The Puerto Rican Literature Project

The poet and professor Zaira Pacheco was born in Condado in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1987. From a very young age, she was involved in the literary world and began publishing her first poems in the Caguas municipal newspaper La Semana, while also winning various literary contests. In 2005, she entered the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, where she received a BA in Hispanic studies. Later, she moved to Barcelona, Spain to pursue a master’s degree with a specialization in the work of Alejandro Tapia y Rivera and eventually completed a PhD in literature from the University of Barcelona. In 2017, Pacheco won the Poesía Hispanoamericana Francisco Ruiz Udie contest. Her literary influences include Julia de Burgos, Fina García Marruz, Ida Vitale, Virginia Woolf, Irizelma Robles, and Vanessa Droz. She is the author of Ciutat (La secta de los perros, 2016), Despertar en el Sahara (Alayubia, 2019), and La melancolía de Duguero (Institute for Creative Exchange, 2022).

Works Cited

Pacheco, Zaira. Author Questionnaire. The Puerto Rican Literature Project, 2024.

Portela, Victoria. “Campus Professor, Puerto Rican Author: Zaira Pacheco.” Her Campus, 23 April 2018, https://www.hercampus.com/school/upr/campus-professor-puerto-rican-author-zaira-pacheco/. 

“Walking in the Desert By Zaira Pacheco.” Lauren Shapiro, https://www.laurenrshapiro.com/books/arena-4mckt-98gwl.