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Burgos has several rumors based on her poems that have lasted beyond her death; for example, one was that she would not marry normally because of how she loved people. The rumor was based based on her poem "My Love Is No Longer Mine." Another part of her legacy is that she is regarded as one of the best Puerto Rican poets without even publishing a anthology book of poems. She is overall known for her feminist and political poems that rallied for women's rights, although she also has several poems about romance and love. (Agueros xvii-xxxiii).

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"Ay, Ay, Ay of the Black Grifa" Explication

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"Ay, Ay, Ay of the Black Grifa" Explication

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"Let me introduce Julia de Burgos, extraordinary woman, extraordinary poet... Here is the woman that the 1956 Nobel Literature prize winner, Juan Ramon Jumenez singled out for praise, saying: 'since I met her in Washington, I admired profoundly the writing of this extraordinary woman for her distinctive endowment of creativity and expression'" (Agueros xxxix).

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A bust honoring Julia de Burgos in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

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Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Image Source: Wikipedia

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A framed image of Julia de Burgos, as seen in the New York Times.

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Image Source: The New York Times

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One of the few headshots available of Julia de Burgos.

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Image Source: Mujeres Bacanas

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Image Source: Biografias y Vidas

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Julia de Burgos is known today as an advocate for women's rights and Puerto Rican independence. Many of her poems capture her ideology perfectly, such as "I Forged My Own Path" ("De Burgos 193-194).

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"Her poetry anticipates a feminist consciousness that defends the right and the need for women not only to understand their own bodies and psychic desires but also to engage in public struggles for social and political justice" ( Roman-odio).

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Some of Burgos's more noted works are "Ri'o Grande de Lolza," which is about the Rio Grande river; "Cry of the Kinky Haired Girl," which is about being Black; and "Pentachrome," which is about toxic masculinity (Field 342).

Overall, one of her best works, as agreed upon by critics such as Nilita Vientos Gaston, is "Rio Grande de Loiza." It is the poem that is most likely included in any poetry anthology by Burgos due to its rich imagery (Augeros xvii-xxxiii).

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Burgos had a strong writing style that involved major political themes that often covered topics deemed controversial. She expressed her clear thoughts opinions on issues through her poems, which were often mostly about injustice or social restrictions (Scott 114).

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"Farewell from Welfare Island"

"I Myself was my Route"

"Rio Grande de Loiza"

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I was the quietest

of all those who made the journey to your port.

They did not announce lubricious social ceremonies to me,

nor the deaf bells of ancestral reflections;

my route was the wild music of the birds

that released my goodness into the air in a stir.

Heavy ships of opulence did not load me,

nor oriental rugs supported my body;

above the ships my face appeared

whistling in the round simplicity of the winds.

I did not weigh the harmony of trivial ambitions

that promised your hand full of sparkles:

the tragic abandonment that concealed your gesture.

Your perennial duality was marked by my avid thirst.

You resembled the sea, resonant and discreet.

About you I was passing my lost schedules.

Above me you followed like the sun in the petals.

And I walked in the breeze of your fallen pain

with the naive sadness of knowing that I am right:

your life was a deep beating of restless sources

in an immense white river running towards the desert.

(Burgos, “I was”)

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Ay, ay, ay, that am kinky-haired and pure black
kinks in my hair, Kafir in my lips;
and my flat nose Mozambiques.

Black of pure tint, I cry and laugh
the vibration of being a black statue;
a chunk of night, in which my white
teeth are lightning;
and to be a black vine
which entwines in the black
and curves the black nest
in which the raven lies.
Black chunk of black in which I sculpt myself,
ay, ay, ay, my statue is all black.

They tell me that my grandfather was the slave
for whom the master paid thirty coins.
Ay, ay, ay, that the slave was my grandfather
is my sadness, is my sadness.
If he had been the master
it would be my shame:
that in men, as in nations,
if being the slave is having no rights
being the master is having no conscience.

Ay, ay, ay wash the sins of the white King
in forgiveness black Queen.

Ay, ay, ay, the race escapes me
and buzzes and flies toward the white race,
to sink in its clear water;
or perhaps the white will be shadowed in the black.

Ay, ay, ay my black race flees
and with the white runs to become bronzed;
to be one for the future,
fraternity of America!

(Burgos, Ay Ay Ay)

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A map of Puerto Rico, where Burgos was born.