She became a teacher and taught at Feijoo Elementary School in Barrio Cedro Arriba of Naranjito, Puerto Rico.

[2] Among her early influences were Luis Lloréns Torres, Mercedes Negrón Muñoz, Rafael Alberti and Pablo Neruda.

[4] She published two collections of poetry, Poema en 20 surcos (1938) and Canción de la verdad sencilla (1939) in her lifetime.

Her third collection, El mar y tú: otros poemas (1954) was edited and published after her death by her sister, Consuelo Burgos.

Burgos' lyrical poems are a combination of the intimate, the land and the social struggle of the oppressed.

Many critics assert that her poetry anticipated the work of feminist writers and poets as well as that of other Hispanic authors.

[2] In 1940, Burgos and Jimenes Grullón traveled first to Cuba, where she briefly attended the University of Havana,[3] and then later to New York City, where she worked as a journalist for Pueblos Hispanos, a progressive newspaper.

A committee was organized in Puerto Rico, presided over by Dr. Margot Arce de Vázquez, to have her remains transferred to the island.

Burgos's remains arrived on September 6, 1953, and funeral services for her were held at the Puerto Rican Atheneum.

[12] In 1986, the Spanish Department of the University of Puerto Rico posthumously honored Burgos by granting her a doctorate in Human Arts and Letters.

Puerto Rican poet Giannina Braschi, who was born the year of de Burgos' death, pays homage to her poetry and legend in the Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing!

In New York City, the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, on 106th Street and Lexington Avenue, is named after her.

[16] On September 14, 2010, in a ceremony held in San Juan, the United States Postal Service honored Burgos' life and literary work with the issuance of a first class postage stamp, the 26th release in the postal system's Literary Arts series.

Jack Gottlieb wrote, "In angry words (sung in Spanish) she expresses her defiance of the dual role she plays as a conventional woman and as a liberated woman-poet.

Composer Awilda Villarini set de Burgos' work to music in her composition "Two Love Songs.