oscar hijuelos, thrilled that you are here. why now? why a memoir now? >> there is a short answer and a long answer. the long answer is in my first novel which was called our house in the last world, i talked about the influence on my life when i was coming up and call our house in the last world, that came down to this. i went through some difficulty as a child. i was separated from my family for a year because of illness and i went through a period wed having been interest in the culture and language i found myself suddenly immersed in american culture and language. as my mother would say i went into the hospital speaking spanish and came out speaking english and so my return, even though i knew my family loved me and i could understand spanish and communicate in certain ways with them, i stopped speaking it easily without any psychological uptightne uptightness. these are notions i put it to my first novel. than six years later, i published "the mambo kings play songs of love" which was an explosive celebration of my cuban routes and music and involve

oscar hijuelos, good to see you. >> thank you, ray. i love being on your show. >> lehrer: finally tonight, remembering peter falk, the actor who died yesterday at beverly hills, california. he was best known for playing the rumpled detective columbo for 30 years on television. the police lieutenant wore a wrinkled raincoat that was his trademark. suspects usually underestimated him, but he always got his man in the end, often by asking, "just one more thing, sir." here's an excerpt from an episode that ran in 1976. falk is closing a murder case against william shatner, who plays an actor best known as a tv detective. >> fascinating. but as lieutenant lacern would say, where there is no proof, there is no criminal. fascinating. >> but i think, sir, i have the proof here. >> what truth? lieutenant, there are no fingerprints on that gun. you said so yourself this morning. this has been a rather silly demonstration, lieutenant. >> well, you're absolutely right again, sir. the killer cleepd the gun of all incriminating prints. but the thing