The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Often called Puerto Rico’s “national poet,” Juan Antonio Corretjer Montes was born in 1908 in Ciales, Puerto Rico, and died in 1985 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. His work was published in magazines such as Puerto Rico Ilustrado, Índice, and Pueblos Hispanos. 

In New York, Corretjer joined the Anti-Imperialist League of the Americas. In this organization, he actively fought against United States intervention in Nicaragua and Haiti. He also collaborated with the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), which worked in favor of resistance against the United States, in order to garner solidarity for Puerto Rico’s independence struggle. Corretjer was arrested for the first time due to his efforts in support of the FSLN. His return to Puerto Rico in 1929 coincided with the start of a new independence struggle within the Nationalist Party. In 1935 he was imprisoned in Cuba for his adherence to the anti-imperialist cause against the United States. Back in Puerto Rico, in 1936 he was imprisoned again for refusing to hand over the Nationalist Party’s record book, which was requested by U.S. authorities following the Río Piedras Massacre. In 1937 he was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia.

From 1937 to 1942, he was imprisoned in the United States. Upon his release, U.S. authorities kept him exiled in New York, denying him the possibility of returning to Puerto Rico for four years. Back in Puerto Rico, between 1948 and 1952, Corretjer, along with Consuelo Lee Tapia, his life partner, continued his political and literary work in various forums. When the Nationalist Revolution broke out on October 30, 1950, he was imprisoned once again and served six months in prison. From 1961 to 1963, he represented the organization Acción Patriótica Unida in discussions about Puerto Rico’s colonial administration at the United Nations.

In 1962 Corretjer founded the Puerto Rican Socialist League together with Consuelo Lee. In 1968 he was charged, along with Doña Consuelo and other members of the Socialist League, with conspiracy. In the following years they continued to face persecution until, in June 1971, they were imprisoned due to the earlier case.

His works include De otoño (1924), Agüeybaná (1932), Ulises (Puerto Rico Evangélico, 1933), El leñero (a poem for which he received the Puerto Rican Literature Institute’s Poetry Award in 1944), Alabanza en la torre de Ciales(Ediciones del Rep. Amer., 1953), Contestación al miedo (1954), Don Diego en el Cariño (La Escrita, 1956), Yerba bruja(1957), Distancias (Ediciones Vel, 1957), Futuro sin falla (Imp. Romualdo Real, 1963), Albizu Campos: Hombre histórico (Siglo Ilustrado, 1966), Pausa para el amor (Cooperativa de Artes Gráficas Romualdo Real, 1967), Canciones de Consuelo (Puerto Rican Socialist League, 1970), “Las banderas de la independencia” (1970), “El líder de la desesperación” (Puerto Rican Socialist League, 1972), Construcción del Sur (Ediciones Ciba, 1972), Aguinaldo escarlata(Editorial Cultural, 1974), Para que los pueblos canten (Cooperativa de Artes Gráficas Romualdo Real, 1976), Obras completas (Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, 1978), La patria radical (Puerto Rican Socialist League, 1978), and “Vieques y la lucha por la independencia” (Puerto Rican Socialist League, 1980).

Works Cited

Cabrera, Francisco Manrique. Historia de la literatura puertorriqueña. Original edition 1971. Updated edition, Editorial Cultural, Inc., 1982. 

Cabrera Salcedo, Lizette. “Juan Antonio Corretjer Montes.” Enciclopedia PR, 2022, https://enciclopediapr.org/content/juan-antonio-corretjer-montes/.

López Ortiz, Miguel. “Juan Antonio Corretjer.” Fundación Nacional de la Cultura Popular, 3 July 2006, https://prpop.org/biografias/juan-antonio-corretjer/. 

Medina López, Ramón Felipe. Juan Antonio Corretjer, poeta nacional puertorriqueño. San Juan: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1984.

Meléndes, Joserramón, editor. Juan Antonio Corretjer: Poesía y revolución. QEASE, 1981.

Rivera de Álvarez, Josefina. Literatura puertorriqueña: su proceso en el tiempo. Ediciones Partenón, 1983. 

Soto Dávila, Raymond. Lucha y espacio de la Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña: 1962-1989. Librería Mágica, 2019.