Becoming Julia de Burgos: The Making of a Puerto Rican Icon

Good book about a great Puerto Rican American poet and author.

The book is in excellent condition. I'm a fan of Julia de Burgos and I am also Puerto Rican. When I kept on reading the introduction of the book and got to page 7, I became disappointed with the book. There seems to be a misinterpretation of the socioeconomic reality of the island at that time. Poor people were illiterate with no time or opportunities to go to school. In the 1920's girls stayed at home to help raise the younger siblings and boys would go work the land. The fact that Julia de Burgos made it to college, demonstrates that she was not representative of the poor in Puerto Rico in the time but some sort of middle class. It wasn't until the late 1960's that college (certificates and associate degrees) became an option to most people on the island. I'm going to keep on reading the book but I'm not as eager to read it as before.

Interesting and well-written. More people should read about Julia de Burgos!

This is the first book from an academic press that I’ve ever tried to review, and one of the first (if not first) biographical type of books I’ve worked with from a reviewer’s perspective. I picked it up because I love poetry, I enjoy the Spanish language, and the description made me curious to learn about de Burgos.The beginning of this book was perfect – setting up and explaining to the (potentially) unfamiliar reader some of the Puerto Rican struggles with history, place, identity, and destiny. It then moved into a brief but substantial overview of literary (and political) responses to the struggles of the island nation. As a US citizen, I’ve been exposed to very little of this history or viewpoint, and I found it educational and tragic. Especially saddening was the fact that I knew so little about the Puerto Rican paradigm.The book then moves into the strictly biographical portion of the text. All told, this was probably about half of the total length of the text. Initially I found this troubling, because I expected (wanted) a hefty biography about an individual – but this book does something a little different, which also is an important undertaking.Even as we learn about the specifics of the life of de Burgos, we are also looking at the more general situation of immigrants in the US, using the eyes and experiences of de Burgos as our lens. Especially important in this book is the specific situation and personal experience of de Burgos, but also the wider experience of Latino/as and African Americans in New York City. There are following sections of the book looking at her work, particularly her poetry (for which she is most famous), and her writings as a journalist (which seems to get very sparse critical attention, though speaks very powerfully).The final sections of the book view the different ways that de Burgos has been taken up as a role model by later generations of writers, performers, and visual artists. Interesting to track is the way she has been used not only by Latino/a and African American artists, but also by other groups which have faced persecution and marginalization, particularly LGBTQ and feminist groups. I thought a lot of this section was weaker than other parts of the book, seeing that Rosario (the author) pulls largely from other writers and ideas to fill out her perspective – but as I continued to think about it after my reading was finished, I also realized that this section of the book was not only informative, but was also important for understanding the development of (especially) minority LGBTQ and feminist writers of color in the US. This last section of the book ended up being very good, and supporting the author’s larger purpose (I just selfishly wanted the end purpose to be shining more light on de Burgos – but her larger goals were just as important).My final wrap-up and thoughts…this was definitely more of an academic approach to the life and works of Julia de Burgos than a personal/traditional biography (which makes sense, given the publisher). It puts her firmly in a particular place on the Puerto Rican pantheon of writers and thinkers. Though academic, this is a highly readable book, giving the reader ample background and context, as well as providing quality translations of de Burgos’ writings (also includes the Spanish-language original texts). There is a good deal of analysis of her poetry, which is also contrasted with what her predecessors and contemporaries were writing, as well as the writings of those who followed in her footsteps. We also get quite a glimpse into the related politics, since she was heavily involved in political commentary and protests.“Fashioning the Self” was my favorite section of the book, which traced her own struggles with societal expectations versus what she wanted for her self…expectations versus personal ideals. I left straight from my reading of this book to dive into the poetry of Julia de Burgos