Jesus Colon (1901-74) was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico. As a teenager, he was president of the Manuel Fernández Juncos literary society in San Juan and joined the Socialist Party. He left Puerto Rico as a stowaway and landed in New York, where he held a number of unskilled positions and witnessed firsthand the exploitation and abuse of lower-class workers. He attended night school and St. John's University. He was very active in Puerto Rican causes and was a founding member of several civic and political organizations. He wrote for numerous Hispanic publications and started a collaboration in 1955 with the Daily Worker and the Daily World, Communist Party newspapers. A prolific writer and energetic lecturer and activist, Colon also wrote poetry and short stories and published A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches in 1961.