GABRIELA MISTRAL: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, AWARDS - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a Chilean writer, poet, pedagogue and diplomat considered one of the most outstanding intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. Her work was aimed at expressing love and respect for children and their country.

Mistral's literary work was characterized at first by being framed within the modernist movement, later becoming more intimate and emotional. The writer used simple, expressive and often colloquial language. In her texts the rhythm, sonority, symbolism and the use of metaphorical images were notorious.

Gabriela Mistral. Source: Anna Riwkin (1908-1970), via Wikimedia Commons

Gabriela Mistral's literary production was not extensive during her life, but it did reach a greater number with the different posthumous editions. Some of her most relevant titles were: Desolation, Tenderness, Tala and Lagar. The literary work of this Chilean writer earned her several awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945.

Biography

Birth and family

Lucila de María Godoy Alcayaga was born on April 7, 1889 in the town of Vicuña in Chile. The writer came from a cultured family with a medium socioeconomic level and her parents were Juan Jerónimo Godoy Villanueva and Petronila Alcayaga Rojas. Mistral had two half-siblings named Emelina Molina Alcayaga and Carlos Miguel Godoy Vallejos.

Childhood and studies

Lucila spent her childhood years in the town of Montegrande. While there, she completed her first years of studies and awakened her taste for literature and poetry. The author began working as a teaching assistant in 1904 when she was just a teenager. At that time she devoted herself to writing for the newspaper El Coquimbo.

Over the years, the vocation of a teacher that she inherited from her father led Mistral to teach in the towns of Los Cerrillos and La Cantera. That experiential practice strengthened what would be her profession in life.

Finally, Lucila managed to complete her studies in 1910 by presenting a knowledge test at the Normal School No. 1 in the city of Santiago. This is how she got the title of State professor.

First love

The young Lucila experimented with love in 1906 after meeting Romelio Ureta while he was teaching at La Cantera. The writer's feeling for her lover inspired her to write several verses of deep meaning. Now, the romance did not have a happy ending because Ureta took his own life in 1909.

First professional tasks

After the sad experience of Ureta's death, Lucila Godoy went to the Traiguén region in October 1910. This she did with the aim of starting activities as a professional teacher and clearing her mind.

While in that region, he taught drawing, home economics, labor and hygiene classes at the Girls' Lyceum. Although there was no doubt about her knowledge, she was criticized many times by her classmates for not studying at the Pedagogical Institute.

First publications

During her stay in Traiguén, the poet published several verses in the newspaper El Colono. The poems released by Lucila in 1910 were inspired by her love experience with Romelio Ureta. The most prominent titles were “Rimas” and “Tristeza”. At that time, the writer began the development of Sonnets of death.

After three years, Lucila Godoy participated in the literary contest of the Floral Games on December 12, 1914. The poet was the winner with the work Sonnets of death. From then on, the writer began to use the signature of "Gabriela Mistral" in several of her texts.

Another love

Lucila's participation in the Floral Games allowed her to meet the author Manuel Magallanes Moure and an attraction emerged between them. From then on, the lovers began a relationship through letters that lasted seven years, from 1914 to 1921.

It is known that the writer got rid of several matches for fear that they would be found and pointed out for being involved with a married man. In one of the letters the author stated: "I adore you, Manuel… I am dying of love in front of a man who cannot caress me…".

Teaching continuity

Gabriela Mistral continued to develop her teaching work alongside her career as a poet. The writer held the position of supervisor of the Liceo de Señoritas in the town of La Serena around 1915. She later served as director of the Lyceum No. 1 for Girls in the Punta Arenas region.

After that, Mistral went to the town of Temuco in 1920 in search of a warm climate. While there he held the position of regent of a school for young ladies. In that town, the writer met Pablo Neruda and they struck up a lasting friendship.

Trip to Mexico

Gabriela Mistral achieved the publication of her first work Desolación in 1922, which was produced in New York by the Institute of Las Españas. In that same year, the author traveled to Mexico in the company of her friend Laura Rodig after an invitation from José Vasconcelos.

Gabriela Mistral in 1950. Source: Gabriela_Mistral-01.jpg: Unknownderivative work: PRA, via Wikimedia Commons

The writer lived for about two years in the Aztec territory and dedicated herself to working in favor of educational systems. In addition to this work, Gabriela focused on the development of her literary career and related to important personalities in the cultural and educational area.

While in Mexican lands, he published Lecturas para mujeres in 1923, which would be his second book.

Mistral and Yin Yin

Gabriela Mistral did not have children, but raised her nephew Juan Miguel Godoy (who was known as Yin Yin) as if he were hers. The boy was born in 1925 and was the son of his half brother Carlos Miguel. Some time later, the writer received custody of the child and educated him together with his secretary Palma Guillén.

Stay in europe

Mistral went from Mexico to a tour of the United States and then in the mid-1920s returned to his native country. The political and social situation in Chile led her to Europe. During her passage through the old continent, the writer went to Switzerland in 1925 as secretary of the Institute for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.

