In 1933, de Burgos graduated at the age of 19 from the University of Puerto Rico with a degree in teaching. She became a teacher and taught at Feijoo Elementary School in Barrio Cedro Arriba of Naranjito, Puerto Rico. She also worked as writer for a children's program on public radio, but was reportedly fired for her political beliefs. Among her early influences were Luis Lloréns Torres, Mercedes Negrón Muñoz a.k.a. "Clara Lair", Rafael Alberti and Pablo Neruda. According to de Burgos, "My childhood was all a poem in the river, and a river in the poem of my first dreams."