[3][4] due to his parents being heroin addicts, Vasquez and his older brothers Tito and Tony were given to Bertha Vasquez, their paternal grandmother, He began making his own films at the age of 12 with a super 8 millimeter camera, often recruiting friends from the neighborhood to play the roles, and he would later show them at his Grandmother’s apartment.
Going three days without sleep, he quickly produced a script that had been in his head for years, a semi autobiographical coming-of-age tale of one night in the life of four friends in the south Bronx, the resulting film was Hangin' with the Homeboys a buddy comedy in the tradition of American Graffiti and Diner, the film earned him critical acclaim.
In 1994, he got an offer to make a film in Puerto Rico, "Rice, Beans and Ketchup, later retitled "Manhattan Merenge!"
On December 16, 1995, Vasquez died as a result of AIDS-related complications in Chula Vista, California, aged 33.
[9][10][11] After his death, one of his stories "Caught in the Fever" was posthumously used as a segment in the 1997 television film Riot.