The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Jack Agüeros was born in 1934 in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. A poet, short story writer, and activist, Agüeros also worked as the director of El Museo del Barrio. In 1968, he was appointed deputy commissioner to lead an antipoverty initiative by the Mayor John V. Lindsay administration. He is the author of the books Correspondence Between the Stone Haulers (Hanging Loose Press, 1991), Dominoes and Other Stories from the Puerto Rican (Curbstone Press, 1993), Sonnets from the Puerto Rican (Hanging Loose Press, 1996), and Lord, Is This a Psalm? (Hanging Loose Press, 2002). He also edited and translated an anthology of Julia de Burgos poems entitled Song of the Simple Truth (Curbstone Books, 1995). He died in 2014 in Manhattan, New York.

Works Cited

Gonzalez, David. “Jack Agüeros, a Champion of El Barrio, Dies at 79.” The New York Times, 6 May 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/nyregion/jack-agueros-79-a-champion-of-el-barrio-dies.html. 

“Jack Agüeros.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jack-agueros. 

“Jack Agüeros.” Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/jack-agueros.