Morales, Rosario, 1930-

The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Rosario Morales (1930-2011) was raised in el barrio of New York City. In 1949, Morales joined the Communist Party and married Richard Levins, the son of Ukranian Jewish immigrants and a scientist. Together they moved to Puerto Rico in 1951 where they became active in the Puerto Rican Communist Party and the Fellowship of Reconciliation while working a small farm in the mountains. They eventually returned to the U.S., first to Chicago then to Cambridge, but the people and culture of Puerto Rico remained at the center of Morales' work. Morales and her daughter Aurora Levins Morales became active in the women's movement in the late 1960s, were a part of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, and co-authored a book of poetry and prose called Getting Home Alive in 1986. Despite struggles to be taken seriously as a scholar, Rosario Morales was recognized as a major contemporary Puerto Rican writer. Morales contributed to the groundbreaking book, This Bridge Called My Back, a collection of writings by women of color feminists, and her work appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. In addition to the Communist Party and the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, Rosario Morales was involved in a number of other organizations related to her identities as a feminist, Marxist, working class, Puerto RIcan woman. Rosario Morales died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2011.