Gabriela Mistral

Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (Latin American Spanish: [luˈsila ɣoˈðoj alkaˈʝaɣa]; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (Spanish: [ɡaˈβɾjela misˈtɾal]), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator, and Catholic. She was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order or Third Franciscan order. She was the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945, "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world".

Quotes

• Ya en la mitad de mis días espigo
  esta verdad con frescura de flor:
  la vida es oro y dulzura de trigo,
  es breve el odio e inmenso el amor.
  • Now in the middle of my days I glean
    this truth that has a flower's freshness:
    life is the gold and sweetness of wheat,
    hate is brief and love immense.
  • Fragment from "Palabras Serenas"

• Piececitos de niño,
  Dos joyitas sufrientes,
  ¡Cómo pasan sin veros
  Las gentes!
  • Little feet of children,
    two tiny suffering jewels,
    how can people pass
    and not see you!
  • Fragment from "Piececitos de Niño"

Quotes about

• One of the few Latin American intellectuals who stood up against fascism and spoke about the impending fate of European Jews was Gabriela Mistral, who, in 1945, became the only Latin American woman to date to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. While not a Jew herself, we include here one of her essays, "Message about the Jews,"-which she wrote in 1934, shortly before assuming her post as consul to Chile in Portugal-because it is a poignant testimony to her commitment to human rights and the Jewish people throughout historical times of great suffering when countless other prominent intellectuals chose silence. Mistral was also influential in assisting with Jewish emigration to Chile when, after 1939, most Latin American nations had closed their borders to desperate Jewish refugees seeking asylum.
  • Marjorie Agosín Introduction to the second edition of The House of Memory: Stories by Jewish Women Writers of Latin America (2022)

• I think I am a bit like Mistral: always a foreigner, always from somewhere else.
  • Marjorie Agosín Interview (2015)

• Chilean Gabriela Mistral who has been canonized as the Saint Mother…Mistral was an advocate for human rights and the plight of the Indian long before those concerns became fashionable.
  • Marjorie Agosín Introduction to These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women (2000), translated from Spanish by Monica Bruno

• The official image of Gabriela Mistral violates all cultural stereotypes since her poems to mothers, women and children are filled with a deep ideological content that goes beyond that of a teacher preoccupied with the future of her pupils. In the poems by Mistral included in this anthology, we get a glimpse of her powerful imagination and figurative language based on minute elements. Her poetry is often stripped of the traditional metaphors associated with the poetic language employed by the women of her time. Mistral's voice, depicted in melodious lullabies and fantastic stories
  • Marjorie Agosín Introduction to These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women (2000)

• I translated Mistral because I discovered that she really has not been brought into English very much, Neruda over and over and over, but not Mistral. I fell in love with her. You have to fall in love, I think, to do a long translation. Yes, and then it's fun.
  • from Conversations with Ursula Le Guin (2007)

• Some of the greatest Latin American poets have been women. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriela Mistral, María Sabina, and Violeta Parra are among them, but their true place in the history of poetry has yet to be fully acknowledged...At the turn of the century, a legendary group of women poets emerged, including Delmira Agustini, Alfonsina Storni, and Gabriela Mistral. Their work caused scandal and outrage but ultimately opened the way for other women to explore their experience in a woman's voice...Mistral was the paradoxical mestiza, who embodied contradiction. A childless woman who exalted maternity, she simultaneously embraced and scorned her indianidad. Her extraordinary mix of biblical and Amerindian rhythms got her the Nobel Prize in 1945.
  • Cecilia Vicuña The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (2009)

External links

• Gabriela Mistral Foundation
• Gabriela Mistral Poems
• List of Works
• Gabriela Mistral – University of Chile
• Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957) – Memoria Chilena
• Gabriela Mistral reads eighteen poems from her collected volumes: Ternura, Lagar, and Tala. Recorded at Library of Congress, Hispanic Division on 12 December 1950.