VivirLatino

Rican Writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué Passes

09:45 H | Topics: Books - Literature - Puerto Rico

Sad news from the Rican literary/culture community this morning. Puerto Rican writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué passed away at age 72. The Cidra, Puerto Rico native, who lived in Brooklyn, wrote 17 novels founded the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in the Lower East Side.

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 [his agent].

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.

Edited to add: Caro over at Soundtaste has an interesting post up about her last conversation with Vega. I had no idea he was considered machista. I've been to Clemente Soto Velez a few times (I dance with Junot Diaz there YEARS ago at a fundraiser) but I am sad to say I've never read a book by Ed Vega. Time to start I guess.
Via / NY Daily News

Related

• National Rican Organization Challenges Presidential Candidates to Speak Address the Community (Wednesday, Sep 17 2008)
• Martes Morning Musica : SieteNueve to Daddy Yankee “Quedate Callao" (Tuesday, Sep 16 2008)