Victor Hernández Cruz – one of America’s greatest poets
One of the greatest poets of America, Victor Hernández Cruz became the first Hispanic poet to be published by a mainstream publishing house. This happened in 1969, when his poem “Snaps” has been published by Random House. He was named one of America’s greatest poets by Life Magazine, in a 1981 edition.
Victor Hernández Cruz was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, on February 6, 1949. In 1954, he moved together with his family to the United States, where he attended high school in New York.
He developed his love for writing at an early age, when he was only fifteen years old. According to his opinion, he started writing for creating a balance between the different worlds that he knew. He considered
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The judges considered that this work presents a complex connection between the two cultures – that of the US and of the Latino. They described Cruz as being a great poet, characterized by intelligence and humor.
However, his career doesn’t stop at being an author and editor. He is also the co-founder of the East Harlem Gut Theatre in New York and the Before Columbus Foundation. In addition to these, Cruz is a former editor of Umbra Magazine. He worked as a teacher at the University of California at Berkeley and San Diego, San Francisco State College and at the University of Michigan.
Cruz has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Guggenheim Foundation. Between 2008 and 2013, he served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Cruz considers that his poems are a way of traveling for him, and he explains that his poems don’t express himself, but rather his culture. Moving from Puerto Rico to the USA inspired his writings and gave his poems a unique feel that represents