The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Juan Vicente Rafael Rivera Viera, also known as Father Juan Rivera, was born in 1884 in Yauco, Puerto Rico and died in 1953, in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Father Rivera Viera was a priest, poet, journalist, short-story writer, essayist, and sacred orator. He served as a priest in Vieques, Río Grande, and Humacao, doing so for 31 years in the latter municipality. He is known as a modernista poet and his significant literary influences include Rubén Darío and José de Diego. He is the author of the books Carmina Sacra (1925) and Carmina Amaritudinis (1925), and also wrote décimas, among these, “Salto de Río Blanco”. Father Rivera Viera used the literary pseudonyms Jack the Indian and Juan Vicente Rafael. His Almanaques de Humacao include publications by writers and poets such as José Antonio Dávila, Cruz Ortiz Stella, Cesáreo Rosa Nieves, and Marina Molina.

Works Cited 

Maunez, Santiago. “Virgilio Dávila y el Padre Rivera.” Periódico El Oriental Humacao, 27 January 2010, p. 15. Issuu, issuu.com/regionaldigital.com/docs/1616/15.