[1] Her parents were Virgilio Vega, an "oral poet"[2] from Coamo, Puerto Rico, and Doña María Santana, a teacher from the town of Arroyo.
She went to school at the Academia del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, and studied at the University of Puerto Rico, earning a bachelor's degree in 1968.
[4] Vega was a professor of French literature and Caribbean studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and retired later.
Because of the nation's ties to the United States, English is mixed with Spanish to make up the dialect of the region, which is used in her writings.
Vega's father was an accomplished practitioner of the Décima, a Puerto Rican form of poetry emphasizing improvisation.