’t restrain themselves, but neither will they hold anything against the other. They also decide that with only a week left, they should train separately. They hug goodbye and don’t see each other until fight day.
The night before the fight, trying to forget that each might hurt his friend, they each take some time to relax and prepare in their own way. Antonio goes up to the roof of his tenement building and looks at the city. When thoughts of his best friend start to creep in, he does some shadow boxing and footwork. He practices away his worries and goes to bed, dreaming about the opening bell. Felix, relaxes and tries to remove the worrisome thoughts by watching a movie about boxing. He starts seeing himself and Antonio as the characters. He is able to imagine himself as the winner. He goes to bed and sleeps restlessly.
The morning of the fight, the boys are in the right mindset. Neighborhood residents like and respect both boys, and the fight brings people together with excitement. Antonio and Felix go round after round, each with a very different fighting style, and each knowing the other, inside and out. The fight goes on and on, and each boy takes a beating. By the end of the story, the boys have fought three rounds and ignored the final bell, wanting to have a winner by knockout. As the announcer goes to say who the winner is, the boys walk out of the ring, arm in arm.
"Amigo Brothers" is a short story by Piri Thomas. It was published in 1978 as part of Stories from El Barrio, Thomas' short story collection for young adults. "Amigo Brothers" follows two best friends from a poor New York City neighborhood as they prepare to compete against each other in their shared passion: boxing.
- Author: Piri Thomas
- Year Published: 1978
- Publisher: Knopf
- Genre: Young adult fiction
- Original Language: English
- Type of Work: Short story
- Themes: Positivity, purity of sports, Afro-Latin culture
- Characters: Antonio Cruz, Felix Vargas
"Amigo Brothers" tells the story of Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas, teenage best friends who live and breathe the sport of boxing. They train together whenever they can and share an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport and its stars. Their passion for boxing is a positive element of their lives that has kept them away from gangs and drugs, which are prevalent in their New York City neighborhood.
One day, Antonio and Felix learn that they are set to fight each other in an elimination bout that will determine which of them goes on to compete in the Golden Gloves—the first step towards a real professional fighting career. Initially, the two friends pretend that their upcoming fight changes nothing. However, they soon agree that they should separate until the fight in order to train independently. In addition to physical training, both Antonio and Felix work to get into the right psychological state to fight their best friend.
On fight night, Tompkins Square Park is filled with cheering fans. Because they know each other so well, Felix and Antonio are able to counter each other's every move throughout the fight. Both boys are battered and exhausted by the end of the fight, but when the final bell sounds, they immediately embrace in shared triumph, and the crowd cheers. Before the winner of the fight can be announced, Felix and Antonio walk away, arm in arm.
Antonio Cruz. Antonio is tall and lanky—a naturally skilled technical boxer. He uses his long reach to penetrate his opponent’s defenses.
Felix Vargas. Felix is short and stocky—not as technically skilled as Antonio, but a powerful slugger. He relies on the power of his punches to pummel opponents into submission.
"Amigo Brothers" is told in a straightforward manner using a third-person narrator. The prose is simple and all information is given efficiently and without fanfare, a style that makes the story accessible for all readers. The dialogue includes Puerto Rican slang, which adds a casual, genuine dimension to the characters' conversations.
Positivity. Thomas saw his writing as a tool to help kids in underprivileged neighborhoods see potential paths for their lives beyond gangs and violence. In "Amigo Brothers," Thomas purposefully minimized the presence and power of gangs and crime. In one sequence, Felix is menaced by some gang members, but they let him pass unmolested when he does some shadow-boxing, demonstrating his skills. The scene suggests that positive activities have the power to protect and serve you.
Purity of Sports. The book suggests that the sportsmanlike behavior the boys have learned while training to be boxers has helped them become remarkable. They fight each other not out of hatred or even the desire to win, but rather for the love of competition. At the end of each fight, the boys are triumphant and happy for each other no matter who wins, because they tried their best and survived.
- “STORIES FROM EL BARRIO by Piri Thomas.” Kirkus Reviews, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/piri-thomas/stories-from-el-barrio/.
- “Why Piri Thomas' Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 20 June 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/piri-thomas-and-power-self-portrayal-180963651/.
- Berger, Joseph. “Piri Thomas, Author of 'Down These Mean Streets,' Dies.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/books/piri-thomas-author-of-down-these-mean-streets-dies.html.
- Marta. “‘Puerto Rican Negro’: Defining Race in Piri Thomas's Down These Mean Streets | MELUS | Oxford Academic.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 June 2004, academic.oup.com/melus/article-abstract/29/2/205/941660?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
- Short Stories for Students. Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories. Gale Group, 2010.
Thomas pays such close attention to the setting of ‘‘Amigo Brothers’’ that it becomes a prominent part of the story. He is specific in letting the reader know—in the very first paragraph—that this story takes place in a particular area of New York City. He goes so far as to tell the reader in which tenement building Antonio and Felix live. The address of the Boys Club is given, as are the locations for two other gyms. These are the places the main characters frequent to exercise and practice boxing. Even when the boys go running, Thomas lets the reader know that they are running along East River Drive, and that the edge of the river is dirty. When they stop to talk, Felix leans on a railing and looks across at Brooklyn. In a poignant moment on the night before the fight, Antonio is on a rooftop. Thomas describes the sights and sounds around Antonio. Even the neighborhood toughs and the throngs of boxing fans are described, so that the setting is more than the buildings and features, but it is characterized by the people who live in it.
Thomas’s attention to the setting of the story accomplishes a couple of things. First, it gives the story depth and realism. The story seems much more realistic and believable when it is placed in such a real setting. The voice of the narrator and the backgrounds of the characters have more authenticity. Second, the details of the setting speak directly to the people who live in that area. Thomas knew Spanish Harlem and New York City, and his writing was about them. To the people who know the same neighborhoods, Thomas’s story has more credibility and relevance.
Language
Known for his unusual use of language and dialect in his autobiography Down the Mean Streets (1967), Thomas is skilled at using these elements to bring his stories to life and stay true to his own experience. He does the same thing in ‘‘Amigo Brothers’’ by incorporating slang and Spanish words. Antonio calls Felix panı´n, which is a word for a pal or a buddy. Felix says that he and Antonio are cheverote fighters, meaning that they are really cool. The word hermano means ‘‘brother,’’ and ¿sabes? means ‘‘understand?’’ During the fight, Antonio and Felix are described as fighting with mucho corazo´n, meaning that they fought ‘‘with a lot of heart.’’
In addition to Spanish vocabulary, some of which is specific to American Spanish speakers, Thomas incorporates some of the slang of the time. When he says that the boys rapped positive, he means that they talked about positive things. The term ‘‘slapped skin’’ is what today is called ‘‘high fived.’’ Thomas’s use of Spanish and street language makes his story and characters more interesting and realistic.
Source:
Sara Constantakis, Thomas E. Barden – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 28 (2010) – Piri Thomas – Published by Gale Cengage Learning.