Thoughts on Julia de Burgos's Poems

When I first started to read Julia de Burgo's poems, I was a bit confused about her gender, as were many others in the class. The first poem that I read from her collection was "To Julia de Burgos", and as I was reading it I believed she was a male, because of the way she was contrasting these two different beings. In every stanza, Burgos began by describing an action by a non independent person (a woman), and would then contrast it with by describing how an independent person would act. Because I was very confused by this, I decided to research a bit about Julia de Burgos, and I was able to find out that she was a civil rights activist for women. Knowing this, I reread the poem, and was immediately able to understand it a bit more. What I found very interesting was how she pretty much contradicted her own behaviors. In the third stanza, Burgos states that "you are the cold doll of social lives,/and me, the virile starburst of human life." In other words, in her letter to herself, she is kind of telling her outer self that she is not an activist and that she dos not do much when it comes to social life. However, she states that deep in her soul she is the "virile starburst of human life", or that she is actively involved in society, just like men. The reason that I love this poem, is that you would think that as a civil rights activist, Burgos would think she shows interest both externally as internally, but through reading this poem, one could tell her true opinions on her own self.

When I finished reading that poem, I moved on and began to read "Pentachrome". I have to say that I was more surprised reading this poem than the first one. I just could not understand why an activist for women would say they wanted "to be a man". To me, it seemed as if one would advocate for women, it was because they were against that all the men get the praise and honor. In this poem, Burgos states that she wants to be one of those people "converting into heroes of life". In my opinion, maybe she was just tired of fighting, and hated how it was just so easy for men. Maybe this is the reason she wishes she were a man, in order for things to be easier like it is for men.