BOOK REVIEW : An Overview of the Overlooked : <i> “IGUANA DREAMS,” edited by Delia Poey and Virgil Suarez, with a preface by Oscar Hijuelos; Harper Collins, New York: 1992; 376 pages, $12 paperback, $25 cloth. : </i>

When Cuban-American novelist Oscar Hijuelos’ second book, “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, he quickly became one of the best-known Latino writers in the United States. But there are dozens of other Latino novelists and poets--Sandra Cisneros, Cristina Garcia, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, Guy Garcia and many more--poised for literary stardom, according to Virgil Suarez, editor of “Iguana Dreams.” Suarez’s wife, Delia Poey, was the co-editor of the recently published anthology of Latino fiction.

“Iguana Dreams” features 29 short stories by Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican and other U.S. Latino writers. The book reveals the complex and wide range of issues concerning Latino identity.

Cisneros, for example, author of “The House on Mango Street,” catches the rhythms and flavors of a Mexican-American barrio in Chicago in “Salvador Late or Early.” Chicano novelist Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, winner of Cuba’s Casa de las Americas fiction prize for “Klail City,” writes a moving diary about war in “The Useless Servants.”

“Iguana Dreams” is a witty collection of prose that sails from one author to the next. It is an intelligent synthesis of one of the most widely overlooked ethnic groups in contemporary American literature.