Sánchez, Luis Rafael

Sánchez, Luis Rafael

(1936–  ) writer; born in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Prolific essayist, playwright, and novelist, he was the Puerto Rican writer with the greatest international reputation in the second half of the 20th century. In 1963 he won the Paris-based review Cuadernos Award for the best Puerto Rican short story published that year and in 1979 he was awarded a Guggenheim. His 1976 novel, La guaracha del Macho Camacho (Macho Camacho's Beat), in which characters, many caught in a monstrous traffic jam, speculate on life in vivid Puerto Rican vernacular, was a best-seller both in Spanish and English.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.