Oscar Hijuelos

An item at American Writers Museum

The son of Cuban immigrants, Oscar Hijuelos wrote movingly about the bittersweet struggle to assimilate into American culture. His memoir and seven novels meditate on the meaning of identity, family, and the American definition of success. As a storyteller, he blended myth and history, satire and lyricism, the romantic and the gritty.

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), for which Hijuelos won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (making him the first Latino to do so), tells the story of two Cuban musicians who move to New York City in pursuit of fame and fortune. New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani called the novel "another kind of American story-an immigrant story of lost opportunities and squandered hopes."

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum