Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Adios to Puerto Rican writer, Ed Vega
September 10, 2008

I just got word about Puerto Rican born writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué's death. He was 72 and died at Lutheran Hospital in New York City on August  25. The New York Times writer David Gonzalez wrote a very touching obituary about his friend, Ed Vega, that's worth reading. I never met him officially but knew who he was (if you're Latino and live in New York, it's hard not to).  I saw him now and again at book events and in the hallways around the cultural center he founded in the Lower East Side called the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. I remember that before I read one of his novels, with their extremely long titles, I was told by a Puerto Rican writer friend about him; his temper, his politics, his bohemian life. Being a child of the 80's, I'm embarrassed to say that what probably stood out most before reading him, was detail that he was that My Name is Luca singer Suzanne Vega's stepfather.  Really? Yes.

Though known as an encouraging father figure to young artists, in the publishing world, he was known as a rough and tumble writer, hard to edit, hard to market, hard to box in any way. But in an interview with Richard Perez in reference to perhaps his most celebrated and ambitious novel's classification, No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cause Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again: A Symphonic Novel, he said: "that undeniably it was an American novel."

But that.....

"If they want to talk about me, please include me with (Puerto Rican writers) Enrique Laguerre, Luis Rafael Sànchez, Ana Lydia Vega, and Mayra Santos Febres. Yes. Those are my homeboys and girls. Even though I have no problem sitting with writers from U.S. Literature. It is also an honor to be told that my novel belongs on a shelf with Melville and Ellison."

Rest in Peace, Ed....

The writer, Edgardo Vega Yunqué.

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on September 10, 2008 | Comments (0)