Quote by Julia de Burgos: “I want to be free even from myself.”

True freedom is not just freedom from external oppression — it is also freedom from your own fears, habits, and the version of yourself that others have shaped you to be. This is the most radical kind of liberation: breaking free not just from society but from the self it built inside you.

De Burgos wrote her landmark poem 'To Julia de Burgos' in 1938, during Puerto Rico's colonial subjugation under the United States and an era of nationalist awakening led by figures such as Pedro Albizu Campos. She was deeply involved in the Puerto Rican independence movement and her poetry channeled both personal and political liberation.

Puerto Rican poet and political activist whose passionate verse addressed female independence, Puerto Rican nationalism, and social justice. Her poem 'To Julia de Burgos' is one of the most celebrated poems in the Spanish-speaking world and explored the split between a woman's public and private selves.