Oscar Hijuelos
The first Latino novelist to win the Pulitzer Prize, capturing the music, longing, and dislocation of the Cuban-American journey.
1951–2013 (age 62)·American novelist·Birthday: August 24·Baby Boomers
Biography
Oscar Hijuelos wrote from the space between two worlds, crafting lush, melancholic narratives steeped in the rhythms of pre-revolution Cuba and the stark reality of New York City. His breakthrough, 'The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,' was a sensation—a vibrant, tragic tale of musician brothers chasing the American dream that earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990. His prose was musical and sensory, often exploring how identity is fractured and remade through exile, a theme rooted in his own childhood experience of losing his Spanish language during a prolonged hospital stay. While celebrated for his depictions of Cuban-American life, Hijuelos resisted being pigeonholed, later writing novels that ventured into different ethnic neighborhoods and historical periods of New York. His work stands as a poignant, richly detailed testament to the immigrant soul, forever remembering a homeland just out of reach.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Oscar was born in 1951, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Oscar Was Born
The biggest hits of 1951
#1 Movie
Quo Vadis
Best Picture
An American in Paris
#1 TV Show
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
Oscar's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1951Born
First color TV broadcast in the US
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Too Young" — Nat King ColeBest Picture: An American in Paris
1956Started school
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1964Became a teenager
Civil Rights Act signed; Beatles arrive in America
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $13,450Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"I Want to Hold Your Hand" — The BeatlesBest Picture: My Fair Lady
1967Could drive
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
1969Could vote
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1972Turned 21
Watergate break-in; last Apollo Moon mission
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $19,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" — Roberta FlackBest Picture: The Godfather
1981Turned 30
MTV launches; first Space Shuttle flight; AIDS identified
Gas: $1.31/galHome: $52,300Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Bette Davis Eyes" — Kim CarnesBest Picture: Chariots of Fire
1991Turned 40
Soviet Union dissolves; World Wide Web goes public
Gas: $1.14/galHome: $82,400Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: George H.W. Bush"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" — Bryan AdamsBest Picture: The Silence of the Lambs
2001Turned 50
September 11 attacks transform the world
Gas: $1.46/galHome: $126,400Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Hanging by a Moment" — LifehouseBest Picture: A Beautiful Mind
2011Turned 60
Osama bin Laden killed; Arab Spring sweeps the Middle East
Gas: $3.53/galHome: $138,400Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Rolling in the Deep" — AdeleBest Picture: The Artist
2013Died at 62
Edward Snowden reveals NSA surveillance programs
Gas: $3.53/galHome: $152,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Thrift Shop" — Macklemore & Ryan LewisBest Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Key Achievements
- Became the first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel 'The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love' in 1990.
- Saw 'The Mambo Kings' adapted into a major Hollywood film in 1992, starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas.
- Was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- His novel 'Our House in the Last World' was a recipient of the Ingram Merrill Foundation award.
Did You Know?
As a child, he spent a year in a Connecticut hospital recovering from a kidney infection, where he forgot how to speak Spanish.
He worked for many years in advertising media transportation at a New York agency while writing his early novels.
He was a talented percussionist and had a deep, personal love for the music he wrote about in 'The Mambo Kings'.
He taught creative writing at several institutions, including Hofstra University and Duke University.
“Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out.”
