Victor Hernández Cruz (b. 1949) Today Is a Day of Great Joy LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY Victor Hernández Cruz (b. 1949) Cruz was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and came with his family to New York City in 1954. He recalls, "My family life was full of music, guitars and conga drums, maracas and songs.... Even when it was five below zero in New York [my mother] sang warm tropical ballads." By 1966, he had already completed a collection of verse, Papa Got His Gun, and Other Poems, and in 1969 published Snaps. He has edited Umbra magazine in New York, lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at San Francisco State University. Cruz says he writes in three languages: Spanish, English, and Bilingual. "From the mixture a totally new language emerges, an intense collison, not just of words, but of attitudes." His other works include Mainland (1973), Tropicalizations (1976), Rhythm, Content, and Flavor: New and Selected Poems (1989), and Red Beans: Poems (1991).