Author: Oscar Hijuelos

Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013) was an American-born novelist who grew up in New York City, raised by Cuban parents who immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s. He attended City College of New York, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 and a Master’s degree in creative writing in 1976. In 1978, his short story “Columbus Discovering America” received a Pushcart Press citation for Outstanding Writer. Hijuelos was the first Hispanic winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which he received in 1990 for his work The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, later adapted into a film and play. His influences included writers from Cuba and Latin America, including Carlos Fuentes, José Lezama Lima, and Gabriel García Márquez. 

Visitors, 1965

Oscar Hijuelos

American-born novelist Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013) grew up in New York City, raised by Cuban parents who immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s. He funneled the alienation he felt growing up between two worlds into his writing.