The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Manuel Fernández Juncos was born in 1846 in Asturias, Spain and emigrated with his family to Puerto Rico at the age of eleven. He was a poet, journalist, and political leader. In 1877 he founded El Buscapié and later the Revista Puertorriqueña. In both these literary journals he published poetry, essays, social criticism, investigative work, and literary criticism penned by Puerto Rican authors. He is known for having adapted the verses of Lola Rodríguez de Tió to write “La Tierra de Borinquen,” which became the official anthem of Puerto Rico. Fernández Juncos served as president of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño. In 1916, the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras awarded him an honorary doctorate. On August 18, 1928 he died in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Works Cited

Alegría, Ricardo E. and Eladio Rivera Quiñones, editors. Historia y cultura puertorriqueña: desde la época pre-colombina hasta nuestros días. Ediciones Puerto, Fundación Francisco Carvajal, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1999. 

Grupo Editorial EPRL. “Manuel Fernández Juncos.” EnciclopediaPR, Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades, 17 September 2014, enciclopediapr.org/content/manuel-fernandez-juncos/.