Author
Oscar Hijuelos
Birth Date
August 24, 1951
(62 Years)
Death Date
October 12, 2013
Associated Country
United States
Oscar Hijuelos was an American novelist known for his rich portrayals of Cuban American life and culture. He was born in New York City to Cuban immigrant parents and grew up in a Spanish-speaking household. His early experiences moving between American and Cuban cultural influences would later shape much of his writing.
Hijuelos studied at City College of New York, where he developed his interest in literature. He gained widespread recognition with his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), which tells the story of two Cuban musicians trying to find success in the United States. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990, making him the first Hispanic author to receive the honor.
Throughout his career, Hijuelos continued to explore themes of identity, memory, music, and the immigrant experience in works such as Our House in the Last World and Mr. Ives’ Christmas. He is remembered as an important voice in American literature, particularly for bringing Latino perspectives into the mainstream literary world.
Hijuelos studied at City College of New York, where he developed his interest in literature. He gained widespread recognition with his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), which tells the story of two Cuban musicians trying to find success in the United States. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990, making him the first Hispanic author to receive the honor.
Throughout his career, Hijuelos continued to explore themes of identity, memory, music, and the immigrant experience in works such as Our House in the Last World and Mr. Ives’ Christmas. He is remembered as an important voice in American literature, particularly for bringing Latino perspectives into the mainstream literary world.
Books
Dark Dude 2025
Fifteen-year-old Rico Fuentes has had enough of life in Harlem, where his fair complexion—inherited from an Irish grandfather—keeps him caught between two cultures without belonging to either. He...
The year is 1947. Israel Levis, a Cuban composer whose life once revolved around music and love, is finally returning home. En route to Habana, Cuba from Spain, he is a shadow of his former self,...
In The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, María is the great Cuban beauty who stole musician Nestor Castillo’s heart and broke it, inspiring him to write the Mambo Kings’ biggest hit, ‘Beautiful María of...
Acclaimed novelist Oscar Hijuelos was fascinated by the Twain-Stanley connection and eventually began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a...
After buying a used copy of A Spaniard in the Works on an October evening in 1980, Victor Mercado, a twenty-seven-year old clerk, had a chance encounter that would change his outlook forever: he met...
Hector Santinio is the younger son of Cuban immigrants living in New York. Caught between his mother's anxieties and his father's macho expectations, he struggles to find an identity for himself while...
In a small town in rural Pennsylvania, Irish photographer Nelson O'Brien and Cuban poet Mariela Montez raise fourteen daughters and one son. In The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Pulitzer...
Born in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights to Cuban immigrants in 1951, Oscar Hijuelos introduces readers to the colorful circumstances of his upbringing. The son of a Cuban hotel worker and exuberant...
Mr. Ives' Christmas 2003
Hijuelos' novel tells the story of Mr. Ives, who was adopted from a foundling's home as a child. When we first meet him in the 1950s, Mr. Ives is very much a product of his time. He has a successful...
In 1940s New York City, Cuban brothers Cesar and Nestor Castillo arrive with dreams of making their mark through music. Forming the Mambo Kings band, they find moments of success playing in clubs and...