Yglesias, Jose

▪ 1996

      U.S. author and journalist (b. Nov. 29, 1919, Tampa, Fla.—d. Nov. 7, 1995, New York, N.Y.), wrote fiction about Latinos and nonfiction about life in Latin America and Spain, the latter of which was particularly concerned with revolutions and how they affect individuals. In addition to penning about a dozen novels and works of nonfiction, he contributed articles to leading magazines, translated books from Spanish, and tried his hand at writing for the theatre. Yglesias, whose ethnic background was Cuban and Spanish, was raised in Ybor City, a Hispanic neighbourhood of Tampa. He relocated to New York City in 1936, served in the navy during World War II, attended college for a year, and worked as a journalist. He held an executive position at a pharmaceutical company from 1953 until 1963, when his first novel—A Wake in Ybor City—was published. Afterward, both he and his wife, Helen, became full-time novelists. The Goodbye Land (1967) traced his family roots in Galicia, Spain, where his father had returned to die. In the work In the Fist of the Revolution (1968), he chronicled the hopes of the townspeople of Mayarí, Cuba, in response to the communist revolution. In these and other nonfiction works—Down There (1970) and The Franco Years (1977)—Yglesias used a sympathetic but impartial technique to convey the zeal of foreign revolutionaries. He focused on the histories of Cuban-American families in the novels The Truth About Them (1971), The Kill Price (1976), Home Again (1987), and Tristan and the Hispanics (1989). His other novels include An Orderly Life (1968), Double Double (1974), and Widower's Walk (1996).

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