Word Man

From being part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at the Miami Herald to reshaping federal laws with his groundbreaking stories in the Palm Beach Post, 75-year-old John Lantigua has made a career out of unveiling hidden truths in South Florida’s communities.

While establishing himself as a Latin American and immigration reporter, Lantigua was developing a reputation as a talented fiction writer, specializing in the mystery crime genre. He’s published nine novels, five which revolve around Willie Cuesta, a former Miami cop turned private investigator. His latest collection, “In the War Zone of the Heart,” published earlier this year, is comprised of 12 short stories centering on Cuesta, who moves among Latino and Caribbean immigrants on the run from danger or certain death.

Born in the Bronx and raised in New Jersey, Lantigua has lived in Miami Beach since the early 1990s. He spent much of the 1980s as a foreign correspondent covering the wars in Central America (particularly in Nicaragua) and credits his time there as inspiration for the themes that would ultimately shape his fiction writing.

Says Lantigua, “My time as a foreign correspondent in Latin America and being immersed in the traumatic events that convulsed those countries, laid the groundwork for my novels and short stories. And the reporting that I did in South Florida taught me a lot and gave me the confidence to set my stories here.”

Lantigua’s portraits of South Florida’s vibrant Latino community are infused with his deep knowledge of South Florida’s immigrant milieu and the challenging circumstances that drive them to the U.S. From the neighborhoods to the salsa clubs his characters visit, his stories ring true in a way that only someone immersed in the culture could achieve.

Lantigua reflects, “Every day in South Florida you pass people on the street whose lives have been marked by nightmares. They came running here to escape oppression and a good number came running for their lives. I write about those people.”