De Burgos, Julia (1914-1953), a Puerto Rican poet, ranks among the most important Latin American poets of the 1900’s. Some of her best-known poems explore the social and psychological status of women of her day. De Burgos, who wrote in Spanish, composed a number of poems in which she showed her strong devotion to Puerto Rico and support for its independence. She was active in political opposition to social injustice and restrictions, but also wrote poems on love themes.
Julia Constanze de Burgos García was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 17, 1914. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 1933 with a teaching degree. In 1937, her first volume of poetry, Exact Poems for Myself, was privately published. Two commercially published volumes followed, Poem in Twenty Furrows (1938) and Song of the Simple Truth (1939). She addressed many of her poems to a woman, whom she also named Julia de Burgos. One of her best-known poems, “To Julia de Burgos,” pointed out the restrictions that society places on women.
In 1940, de Burgos settled briefly in New York City and then moved to Cuba. In 1942, she returned permanently to New York City. In 1946, she was diagnosed with a liver disease. In the last years of her life, de Burgos suffered from alcoholism and depression. Her later poems focused on death and dying. She died on July 6, 1953. Her final volume of poetry, The Sea and You, appeared in 1954. Following her death, de Burgos’s literary reputation grew throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Song of the Simple Truth: Complete Poems was published in an English translation in 1997.
