Latest / D-constructing Topics / Ep. 47: Julia de Burgos: A Poet's Legacy and Personal Resilience

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Ep. 47: Julia de Burgos: A Poet's Legacy and Personal Resilience · D-constructing Topics

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What's going on everybody and welcome. Welcome to a beautiful episode of the
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Deconstructing Topic Podcast.
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My name is David and I'm the host of this beautiful, interesting podcast where we touch it all.
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And in this episode, well, my podcast is called Topics and that means we talking topics.
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But today we have an interesting episode because we are talking about a historic figure, a poet.
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There's so much words to describe this individual, this beautiful lady.
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And it's someone that resonates with me. And life is crazy because we all have
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a connection somewhere, somehow in life,
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either in a moment of chaos where I'm going through at the moment.
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I am going through your boy.
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Reconstructing Topic Podcast is going through a tumultuous, tumultuous time.
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And I love it. And why I said to myself, what better other person?
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And I'm trying to find balance here. I'm trying to find balance in life.
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I'm trying to find balance in my podcast to talk it all.
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But we also want to do that this podcast is very informative.
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And today we are talking about none other than Julia Del Burgos.
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And I don't even know where to start. Julia de Burgos, that's her stage name
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or shortened to Julia Constanza de Burgos Garcia is a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, teacher.
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She's, oh my God, the title. She did all that.
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And she was born in February 17, 1914. So once again, little applause here and
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a little bit of, as I welcome people that shape my life somewhere somehow.
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And definitely when I say people, I'm talking about like outside of the scope
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of the people that are listening to my podcast, which I appreciate,
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which I love how you are sharing and hitting the like.
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I wish, you know, hey, listen, I'll be honest. The little comments,
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I bring them on, bring them on.
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Bring them on i love to uh kind of
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engage with the audience here with my family who's listening to
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this and in that scope of things there are people that shake me that's outside
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of that circle of my life and julia de burgos for some reason oof now my thing
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is this i'm gonna do a little brief introduction oh i take it back this podcast
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it's gonna be like a little introduction it's not going to be crazy.
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She is a poet. She does have a lot of wonderful writings.
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And I kind of felt, and this is me, is that I would have loved to kind of read
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some of her poems in this episode, but I decided, you know what?
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Her work, it's her work. And I will be doing another podcast real soon,
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probably within an episode of this one or two episodes in which I will be reading
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some of her work. And let me tell you something.
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Why is this person important in my life and important in the life of my family?
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Now, you know, it's going to be a little bit personal here, a little personal.
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As I open up here, you know, my family, my mother, you know.
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Survivals, domestic violence.
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And for those people, I listen, even those people that know me,
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when it comes to domestic violence, I'm very vocal because it's something that hits our community.
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It hits the black community the most, and it hits the Latin community second in United States here.
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So it's one of those things that I always been vocal about.
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Hey, we must protect women and we must do a better job because domestic violence
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in the household plays a lot.
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And keep in mind, this also happened to men.
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So hey, just want to bring that up.
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So it's something It's an issue that's very endearing to me because it does
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affect many things in a household, especially...
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Us, me, the son of a survivor, who at that time was a victim of domestic violence,
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but a survivor of that of my mother and my siblings, who are older than me,
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we went through a lot as young kids.
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And one of the things that happened in Puerto Rico, I was born in Puerto Rico,
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just like Julia de Bulgos.
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Let's go. Let's go. She was born in Carolina. I was born in Bayamón.
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I believe I was born in Rio Pedro. that, hey, listen, I got to talk to some
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couple of people. I got to check my birth certificate again.
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But because of the situation that happened to my mother in the 80s,
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back then when we was living in Puerto Rico, we wind up, or let's just say my
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mother, grabbed us and wind up going to a refuge.
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And that refuge was called Julia de Vulgos. Hola Casa de Julia de Vulgos.
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And my mother, I believe, was the first person in that place.
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I believe that's what she mentioned to me.
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And it's interesting because that name, Julia de Burgos, stuck with me.
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And it's like it's a scar.
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And, hey, I'm not trying to say nothing crazy about that.
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It's just something where it's physically, it's there. It's ingrained,
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it's imprinted in your mind, your heart and soul.
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But Julia de Burgos, once again, the poet, journalist, and a teacher.
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And sadly she died at a young age
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of 39 in new york city in july 6 1953 and
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we're going to touch a little story on that julia de bulgo said they named a
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lot of you know so and i'm gonna go back to the situation with my mother is
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that then you know julia de bulgo it's a very interesting character there's
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a lot of cultural arts in uh i believe somewhere in cleveland ohio Ohio, Chicago,
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New York City, anywhere where there's prominent populations of Puerto Rican.
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There will be something that will be named after her, streets,
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cultural arts, because the impact that she has made. Now, this is my thing.
