Monday Reflections: I Was My Own Route

“And I was all in me as was life in me…”

— Julia de Burgos, Yo Misma Fui Mi Ruta

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! From September 15 to October 15, the United States honors the many cultural and social contributions of Hispanic Americans. This observance began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson. President Ronald Reagan expanded it in 1988 into the monthlong celebration we recognize today.

To commemorate this month, I share with you parts of a poem by Julia de Burgos. She was a Puerto Rican poet, lauded as one of the most important poets of her time. The poem is an ode to setting our own path, even if this means breaking with old patterns and expectations. Following this vocation is a way to find peace in life. This translation is by Jack Agüeros.

I wanted to be like men wanted me to be:
an attempt at life;
a game of hide-and-seek with my being.
But I was made of nows,
and my feet level upon the promissory earth
would not accept walking backwards,
and went forward, forward,
mocking the ashes to reach the kiss
of the new paths…

At each advancing step on my route forward
my back was ripped by the desperate flapping wings
of the old guard…

But the branch was unpinned forever,
and at each new whiplash my gaze
separated more and more and more from the distant
familiar horizons;
and my face took the expression that came from within,
the defined expression that hinted at a feeling
of intimate liberation;

a feeling that surged
from the balance between my life
and the truth of the kiss of the new paths.

I love Burgos’ description of her face becoming an expression of the balance between her life and the love found in the newness of her path. I especially love her description of that balance as “liberation.”

I hope you get to celebrate this Hispanic Heritage Month on campus and elsewhere in your community. I pray you will find freedom as you pursue your calling.

Our Prayer

May your path be yours and yours alone
May it spring forth from within
May you find freedom in God’s leading
And may love define your way. Amen.

Rev. Eduardo Bousson
Senior Manager, Collegiate Ministries
The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry
The United Methodist Church