In 1960 Pau-Llosa fled Cuba with his parents, older sister, and maternal grandmother — all of whom emerge in his autobiographical poems of exile and remembrance.
He frequently visited early Latin art venues such as the Permuy and Bacardi galleries.
His third book of poems, Cuba (Carnegie Mellon U Press, 1993), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
[3] Included were works by Jesús Soto, Enrique Castro-Cid, Rogelio Polesello, Olga de Amaral, José Bedia, Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Julio Rosado del Valle, Wilson Bigaud, Rafael Coronel, Maria Brito, Alexander Gregoire, Marcelo Bordese, Miguel Ronsino, Nicolás Leiva, Fernando de Szyszlo, Agustín Cárdenas, Agustín Fernández, Antonio Henrique Amaral, Miguel Von Dangel, Melquiades Rosario Sastre, Ana Isabel Martén, Ricardo Avila, Juan José Molina, Carlos Rojas, Marta Minujín, José Mijares, and Paul Sierra.
[4] Pau-Llosa’s collection also includes works by North American artists Leon Kelly, Clarence Holbrook Carter, Lew Wilson, Ronald González, and Christopher Mangiaracina, as well as Cuban Vanguardia (modernist) artists Mario Carreño, Cundo Bermúdez, Amelia Peláez, Raúl Milián, Víctor Manuel, Guido Llinás, Raúl Martinez, Rafael Soriano, and Emilio Sánchez.