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Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Programs & Events
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Space Rental
  • Contact
  • Volunteer
  • Art Collections
  • Google Arts & Culture
  • JDBCAC X moCa

The following powerful poem (see below) describes our drive- “Yo Misma Fui Mi Ruta.”

In the first stanza we learn that society may impose many labels or standards and that no one should be subject to hide or negate their talents, abilities, and aspirations just to “fit in.” In the second stanza she describes the demoralization of acting or being different in an intolerant society. Julia moves on to affirm her decision to become free of the stigmas and forge a new beginning regardless of the implications. She exemplifies bravery, decisiveness, and commitment to her individualism.


In the fourth stanza, she auto proclaims herself not only as a symbol of marginalized woman, but a symbol of all social groups that have being enslaved by limiting ideals. Julia declares the joy of living purposeful. She ends the poem with conviction that homage will remain waiting.


Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center strives to emulate her legacy-to be free, to find the true person in each of us, and live without fear and prejudice. The Center is the heart of the community where individuals and families can be themselves, become future leaders, and leave a legacy just as Julia De Burgos did. 


It is our goal at Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center to inspire bravery, decisiveness, and commitment to uniqueness and to be agents of change so that each can reach their full potential in a loving, supportive, and embracing environment.

  I was my own route

I wanted to be like men wanted me to be:

an attempt at life; 

a game of hide and seek with my being. 

But I was made of nows, 

and my feet level on the promissory earth 

would not accept walking backwards 

and went forward, forward,

mocking the ashes to reach the kiss 

of new paths.

At each advancing step on my route forward 

my back was ripped by the desperate flapping wings 

of the old guard.

But the branch was unpinned forever, 

and at each new whiplash my look 

separated more and more and more from the distant familiar horizons; 

and my face took the expansion that came from 

within,

The defined expression that hinted at the feeling

of intimate liberation; 

a feeling that surged 

from the balance between my life 

and the truth of the kiss of the new paths.

Already my course now set in the present, 

I felt myself a blossom of all the soils of the earth, 

of the soils without history,

of the soils without a future, 

of the soil always soil without edges 

of all the men and all the epochs.

And I was all in me as was life in me…

I wanted to be like men wanted me to be: 

an attempt at life; 

a game of hide and seek with my being. 

But I was made of nows; 

when the heralds announced me 

at the regal parade of the old guard, 

the desire to follow men warped in me, 

and the homage was left waiting for me.

     Yo misma fui mi ruta

Yo quise ser como los hombres quisieron que yo fuese:
 un intento de vida;
 un juego al escondite con mi ser.
 Pero yo estaba hecha de presentes,
 y mis pies planos sobre la tierra promisoria
 no resistían caminar hacia atrás,
 y seguían adelante, adelante,
 burlando las cenizas para alcanzar el beso
 de los senderos nuevos.

A cada paso adelantado en mi ruta hacia el frente
 rasgaba mis espaldas el aleteo desesperado
 de los troncos viejos.

Pero la rama estaba desprendida para siempre,
 y a cada nuevo azote la mirada mía
 se separaba más y más y más de los lejanos
 horizontes aprendidos:
 y mi rostro iba tomando la expresión que le venía de adentro,
 la expresión definida que asomaba un sentimiento
 de liberación íntima;
 un sentimiento que surgía
 del equilibrio sostenido entre mi vida
 y la verdad del beso de los senderos nuevos.

Ya definido mi rumbo en el presente,
 me sentí brote de todos los suelos de la tierra,
 de los suelos sin historia,
 de los suelos sin porvenir,
 del suelo siempre suelo sin orillas
 de todos los hombres y de todas las épocas.

Y fui toda en mí como fue en mí la vida…

Yo quise ser como los hombres quisieron que yo fuese:
 un intento de vida;
 un juego al escondite con mi ser.
 Pero yo estaba hecha de presentes;
 cuando ya los heraldos me anunciaban
 en el regio desfile de los troncos viejos,
 se me torció el deseo de seguir a los hombres,
 y el homenaje se quedó esperándome.

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