Portrait of Oscar Hijuelos

Birthday profile

Oscar Hijuelos

Oscar Hijuelos, American author and academic (died 2013)

Born
August 24, 1951
Died
October 12, 2013
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1951

About Oscar Hijuelos

Oscar Jerome Hijuelos was an American novelist. Oscar Hijuelos was born on August 24, 1951. In addition to the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, Hijuelos received an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1983, the year he published his first novel, Our House in the Last World. For his second novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (later adapted for the movie The Mambo Kings), he became the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983, and won the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1985 the novel received the Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Oscar Hijuelos timeline

  1. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983, and won the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  2. In 1985 the novel received the Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome.
  3. In addition to the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, Hijuelos received an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1983, the year he published his first novel, Our House in the Last World.

The world when Oscar Hijuelos was born

Oscar Hijuelos was born in 1951. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1951

  • #1 song"Too Young" – Nat King Cole
  • Top movieAn American in Paris
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookThe Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Round the World"
  • Top headlineI Love Lucy premieres and becomes a cultural phenomenon
  • Technology milestoneFirst commercial computer (UNIVAC I) delivered
  • Defining fadI Love Lucy
  • Notable inventionSuper Glue
  • World population2.59 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonRochester Royals (NBA)
  • U.S. population154.0M

1951 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Oscar Hijuelos's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19512026
Gas$0.27$3.45/gal
Average home$8,800$435,000
Average income$5,500$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.53$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population154.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.