The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Víctor Fernández Fragoso (Víctor Fragoso) was born in 1944 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico and died in 1982 of HIV in New York, New York. He was a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, essayist, and professor. Fragoso was one of the first Puerto Rican poets to write openly about homosexuality. He studied biology at the University of Puerto Rico. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree, he moved to New York, New York to take a position as a research assistant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He left this position in 1967 to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Connecticut. He later taught Puerto Rican literature and Spanish language at Rutgers University. He was an active participant in theater with his plays being presented at DUO Theater in New York and Riviera Theater in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as writing and directing plays for various theater companies, including Teatro Orilla, Teatro 4, Teatro Pregones, Teatro Pobre de America, INTAR, and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater . He founded Teatro Guazábara in 1972 and the Puerto Rican Theater Collective in 1979. His works include El reino de la espiga: canto al coraje de Walt y Federico (Editorial Erizo, 1973) and Ser islas/Being Islands (Libro Viaje, 1976)

Works Cited

Duran, Herbert A. Victor Fernández Fragoso Papers [finding aid], 2023, https://centroarchives.hunter.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/189. CENTRO Library & Archives, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College CUNY, New York, New York.

Martínez-Reyes, Consuelo. “A Needed Revision of Víctor Fragoso’s Work Is Coming Our Way” Centro Voices E-Magazine, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, 2017, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 105-106.