 Fornés was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15, with her mother, Carmen Collado Fornés and sister, Margarita Fornés Lapinel, after her father, Carlos Fornés, died in 1945.Irene has two older sisters, Margarita and Carmencita, and three older brothers, Rafael (noted cartoonist), Hector and Raul.She became a U.S. citizen in 1951.