Puerto Rican writer
Edgardo Vega Yunqué dead at 72
By Maria Vega
New York Daily News, September 4, 2008
Puerto Rican writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué, who founded the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in the lower East Side, has died, his literary agent said yesterday. He was 72.
The author of 17 novels, who was born in Cidra, Puerto Rico, and lived alone in Brooklyn, died at Lutheran Hospital on Aug. 25, the agent, Tom Colchie, said.
It was not clear yesterday why it took so long to know of his death. The cause of death is not yet known, Colchie added.
A spokesman for Lutheran Hospital couldn’t be reached for comment last night.
Vega Yunqué was “a great American writer as well as a great Puerto Rican writer,” said Colchie.
He added that Vega Yunqué’s best books, such as “Blood Fugues” and “Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle,” “will become classics."
His first novel, “The Comeback” was published in 1985.
Vega Yunqué moved to New York from Puerto Rico in the mid 1940s. He was the stepfather of singer Suzanne Vega. He was divorced and was not very close to his relatives, said Colchie.
The feisty writer, who was the director of the Clemente Soto Velez from 1993 to 2000, managed to alienate a lot of people throughout the years though lately he had been patching things up.
“He was a brilliant, conflictive man,” said media activist Marta García.
His last novel was a comic false memoir about a Jewish woman who meets a Puerto Rican Romeo and falls in love. It had been tentatively titled “Rebecca Horowitz, Puerto Rican Sex Freak" but publication was cancelled by the publisher recently, said Colchie, who’d been trying to find another publisher.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
About Edgardo Vega Yunqué: Wikipedia (2008)
Vega was born in Ponce and lived in Cidra, Puerto Rico until his family moved to the South Bronx in 1949. Even as a child, he loved to read, and became familiar with many of the great European works.
After graduating from high school in 1954, Vega joined the United States Air Force. During his leave time, Vega read American literature, after finding a large collection of books at his sister's house.
After his time in the Air Force, he attended Santa Monica College, and eventually got his degree from New York University. He dropped out of school after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and began working in East Harlem as part of the war on poverty. He has also stated that he has been heavily influenced by Holocaust literature and by the concern of the Irish members of his childhood neighborhood for the independence and reunion of their native country.
He has focused on writing since 1972, and published his first short story, "Wild Horses" in Nuestra Magazine in 1977. He has written 14 novels and 3 story collections. He says that he often works on several books at once and has no problem keeping track of them:
Since my work is about people and my affection for them, I don’t lose track of who they are just like I don’t lose track of my children or other relatives and acquaintances. I have friends--and characters--who I don’t see for a long time, but as soon as we get together we pick up where we left off.
He has taught creative writing at the Latin American Writers Institute and at the New School for Social Research, as well as at Hostos Community College, Hunter College, and SUNY Old Westbury. He has also served as Director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center.
He is also the stepfather of singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega.
ARTICLES, ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS & PHOTOS
Scenes from the Marathon Public Reading and Tribute to Edgardo Vega Yunqué at MediaNoche Gallery (November 15,2008)
Eduardo Vega-Yunqué y su novela inédita (El Diario/La Prensa, 15 de Octubre, 2008)
Scenes from the Memorial for the late Edgardo Vega Yunqué at the New York Culture Center (September 15, 2008)
Not Available at Your Local Bookseller: Edgardo Vega Yunqué’s Latest Novel (Brooklyn Rail, September 12, 2008)
Edgardo Vega Yunqué, Novelist of the Puerto Rican Experience in New York, Dies at 72 (New York Times, September 9, 2008)
Murió el escritor Edgardo Vega Yunque (El Diario/La Prensa, 9 de Septiembre, 2008)
Chronicler of New York Leaves the Scene (The New York Times, September 8, 2008)
Rican Writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué Passes (Vivir Latino, September 5, 2008)
RIP Edgardo Vega Yunqué (Sound Taste, September 5, 2008)
Writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué dead at 72 (New York Daily News, September 4, 2008)
A Spanish-Language Store Is Forced to Close Its Books (The New York Times, September 24, 2007)
“Literary Preoccupations: An Interview with Puerto Rican Author Edgardo Vega Yunqué” (Richard Pérez, Centro Journal, 2006)
‘A Neighborhood Replete With Ghosts’ (The New York Times, June 19, 2005)
A Haven for the Arts, Divided by Genre (The New York Times, July 13, 2004)
Leonard Lopete Interviews Edgardo Vega Yunque (WYNC Radio, July 5, 2004)
One Cultural Center Stays, Another to Go (The New York Times, March 21, 2004)
Music of the Rails, Calculations of a Dealer (The New York Times, March 21, 2004)
‘No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook…” Sax and the City (The New York Times, December 14, 2003)
This Boy’s Freedom (The New York Times, August 31, 2003)
Artist vs. Artist ... 2 Groups Battle for Control of City-Owned Cultural Center (The New York Times, August 10, 2000)
Edgardo Vega Yunque (Harper Collins)
Biography by Antonia Domínguez Miguela
Edgardo Vega Yunqué (Wikipedia, 2008)
Website of Edgardo Vega Yunqué (Author's Guild)
Puerto Rican Vision: Edgardo Vega Yunqué's Blog
Photos of Edgardo Vega Yunqué in East Harlem (2005) |
