Madeline SchwartzA Remarkable Woman
June 21st 2008 18:05
Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico on February 17, 1914; raised in a poor section of Carolina called Barrio Santa Cruz. She was very fortunate to be able to attend school, since she came from a very large family of thirteen children.
Burgos graduated at the age of nineteen from the University of Puerto Rico with a degree in teaching. She became a teacher, but her love for literature led her to write poetry. Among her early influences were Luis Llorens Torres, Clara Lair, Rafael Alberti and Pablo Neruda. Her inspiration came from her love of Puerto Rico and as noted in her first work El Rio Grande de Loiza that in a poem of the same name she calls “My wellspring, my river / since the maternal petal lifted me to the world.”
In 1934, she married Ruben Rodriguez Beauchamp, and ended her teaching career to dedicate her time to her marriage and her passion for writing. In 1936, she joined the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico). This was the independence party headed by Pedro Albizu Campos, a Puerto Rican nationalist. Due to time and constraints, her activities had affected her marriage, she and her husband divorced in 1937.
Burgos published three books which contained a collection of her poems. For her first two books, she traveled around the island promoting herself by giving book readings. Her third book was published posthumously in 1954.
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