Julia de Burgos (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953) was a Puerto Rican poet.

Quotes

• All the flowers… are open, awaiting my arrival, and they clothe beaches of the most beautiful blue, to receive my life, whole and healthy like before. I want to spend days by the sea, burning myself in the sun like we did in our juvenile days, and to be able to return and see my river, with the same tranquil and yearning eyes as I did when I was its bride.
  • On longing for Puerto Rico in her final years in “‘The Fatal Conscience’: Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico’s Greatest Poet” in The New York Review of Books (2018 Apr 26)

• Carry yourself seriously but speak with a sweet voice. Humiliate no one, since, as you know, adolescence is characterized by unbridled self-love, and when a teacher shines light on the good qualities of a child, it does much more than focusing on their vices.
  • On her teaching philosophy in “‘The Fatal Conscience’: Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico’s Greatest Poet” in The New York Review of Books (2018 Apr 26)

• To save something beautiful you must destroy it, so it does not fall, limp and degraded, from our miserable human hands.
  • On the ending of her relationship with Juan Isidro Jimenes Grullón in “‘The Fatal Conscience’: Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico’s Greatest Poet” in The New York Review of Books (2018 Apr 26)

External links