Yunior de Las Casas

Yunior de Las Casas is a fictional character and the subject of two short story collections by author Junot Diaz entitled Drown in 1996 and This is How You Lose Her in 2012. Yunior was also one of the narrators in Diaz's first novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007.

Yunior de Las Casas
First appearance	Drown
Created by	Junot Diaz
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Family	Virta de Las Casas (mother) Rafa de Las Casas (brother)

Inception

Yunior came to life by the pen of Junot Diaz in 1991. He states that Yunior was the subject of a short story that was used as his piece to get into Cornell University.^[1] Díaz has also stated that with Yunior, the idea was to be able to get out six or seven books about Yunior that would form a novel.^[2] Díaz writes about the immigrant experience from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to the industrial background of New Jersey. Front and center for all the exploration of this theme as well as race, masculinity, and sex is Yunior, the alter-ego of Junot Diaz.^[3]

In Other Media

In the off-broadway adaptation of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" that premiered in 2019 at Spanish Repertory Theatre, Yunior is played by Dominican actor Mario Peguero. ^[4] The play is still part of the theater's repertoire and they have performances scheduled until December 2023.^[5]

References

1. "Interview: Junot Díaz Talks Dying Art, the Line Between Fact and Fiction, and What Scares Him Most". Complex Networks.
2. "Interview: Junot Díaz Talks Dying Art, the Line Between Fact and Fiction, and What Scares Him Most | Complex". www.complex.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-26.
3. "The curse of machismo | The Economist". The Economist.
4. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (2020-01-24). "'Oscar Wao' Review: The Tragedy, and Comedy, of Manhood". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
5. "Spanish Theatre Repertory Company". repertorio.my.salesforce-sites.com. Retrieved 2023-09-21.