Miguel Piñero

Miguel Piñero (December 19, 1946 – June 16, 1988) was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.

Early years Piñero was born on December 19, 1946, in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, to Miguel Angel Gómez Ramos and Adelina Piñero. In 1950, when Miguel was four, he moved with his parents and sister Elizabeth to Loisaida (or Lower East Side) in New York City. His father abandoned the family in 1954 when his mother was pregnant with their fifth child. His mother then moved into a basement and began receiving welfare. He attended four different schools, three public and one parochial. He would steal food for his family to eat. His first of many criminal convictions came at the age of eleven, for theft. He was sent to the Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx, and to Otisville State Training School for Boys. He joined a street gang called "The Dragons" when he was 13; when he was 14, he was hustling in the streets.

He moved to Brooklyn, where he and three other friends committed robberies (according to Piñero, more than 100), until they were caught at a jewelry store. He was sent to Rikers Island in 1964. After this, he joined the Job Corps, and was sent to Camp Kilmer for training. It turned out the opportunity was, as Piñero put it, "Dope City, Skag Town." He returned to New York City and became affiliated with the Young Lords, a group similar to the Black Panthers. He was back in Rikers for drug possession not long after, and spent time at Phoenix House. After his second stint at Rikers, his mother sent him to Manhattan State Hospital, where he would receive his high-school equivalency diploma.

Short Eyes

In 1972, when Piñero was 25 years old, he was incarcerated in Sing Sing prison for second-degree armed robbery. His first literary work was Black Woman with a Blonde Wig On. Marvin Felix Camillo, the director of The Family, an acting troupe made up of ex-cons, submitted the poem to a contest, which it won. The warden of Sing Sing then became concerned that "contraband" was being taken from the prison and nearly put Camillo in jail after seeing an article in the newspaper. While serving time in prison, Piñero wrote the play Short Eyes as part of the inmates' playwriting workshop. Mel Gussow came to see it, and due to his review in The New York Times, the director of the Theater at Riverside Church wanted Piñero to present it there.

While on set, he and Tito Goya were arrested for armed robbery and were arraigned in the same building where they were filming. The charges were dropped, but some thought Piñero had a "need" to go back to prison. The following year, Piñero was arrested and charged with armed robbery, but those charges were also dropped when state Supreme Court Judge Peter J. McQuillan ruled that the evidence against him and two other men was inadmissible in court, because there was no justifiable cause for the arrest.

In subsequent years, Piñero would land supporting roles in such films as The Jericho Mile (1979), Times Square (1980), Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981), Breathless (1983), Deal of the Century (1983), and Alphabet City (1984). Piñero was considered a talented writer who described the evils of society, even though he continued to be a drug addict. Piñero wrote the Baretta TV episode "The Gadjo" in 1978 and acted in the episode "Por Nada" in 1977. He played the part of drug lord Esteban Calderone in two episodes of the TV series Miami Vice in 1984 and drug cartel boss Esteban Revilla in another episode in 1985, as well as writing the 1984 episode "Smuggler's Blues". He also wrote the screenplay for the 1977 film Short Eyes.

Miguel Piñero died on June 16, 1988, in New York City from cirrhosis. Piñero's ashes were scattered across the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as he asked in his 1985 "Lower East Side Poem". The homage to his beloved neighborhood concluded:

Leading up to his death, he was working with Papp on a new play to premiere at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Every Form of Refuge Has Its Price, his unfinished piece, is set in an intensive care unit. He also had another unfinished play, The Cinderella Ballroom.

Typescripts for Piñero's The Guntower and All Junkies are in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The poems "January In Motion" and "The Bronx 1979" by Neil Raymond Ricco were written for Pińero.

In 2022, Piñero was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, with a profile written by theatre scholar Karen Jaime.

Awards and nominations Awards 1974 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding New Playwright 1974 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Best American Play 1974 Obie Award, Best American Play 1982 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art Nominations 1975 Tony Award for Best Play

Pinero was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2013.

Work

Filmography Kojak (1977, TV Series) – Rudy Looking Up (1977) – Mugger Short Eyes (1977) – Go-Go The Jericho Mile (1979, TV Movie) – Rubio The Streets of L.A. (1979, TV Movie) – 2nd Duster Times Square (1980) – Roberto See China and Die (1981, TV Movie) – Gonzalez Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) – Hernando Exposed (1983) – Man in the Street (New York) Breathless (1983) – Carlito Deal of the Century (1983) – Molino Miami Vice (1984–1985, TV Series) – Esteban Calderone / Esteban Revilla Alphabet City (1984) – Dealer Almost You (1985) – Ralph The Equalizer (1985, TV series) - Super - "Lady Cop" D.C. Cops (1986, TV Movie) – Pablo The Equalizer (1986) - Drunk - "Counterfire"

Plays All Junkies (1973) Straight from the Ghetto (1973) Short Eyes (1974) Sideshow (1974) The Guntower (1976) The Sun Always Shines for the Cool (1976) Eulogy for a Small Time Thief (1977) Paper Toilet (1979) Cold Beer (1979) NuYorican Nights at the Stanton Street Social Club (1980) Playland Blues (1980) Midnight Moon at the Greasy Spoon (1981)