The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Francisco Cervoni Gely (1879–1933) was a poet, journalist, playwright, and politician. He premiered his first play, Los suegros, when he was eighteen, at the Círculo de Instrucción y Recreo of Patillas. Rivera de Álvarez describes it as “a comic toy in one act and in verse.” After his debut as a playwright, he went to the United States to study law at the National Law School in Washington, D.C. He returned to Puerto Rico to practice his profession in the cities of Guayama and Humacao. Thanks to his theatrical training, Cervoni Gely was said to have become a “brilliant orator of poetic timbre.” Apart from his work, he also actively participated in journalism, writing, and defending the political ideals of independence. He was a delegate for the House of Guayama (1911-1912). At the same time, he directed the biweekly La Época and, in 1920, founded La Unión. When the Guayamese poet Vicente Palés Anés died at the end of 1913, Cervoni Gely composed the tribute “El poeta, la Immortalidad y la Muerte.” Today, his poems are scattered in the archives of various newspapers, magazines, collections, and anthologies.

Works consulted

Rivera de Álvarez, Josefina. Diccionario de literatura puertorriqueña. Tome 2, vol.1, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1974.