Gil Cuadros was born on July 22, 1962, in Montebello, California, a small town in Los Angeles County. Cuadros grew up in a dysfunctional and homophobic household. He attended Pasadena City College, and with encouragement from his life-long friend, photographer Laura Aguilar, he developed his writing in workshops at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center for people with AIDS. It was from his experience of having AIDS and the death sentence of months to live that arguably his most notable work of poetry, City of God (1994), was written and published two years before his death. Through this work, Cuadros explores queer masculinity and loss through his Chicano heritage, Mexican folklore, and indigenous mythology. Also among his notable works, My Body is Paper: Stories and Poems, a collection of poetry and essays, was published posthumously. He died on August 29, 1996.