Victor Hernandez Cruz (born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico) emigrated to New York City as a child and became a foundational voice in Nuyorican poetry. His debut collection, Snaps (Random House, 1969), published when he was nineteen, was among the first bilingual Latino poetry collections to receive major mainstream attention. His work blends Spanish and English, jazz rhythms, Caribbean oral tradition, and New York street life in a formally inventive poetry of celebration and resistance. He is a founding member of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. His collections include Mainland (1973), Tropicalization (1976), and Red Beans (1991). He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.