Vázquez-Figueroa and his family fled from the Canary Islands to Africa during the Spanish Civil War. Since his youth, he visited the Sahara and described the culture of the desert region. He attended the studios of the Escuela Oficial de Periodismo de Madrid in a part of 1962 and worked in the Destino specials. He was a war correspondent in La Vanguardia, for TVE (Televisión Española) and for the program A toda plana with de la Cuadra Salcedo and Silva. As a correspondent, he documented revolutionary wars in countries such as Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. He later wrote his first novel, Arena y viento (Sand and Wind), and in 1975, he published as many as 14 to 15 novellas such as Ébano. His other works include Tuareg, Ébano, and El perro as well as the ambitious sagas of Cienfuegos, Bora Bora, Manaos and Piratas. He has also published an autobiography called Anaconda.