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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 transnational 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]
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. In this essay, I dem- onstrate how de Burgos participated actively in the cultural, political, and social life of the Puerto Rican colonia in New York during the decade of the 1940s, where she lived mostly in East Harlem's El Barrio until her untimely death in 1953. This essay con- tributes to the understanding of how the early Puerto Rican community in New York, prior to the Great Migration of the 1950s, used journalism and the Spanish-language press as a form of cultural and political transnational practice.
Puerto Ricans have been migrating to the United States in increasing numbers since 1898. By the 1940s and 1950s, large numbers left for the States, especially New York City, in search of work and higher pay. The U.S. economy was expanding at that time and migrants had some assurance of finding work. Developments in transportation facilitated travel. The insular government did much to facilitate migration to help with the unemployment and overpopulation problems on the island and served as a transnational intermediary for migrants (Duany 2011). In 1947, the Migration Office of Puerto Rico was created, later known as the Migration Division of Puerto Rico's Department of Labor (1951), which facilitated work agreements between...