Juan Antonio Corretjer: biography and literary contributions

Juan Antonio Corretjer was born March 3, 1908 into a very political family. His father and uncles were involved in the Ciales Uprising in 1898, which protested the United States occupation of Puerto Rico. Corretjer was introduced to politics early in his life, when he accompanied his father and uncles to political rallies (Wikipedia). His political career continued in elementary school, when Corretjer joined the Literary Society of Jose Gautier Benitez, which was later renamed the Nationalist Youth ("Juan Antonio Correjter"). By eighth grade, Corretjer had more fully assimilated the beliefs of his family and was already demonstrating the beginnings of his career as a political activist; he organized a student protest against American authority in his town (Wikipedia). As result, Corretjer was expelled from school. In fact, Corretjer was not permitted to attend any schools in his municipality. Instead, he had to go to school in Vega Baja.

However, this expulsion did nothing to curb Corretjer's activist nature. In fact, he went to Cuba in 1985, where he joined an anti-Bastita group. Corretjer also traveled around the Carribean in search of support for Puerto Rican independence. After befriending Pedro Albizu Campos, a nationalist leader, Correjter became the Secretary General of the Nationalist Party. The Nationalist party:

Boldly proclaimed that U.S. domination of Puerto Rico was illegal and illegitimate -- and refused to recognize the colonial authorities, their courts or laws. They pointedly accused the U.S. Of causing the ruin and poverty of Puerto Rico's people. And they sought international recognition for Puerto Rico's right to independence. Most daring of all, they taught that Puerto Rican people had a right to wage armed struggle against the U.S. invaders ("Puerto Rico's Fight for Independence").

In fact, Correjter's political activities became increasingly controversial; he was jailed several times for his political beliefs.

However politically active Correjter was, he was also a poet and a journalist. In fact, he emerged as a poet at about the same time as he emerged as a political activist. At twelve, Corretjer wrote his first poem Canto a Ciales. By the time he was sixteen, Corretjer had published his first booklet of poems. By the time he was in his twenties, Corretjer was recognized as one of Puerto Rico's greatest poets. Like his first poem, his subsequent poems and essays centered around Puerto Rico's beauty and Corretjer's strong feelings of nationalism.

Although his poems share a common love of Puerto Rico, they differ in how they express that love. For example, in the poem Boricua en la luna, Corretjer speaks directly about the influence of America and Americanization on Puerto Rico. In this poem, Corretjer speaks of the son of Puerto Ricans, a man who was born in New York City, but whose heart is in Puerto Rico ("Boricua en la luna"). This man, who is transplanted, knows he is result of the sweat and tears of his father and grandfathers, feels that he is Puerto Rican, but knows of his homeland only in his dreams ("Boricua en la luna"). By demonstrating the heartbreak of a Puerto Rican that can not know his country, Corretjer highlights the fact that American occupation of Puerto Rico is damaging in two ways: first, Americans are changing the landscape of Puerto Rico, and, second, Americans are changing the landscape of Puerto Ricans. Interestingly enough, in this poem, Corretjer does not despise the parents that left Puerto Rico in search of opportunity; their reasons are understood, perhaps he even sympathizes with them. Instead, Corretjer speaks to the ignorance of non-Puerto Ricans that assume that New York can offer the same comforts as home.

In Oubua-moin, Corretjer speaks more directly of the violence perpetrated by outsiders to Puerto Rico. In doing this, Corretjer speaks of rivers whose currents run red with blood ("Oubua-moin"). However, it is interesting to see how Corretjer defines those natives of Puerto Rico. He is not a racist, and he acknowledges that it was not only those Native Americans that inhabited Puerto Rico at the time of Spanish invasion that deserve to call themselves Puerto Ricans. Instead, Corretjer specifically acknowledges the contributions made by blacks and whites, as well as Native Americans ("Oubua-moin"). In fact, in speaking of whips and broken flesh and broken backs, Corretjer does not shy away from the history of slavery in Puerto Rico; instead he uses the idea of slavery as an illustration to show the dangers of imperialism and foreign occupation ("Oubua-moin"). In fact, Corretjer uses the comparison between slavery and colonization to show that the exploitation of Puerto Rico has not only been similar to the exploitation of humans by slavery, but has depended on the blood of slaves ("Oubua-moin"). In this way, even though slavery has ended, Corretjer can show how Puerto Ricans will continue to be enslaved as long as another country remains in control of Puerto Rico. In addition, in Oubua-moin, Corretjer speaks about the idea of a mother country ("Oubua-moin"). Initially, one comes to understand that the mother country was Spain, and even history is honest about the horrors perpetrated by the Spanish when conquering the new world. However, by the poems end, Corretjer has transformed the idea of the mother country to represent America, thereby highlighting his belief that American possession and occupation of Puerto Rico is just as threatening, dangerous, and damaging, as Spanish occupation was.

Finally, in Yerba bruja, Corretjer contrasts the magic of Puerto Rico with the realities of a colonial governmental system. In the poem, a man is walking through witch grass, or bewitching grass, which makes him return to the religious ceremonies practiced by his ancestors ("Yerba bruja"). The poem is mainly about this experience, however, Corretjer contrasts the idea of a timeless religious experience with the presence of a sugar refinery and the idea of men in uniform, which conveys a totalitarian-type government ("Yerba bruja"). By contrasting the absolute freedom of a spiritual experience with the restrictions given by uniforms and factories, Corretjer demonstrates, albeit subtly, how Americanization has altered and scarred the landscape and the people of Puerto Rico.