Úrsula Céspedes was born October 21, 1832, in Hacienda La Soledad, close to the city of Bayamo in the eastern part of Cuba.

Afterwards, her husband obtained the position of director for the secondary school for men in San Cristóbal, where Céspedes also taught classes for girls.

She published her first poems in 1855 in Semanario Cubano and El Redactor in Santiago de Cuba, sometimes under the pseudonyms of "La Serrana" and Carlos Enrique Alba.

[citation needed] In 1861, she published her book Ecos de la Selva with a prologue by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in which he wrote, "Therefore, in spite of the defects they suffer from, her verses grab and seduce one; she paints what she feels; but she does it with such trueness to color, that her feelings are transmitted like magnetic fluid to the heart to those who hear her inspired word."

After the death of Céspedes's brothers and father, the uncontrolled persecution against her family and the loss of all their goods caused her to move to Santa Isabel de las Lajas where she died on November 2, 1874.