THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer.  Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The Latina Book Club  is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all month long. Today we share poems from some of the Leading Latino Poets of our time—all award winning poets, but better yet, they speak to our inner soul.  Happy Reading! GABRIELA MISTRAL First Latin American writer to ever win Nobel Prize for Literature. This poet and educator wrote about love and desolation and tenderness lost. PABLO NERUDA Also a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, he was best known for his romantic poetry. JULIA DE BURGOS Leading Puerto Rican poet, she often wrote of her homeland and how much she missed the land, the people, the river. OCTAVIO PAZ Another Nobel Prize winner, his poems were heavy into surrealism and we loved it. READ LATINO! READ LATINO POETRY!

    ¡Río Grande de Loíza!… Mi manantial, mi río, desde que alzome al mundo el pétalo materno; Río Grande de Loíza!… My wellspring, my river since the maternal petal lifted me to the world.                         ---Julia de Burgos, Río Grande de Loíza Illinois University Press How many of us have heard of Julia de Burgos but never read any of her poetry?  How many of us have heard of how she died and was buried in a potter’s field, but never realized the extent of her influence? Professor Vanessa Pérez-Rosario has written a new book on Julia de Burgos’ life and her place in Puerto Rican culture.   Julia de Burgos was a poet and activist.   Her influence spread in the 1930s when the nationalist movement on the island was run by men to the Nuyorican writers of the 1970s to today’s modern writers who have adopted Ju...

   Poetry is the language of love, of revenge, of despair, of hope, of the people.   Here is a Top 14 List of Latino poets we should all be reading more of.  Among them we have the FIRST Spanish American Poet to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, an inaugural poet and two Poet Laureates.  I've tried to find websites for all the poets and, where there isn't any, I've posted a link where you could get more information on them.   Happy reading! --mcf TOP LATINO POETS Gabriela Mistral 1.     Gabriela Mistral (First Spanish American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature) "Song of Death," http://www.poemhunter.com/gabriela-mistral 2.     Pablo Neruda, "Cantos Ceremoniales," http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en 3.     Julia de Burgos, "Rio Grande de Loiza," http://www.juliadeburgos.org 4.     Richard Blanco (Fifth Inaugural Poet of the U.S.), "For All Of Us, One Day...

        On September 14, in a ceremony in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Postal Service released the JULIA DE BURGOS commemorative stamp.  It is the 26th stamp in the USPS' literary series. de Burgos is a renowned island poet, who won fame after dying nameless on the streets of East Harlem in 1953 at the age of 39. Her first verses were published when she was 19; Her best-known poem is “Rio Grande de Loiza.” de Burgos left behind a legacy of more than 200 poems, exploring issues of love, feminism, and social equality. Today, there are two Julia de Burgos Cultural Centers: one in East Harlem and the other in Cleveland . Click below for other articles on Julia de Burgos and her commemorative stamp. DAILY NEWS SUITE 101 USA PHILATELIC UPDATE:    Julia de Burgos is the SECOND Puerto Rican to be honored with a stamp.  The first was none other than former Governor and "Father of Puerto Rico" LUIS MUNOZ MARIN.  His stamp was issue...