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Because of some certain stories, unfortunately, we kind of have separated.
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And, you know, I cannot say the arts of poetry have kind of changed and it's
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no longer something where top five where when it comes to art,
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you know, we have music. Now we have paintings.
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Now we have other things that might have occupied that space that poetry had
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a long time ago where poetry was one of the main arts where people sit down, listen, whatever.
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And I'm not trying to say that it's not popular, but what I'm saying is that
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people have kind of, you know, used other means of art.
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And to know that the situation that happened to us and happened to my family,
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happened to my mother at that time being a victim of domestic violence and being
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a survivor of domestic violence for those ladies and men out there. Much love. I'm here.
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I'm listening. incident that's why i created this podcast so we could all help
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each other collectively and that name julia de burgos stood and stood and always
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stood in our family's history and it always stood in our mind that's why i say
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to myself and i believe this might be the first puerto rican.
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How can i say individual in which i touch i always said that i'm going to do
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a lot of other podcasts as in regards to other people from my history,
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my country, but other countries people need to know. Hey.
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So with that said, that connection with Julia de Burgos, she's a poet, an artist.
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She was a feminist when before the feminist movement, way before it was co-opted
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by these corporations, these people with money.
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She was an advocate of the independence of Puerto Rico back in the 1940s.
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Back then, before they got co-opted.
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She was the daughters of the freedom fighting of whatever, the Puerto Rican.
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I'm not going to say whatever. I'm just saying Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
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She was part of a lot of movement out there.
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And one of the things, and I've read some of her poems before.
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That's why I want to do like a separate podcast. I want to read some of her
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poems, some of her work, some of her art.
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Beautiful. for it hits it hits it hits and
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i'm gonna tell you why her story it hits me and again she's been out there she
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has so many titles this wonderful person i believe that she is the eldest of
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um you know 13 kids something to that effect so hey listen she has a lot to carry on her back.
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And the fact that because of the situation that happened at my household and
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the household that I grew up to end up with Julia de Burgos,
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the poet, once again, it makes me think that there was a time. And think about this.
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She was born in Puerto Rico and she made her way into New York City.
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And that reminds me of a kid by the name of David who has or who's a host of
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Deconstructing Topic podcast.
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Now, with that said, I'm not, and I almost, but I'm not going to forget that
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my mother also did a little bit of poetry as well. I do remember that.
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Shout out to my mother and my sister, too, believe it or not.
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There's some art there. You know what I'm saying? There's a connection there.
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And my brother's an artist in his own little way.
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In his own little way, he got a little thing going on. He does take time to
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try to draw something. but it's interesting how that art.
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You know, we got it from my mother and a little bit of my father as well,
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who passed away a long time during the 80s, a long time.
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But, you know, unfortunately, it was the aggressor in regards to the situation that I'm speaking of.
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And we get to this household where it looks like the seeds of my future has been kind of said.
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If starting in my mother's womb, it was reminding me through where we was living
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in La Casa de Julia de Bulcos.
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And as I tell this little story in regards to her situation,
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you know, doing a little bit of research, because, you know,
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Sally and I'll be honest with you, it took me a while, a while to kind of,
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how can I say, let me learn a little bit more about this individual. bedroom.
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I know who she was. I know who she is.
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Am I understanding that? You know, she's a legend with over 200 poems.
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I got a lot of poems myself, but unfortunately, with time, I lost some of them.
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I'm trying to go on the internet and see if I could find some that I published 20, 25 years ago.
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Hey, listen, if somebody could help me out here, I appreciate it.
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And lately, I've been going Going back to my creative side of poetry.
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And that's another beautiful podcast there.
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And if one of those things that if that situation in a moment of chaos where
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this group of family has enduring and trying to survive one of the worst moments in their lives,
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there goes that story of Julia de Burgos.
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And when I started to learn more about Julia de Bungo, there's a story and a
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sad story that led to her death that it hit me and to this day, it hit me.
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Now, I want people to understand when it comes to artists.
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Any means, whether you're a painter or a poet or a singer or a stand-up comedian,
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whatever crap that you use to express that art, whatever platform,
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a lot of us, when it comes to writing, I say for those who like to enjoy writing,
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sometimes we hit a nerve.
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And when we hit that nerve, it's like we open a wound of something,
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of something of our past and something that hits.
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And that's the thing with us artists is that why so many of us struggle and
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why so many of us go and find that little escape, whether it's drugs, alcohol,
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or other means, betting, whatever bad advice we just go to it.
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Ladies and gentlemen, people in the middle, people, whoever it is out there
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that's listening, in the case of Julia DeBord, unfortunately, she did enjoy alcohol.
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And she was by any stretch
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not a lonely person my understanding she married a couple of
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times she had a couple of relationships she was a
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beautiful person and i'm gonna put the link and i want people to not only share
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this this nice little thing that we got going on because it does hit me and
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and when i was hearing about that story it hit me because there are times that
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I do tend to find that alcohol, it's an escape.
