Cool Salsa

Óscar Jerome Hijuelos was born in Manhattan, New York on August 24, 1951 to Cuban immigrant parents. He received a bachelor's degree and a master of fine arts degree from City College. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983 and won the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other works include The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Mr. Ives' Christmas, Empress of the Splendid Season, A Simple Habana Melody (From When the World was Good), Beautiful Maria of My Soul, Another Spaniard in the Works, and Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise. His novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was made into a 1992 movie starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. He also wrote a young adult novel entitled Dark Dude and a memoir entitled Thoughts Without Cigarettes. In 2000, he received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature. He died after collapsing with a heart attack while playing tennis on October 12, 2013 at age 62.

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