Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American novelist, died this past Saturday in Manhattan. The author of the fictional masterpiece The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was playing tennis with his wife, Lori Marie Carlson, when he collapsed, suffering a heart attack, and never regained consciousness.

Hijuelos, 62, was the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize, earning it for the aforementioned novel, which captured the successes, struggles and failures of the Cuban immigrant, and other non-native experiences, in America. The subjects of many of his novels were motivated by his Cuban immigrant parents who moved to New York before having Hijuelos.

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a novel that tells the story of two Cubans who journey to New York to start an orchestra. The novel is told from the point of view of one of the brothers, who's looking at his life in retrospect, rehashing memories like an appearance of I Love Lucy, and a life that was greatly motivated by love and music.

Hijuelos' other major works were Our House in the Last World (1983), The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien (1993), Mr. Ives' Christmas (1995), Empress of the Splendid Season (1999) A Simple Habana Melody (2002), Dark Dude (2008), Beautiful Maria of My Soul (2010), and Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir (2011).

In Hijuelos' memoir, Thoughts Without Cigarettes, he wrote about suffering from a life threatening kidney disease when visiting Cuba as a child, which left him hospitalized for a year -and, also resulted in him losing his ability to speak Spanish, which he never regained. And, he spoke about disking being labeled an "ethnic" writer, stating that he simply did his own thing. Also, because of his childhood ordeal, he found himself detached and estranged from his own language and heritage, and was constantly attempting to capture culture that seemed inherent to others. He consumed writing by Carlos Fuentes Jose Lezama Lima, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which helped to influence his writing and provide him with an understanding of his culture.

Hijuelos grew up in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, raised by his parents in a Spanish-speaking home, though he was only able to speak English after returning from Cuba. Hijuelos graduated from Louis D. Brandeis High School, and earned his BA and MFA from City College. In addition to writing, Hijuelos also taught at Hofstra University.