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As much as I would say I'm enjoying it, like I tell a lot of people,
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a lot of people that know me, I'm networking, networking.
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I am networking, meaning I hit a place, I hit a bar, I hit a restaurant.
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I'm talking about my podcast, I'm doing this. But at the end of the day,
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I have a bill of $150, $60 that I spent all networking.
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And there's people that enjoy my companionship that they say,
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Hey, I got you. Drink some of me. What you drinking?
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So that means I probably would have spent over $200 on liquor.
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I'm one sitting in one night.
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But then you start to realize, David, are you really networking?
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Or are you just drowning your sorrows?
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And when I was reading about that situation with Julia de Burgos,
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that she was drinking her sorrows as she was writing.
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And I always find interesting in life that sometimes, and I always said,
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the one thing that's killing us is the one thing that's keeping us alive.
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And the one thing that's keeping us alive is the one thing that's killing us.
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Julia de Burgos was just drowning her sorrows through drinking.
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And again, I don't want people to think, well, you know, do you think that's
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a selfish act? Do you think, whatever.
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Again, as an artist and those people out there that are in the platform of expressing
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themselves through whatever art, sometimes we get stuck. We have that wall.
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Sometimes we say to ourselves, what the hell? How can I cure this pain that I feel?
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I just wrote. I just drew. I just sang. Dang, I just did the most masterpiece of all masterpieces.
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And I'm here feeling sadness. And when you feel that sadness, you find a way for a cure.
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And all the other bulgos, as the story goes, one night she was in a bar,
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drinking and drinking and drinking her sorrows.
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Her heartbreak, my understanding is that even though despite she has married a couple of times,
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even though she has relationships, even though she preached feminism,
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and her feminism was that I don't need to belong to somebody,
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despite that she always felt that in order to find balance, she needs to be with somebody.
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And in the case of Julia de Bulgos, a lot of those relationships,
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they all ended up in heartbreak.
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And unfortunately, as she was drinking, drinking one day, she got sick in the
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rain and died of pneumonia.
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They found her in the streets in Manhattan, laying down, dead.
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At the age of 39, on July 6, 1953.
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You know, that hit hard, you know. That hits.
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I'll be honest with you. When I read that years ago, when I heard about that
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story so long time ago, it hit me because I felt that way.
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And it hit me because there's stories and stories.
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And in my podcast, all I've been telling people is stories.
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And I appreciate people listening to me because you are my family.
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You are going to share this.
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You're going to hit the like button. and you're going to feel common,
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and we're going to just collectively be there for each other.
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But it did hit me hard to realize how sometimes there are that connection to
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that person through the chaos,
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a moment of chaos that I went through as a child to think that I was in a way.
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Living in a way through her spirit of what she went through.
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Because I also deal with a lot of heartaches. And I'm dealing with,
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you could say that I'm dealing with a little situation that's hitting different
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than any other situation it's hitting.
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But you see, I'm going to the gym. I'm doing my thing. I love my job.
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I'm back writing, but I'm trying to avoid and cut down on this networking and
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drinking. Hey, I can network. I'm just saying I can network.
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But, David, relax with the drinks because you're going to be drowning in your sorrow.
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And sometimes what happened to Julia de Burgos, she already did her deeds and
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she already cemented a legacy in this world.
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And people know who she was and people knew who she was. I mean,
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you know, sadly, this is not a situation where somebody had to die in order
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for one to say, oh, man, you know. No, when she lived, she went all out.
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And she was considered one of the best poets in the Caribbean,
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in Latin nations, in South America, Mexico, and all.
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And all. Woo, let's go. And in the United States, of course.
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But it definitely hits hard. And that's why I'm dedicating this podcast,
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not just to my mother, to my family, my sister, my brother, myself.
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Myself, for those people out there who are going through a lot,
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those artists who are going through a lot through emotional times,
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especially for those who are writing, that's my thing.
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I'm here. I'm here.
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For every Julio de Bulgos, there's going to be people like me that's going to
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be the voice of hope, and I'm going to fight, and I'm going to fight on your
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behalf, and I'm going to speak on your behalf. I'm here.
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I'm dedicating that to all individuals out there, those artists out there.
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I love you all and we've got to
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make it happen because unfortunately in life
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we just cannot explain certain things but one
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thing that we can do together just like Julia de Burgos is to just write and
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write and express ourself and please do not allow yourself to fall into a trap
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where your life is cut short to whatever
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the danger or the bad advice you get on. I'm here.
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All my links, whether it's my Instagram, my email.
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If anybody want to reach out to me and talk, let's make it happen.
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Once again, this is Deconstructing Topic Podcast.
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I hope that you guys enjoy this episode because we definitely going to make
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it happen. Much love. I'm out of here. Peace.