4 CENTRO JOURNAL volume xxv • number ii • fall 2013 Julia De Burgos’ Writing for Pueblos Hispanos: Journalism as Puerto Rican Cultural and Political Transnational Practice vanessa pérez-rosario abstract Julia de Burgos was a regular contributor to the Spanish-language weekly Pueblos Hispanos published in New York City during the 1940s. Early twentieth-century Hispanic newspapers played an important role in the development of the Puerto Rican community in New York. De Burgos’ writing for the paper reveals that it helped to organize the community around political causes. It was created in defense of the community and facilitated the development of institutions serving Latinos. Her essays convey her interest and understanding of the development of trans- national and fluid identities that were not bound to the geographical borders of the nation. [Keywords: Pueblos Hispanos; Julia de Burgos; transnationalism; early twentieth-century Hispanic press; migration; diaspora cultural expressions; New York City Puerto Rican community] The author (
[email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY. She is editor of Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement (Palgrave, 2010). Her book, Becoming Julia de Burgos: Feminism, Transnationalism, Diaspora is forthcoming with the University of Illinois Press, fall 2014. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and the American Association of University Women grant. Julia De Burgos’ Writing for Pueblos Hispanos • Vanessa Pérez-Rosario 5 julia de burgos is part of the cultural fabric of puerto ricans both on the island and in new york city. She is recognized primarily for her poetry, while her writing for the Spanish-language newspaper Pueblos Hispanos in New York during the decade of the 1940s has not received much critical attention.