Latest / D-constructing Topics / Ep.47: Julia de Burgos: Poetry, Pain, and a Family Refuge

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Ep.47: Julia de Burgos: Poetry, Pain, and a Family Refuge · 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. My name is David and I'm your host of this beautiful,
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  interesting podcast where we touch it all.
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  And in this episode, you're well, my podcast is called Topics.
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  That means we talking topics, but today we have an interesting episode because
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  we are be talking about a historic figure,
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  a poet 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 and life is crazy because we all
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  have a connection somewhere somehow in life either in a moment of chaos tumultuous.
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  Time and i love it and why i said to myself what better other person and i'm
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  trying to find balance here and trying to find balance in life and trying to
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  find balance in my podcast,
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  to talk at all but we also want to do that this top this podcast it's very informative
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  and today we are talking about none other than julia del Burgos.
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  I don't even know where to start. Now, Julia de Burgos, that's her stage name
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  or shortened to Julia Constanza de Burgos Garcia,
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  is a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, teacher.
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  She's, I got the title.
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  She did all that. She was born on February 17, 1914.
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  Like, I love to kind of engage with the audience with my family who's listening to this.
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  And Julia de Burgos, for some reason, oof.
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  Now, my thing is this. I'm going to do a little brief introduction.
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  Oh, I take it back. This podcast, it's going to be like a little introduction.
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  It's not going to be crazy. She is a poet.
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  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.
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  But I decided, you know what? Her work is her work.
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  And I will be doing another podcast real soon, probably within an episode of
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  this one or two episodes in which I will be reading some artwork.
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  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 as I open up here.
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  You know, my family, my mother, you know, the survivals of 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.
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  Because it's something that hits our community. It hits the black community the most.
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  And it hits the land community second in the United States here.
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  So it's one of those things that I've always been vocal about.
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  So, hey, we must protect women and we must do a better job because domestic
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  violence in the household plays a lot.
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  And keep in mind, this also happens to men. So, hey, just want to bring that up.
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  So it's something that it's an issue that's very endearing to me because it
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  does affect many things in the household, especially us, me,
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  the son of a survival, who at that time was a victim of domestic violence,
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  but a survival of that of my mother and my siblings were 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 Bayamomo.
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  I believe I was born in Rio Piedra. Hey, listen, I got to talk to some couple
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  of people. I got to take my birth certificate again.
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  But because of the situation that happened to my mother in the 80s back then
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  when we was living in Puerto Rico, we wind up, or let's just say my mother,
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  Grat does 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 Vulgos.
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  Stuck with me and it's like it's like it's a scar and then hey i'm not trying to say,
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  nothing crazy about that it's just something where it's physically it's there
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  it's ingrained imprinted in your mind your heart and soul with julia de vulgo's once again the poet,
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  journalist and a teacher,
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  and sadly she died at a young age of 39 in new york city in july 6 1953 I'm
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  going to go back to the situation with my mother.
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  It's a very interesting character. There will be something that will be named
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  after her, streets, cultural arts, because the impact that she had 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 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,
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  That's why I created this podcast, so we could all help each other collectively.
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  And that name, Julia de Burgos, stood and stood and always stood in our family's
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  history, and it always stood in our mind. That's why I said to myself, hey.
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  So with that said, that connection with Julia de Burgos, she's a poet and artist.
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  She was a feminist when before the feminist movement, way before it was co-opted
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  of 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 it got co-opted.
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  She was the daughters of the freedom fighting.
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  She was part of a lot of movement out there. I want to read some of her poems,
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  some of her work, some of her art. Beautiful. It hits, it hits, it hits.
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  And I'm going to tell you why her story, it hits me.
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  And again, she's been out there. She has so many titles, this wonderful person.
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  I believe that she is the eldest of 13 kids, something to that effect.
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  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.
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  And think about this. 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
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  of Deconstructing Topic podcast.
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  Now with that said, I do remember that shout out to my mother.
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  And my sister, too, believe it or not. There's some art there.
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  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 try to draw something.
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  But it's interesting how that art.
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  You know, we got it for my mother and a little bit of my father as well.
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  And we get to this household where it looks like the seeds of my future has
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  been kind of said, if starting in my mother's womb,
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  it was reminding me through where we was living in La Casa de Julia de Bulgo.
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  And as I tell this little story in regards to her situation,
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  and I'm doing a little bit of research, because, you know, Sally and I, be honest with you,
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  it took me a while, a while to kind of How can I say, let me learn a little
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  bit more about this individual.
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  I know who she was.
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  I know who she is. Am I understanding that 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
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  20, 25 years ago. Oh, wait, listen, if somebody could help me out here, I appreciate it.
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  And lately, I've been 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 with
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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 Vulgos.
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  And when I started to learn more about Julia de Vulgo, 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 why so many of us,
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  Go and find that little escape Whether it's drugs, alcohol Or all the memes,
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  betting Whatever bad vice we just go to with.
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  Ladies and gentlemen People in the middle People, whoever it is out there that's
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  listening In the case of Julia DeVolgold Unfortunately, she did enjoy alcohol,
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  and she was by any stretch not a lonely person my understanding she married
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  a couple of times she had a couple of relationships,
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  she was a beautiful person and gonna put the link and I want people to not only
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  share this this nice little thing that we got going on because it does hit me
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  and and when I was hearing about that story.
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  It hit me because there are times that 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. And there's people that
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  enjoy my companionship that they say, I got you. drinks on me. What you drinking?
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  So that means I probably would have spent over $200 on liquor on 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 in your sorrows?
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  And when I was reading about that situation where Julia de Vulgo's as she was drinking,
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  her sorrows as she was writing, and I always find interesting thing in life,
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  that sometimes, 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, 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 war.
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  Sometimes we say to ourselves, what the hell, how can I, how can I cure this pain that I feel?
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  I just wrote, I just drew, I just sang, 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,
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  you find a way to for a cure.
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  And all the other world goes 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 the spike 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,
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  that in order to find balance, she needs to be with somebody.
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  And in the case of Julio de Vulgo, a lot of those relationships,
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  They all ended up in heartbreak And unfortunately as she was drinking,
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  One day she got sick in the rain And died of pneumonia They found her in the
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  streets A man laid down dead At the age of 39 On July 6, 1953.
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  I'll be honest with you When I read that years ago When I heard about that story
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  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. And I appreciate
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  people listening to me because you are my family. You are going to share this.
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  You're going to hit the like button. 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, a moment of chaos,
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  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 or 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,
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  different than any other situation that'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'm just going to network.
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  But David, relax with the drinks because you're going to be drowning in your
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  sorrow. And sometimes what happened to Julia de Burgos, she already did her
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  deeds and 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.
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  No, when she lived, she went all out.
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  And she was considered one of the best poets in the Caribbean and Latin nations
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  in South America, Mexico, and all. And all.
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  Let's go. And in the United States, of course. But it definitely hits hard.
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  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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  But 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. I'm here.
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  I'm here. For every Juliade Bulgos, there's going to be people like me that's
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  going to be the voice of hope. And I'm going to fight. And I'm going to fight on your behalf.
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  And I'm going to speak on your behalf. I'm here.
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  And I'm dedicating that to all individuals out there.
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  Those artists out there. I love you all. And we've got to make it happen.
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  Because unfortunately in life, we just cannot explain certain things.
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  But one thing that we can do together, just like Julia de Bungos,
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  is to just write and write and express ourself.
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  And please do not allow yourself to fall into a trap where your life is cut
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  short to whatever the danger or the vat vice 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. I hope that you guys enjoyed
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  this episode, because we're definitely going to make it happen.
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  Much love. I'm out of here. Peace.