Juana Borrero

Who was Juana Borrero?

Juana Borrero was a Cuban painter and poet. A native of the Santo Suárez neighborhood of Havana, she died in Key West, Florida. She was the daughter of the writer and patriot Esteban Borrero Echevarría and of Consuelo Pierra, and began painting when she was five; she wrote her first poem at seven, and spoke multiple languages by the time she was ten. In 1887 she entered the San Alejandro Arts Academy; by 1891 her poems were being published in magazines around Cuba. She died of tuberculosis at only eighteen.