Muna Lee (writer)

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**Muna Lee**

Born:	January 29, 1895 Raymond, Mississippi, USA
Died:	April 3, 1965 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Occupation(s):	Poet, Author
Genre(s):	Pan-Americanism, Feminism

Muna Lee (January 29, 1895 – April 3, 1965) was an American author and poet who became widely known for her writings that promoted Pan-Americanism and Feminism.

Born in Raymond, Mississippi, Lee began her writing career as a well-known lyric poet. As a translator and advocate of Latin American literature, she made major contributions to the modern Pan-American literary tradition.

As a feminist leader, Muna Lee made important contributions to the modern women's movement, in particular the struggle for equal rights. She was a founder of the Inter-American Commission of Women. A very good friend of writer William Faulkner, Lee relocated to Puerto Rico during the early years of the U.S. occupation that followed the end of the Spanish American War. It was in Puerto Rico, where she would meet her future husband, a local politician by the name of Luis Muñoz Marín, who later would become the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. They were married on July 1, 1919 and during their union they had two children: daughter Muna Muñoz Lee (known as Munita) and son Luis Muñoz Lee. They were officially divorced on November 15, 1946, less than a year before Muñoz Marín would make history when he was elected governor. Had they remained married, Lee would have become the island's first lady.

In 1941, she joined the U.S. State Department as an inter-American cultural affairs specialist. She died of lung cancer on April 3, 1965 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was laid to rest in Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in Old San Juan.