Later, she participated in the Congress of the International University Federation that was held in Madrid in 1928, where she represented Chile and Ecuador. Some time later, she was part of the Administrative Council of the Cinematographic Institute of the League of Nations in Italy. At that time the poet suffered the loss of her mother, exactly in 1929.

Mistral here and there

Gabriela Mistral's life largely developed outside of her native Chile. Thus, in the early 1930s, she traveled to the United States and worked as a teacher at Vassar College, Middlebury College, and Bernard College.

It was at that time that he released his work White Clouds: Poetry, and the Teacher's Prayer. After that, she made a trip to Central America and the Antilles and attended as a visiting professor at the universities of Panama, Havana and Puerto Rico.

At that time, the writer received the appointment of Meritorious of the Defense Army of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua by the military Augusto Sandino.

Diplomatic career

A diplomatic career was added to his literary and teaching life. The intellectual served as her country's consul in the capital of Spain in 1933. During that stage, she toured several countries in Europe and America as a representative and ambassador of Chile. The poet remained out of her land for two decades.

On the other hand, he was in charge of publicizing two more publications, which were: Tala in 1938 and Anthology in 1941.

Goodbye to yin yin

Mistral went through one of the most difficult moments of his life when his beloved nephew Juan Miguel Godoy, alias “Yin Yin”, passed away. The young man had gone to live in Brazil, but could not adapt to the environment and fell into a deep depression.

Portrait of Gabriela Mistral by Juan Francisco Gonzáles. Source: Juan Francisco Gonzáles, via Wikimedia Commons

Unable to cope with the circumstances presented to her, Yin Yin decided to end her existence. The young man committed suicide in 1943 by administering a dose of arsenic when he was barely eighteen years old. Gabriela Mistral's life was overshadowed after the tragic end of her nephew.

Mistral and the Nobel Prize

Gabriela Mistral was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945 for the quality, meaning and emotionality of her poetic work in relation to the ideal of Latin America. The writer was in Brazil doing diplomatic work when she was given the information.

The poet traveled to Sweden on December 10, 1945 to receive the award and took the award on behalf of all Spanish-speaking writers and artists and highlighted the millenary importance of the culture of northern Europe.

Time in United States

After receiving the Nobel, Mistral traveled to the United States as Chile's ambassador to the city of Los Angeles in California. Along with her diplomatic work, she continued the production of her literary works.

While in the northern country, the author wrote a preview of Lagar I, a collection of poems that reflected the events of the Second World War.

At that time he made friends with the intellectual Doris Dana. Their close and long relationship aroused certain suspicions among critics and the general public about the Chilean poet's sexual orientation. While the commentaries around her life were interwoven, Mistral released in 1952 The Sonnets of Death and other elegiac poems.

Return to Chile

Gabriela Mistral returned to Chile in 1954 after twenty years of being away. She arrived in the company of Doris Dana and was received with multiple tributes from the presidential cabinet. That same year her book Lagar was published.

Last years and death

The Chilean writer returned to the United States (specifically New York) in the mid-20th century. While there she stayed close to her good friend Dana and continued to develop her poetry. At that time, Mistral became ill with diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

Despite her health situation, the author managed to publish the work Recados, counting Chile. Finally, Gabriela Mistral's life ended on January 10, 1957 in New York, when she was 67 years old. Her body arrived in her native country on January 19 of that same year and was later buried in Montegrande, the city of her childhood.

Will of Mistral

Gabriela Mistral left a will in which she stipulated that Doris Dana was the executor of her properties and literary works. The poet established that the profit obtained from the sales of her books in South America would be used to help the neediest children of Montegrande.

On the other hand, the writer authorized that the money produced by the sale of her literature in other countries be distributed between Dana and Palma Guillén, who was her secretary in Mexico. After Dana's passing, her niece Doris Atkinson handed over Mistral's legacy to Chile in 2006.

Style

Gabriela Mistral's literary style developed within the currents of modernism and avant-garde. Her poetic work was characterized by the use of a simple, colloquial and expressive language loaded with rhythm and sound. With the passage of time, the author's poetry acquired more personal and intimate features.

Gabriela Mistral Education Museum. Source: B1mbo, via Wikimedia Commons

Mistral's literary work was oriented to develop themes based on teaching, children, love, pain, religion and motherhood. In his writings, he expressed tenderness, shock and feeling through his different themes.

Stages

Mistral's literary work was characterized by going through different styles and stages. In the first publications, the presence of feelings about reason was notorious and religion was outstanding. Later, his poetry moved towards the conception of nature.

At the end of the 1930s the style of the Chilean writer turned towards the neorealist. Her work expressed respect and value for the American idiosyncrasy and indigenous people. In her latest publications, the poet returned to the sentimental and reflected her sadness, this can be seen especially in her work Lagar.

Plays

- Desolation (1922).

- Readings for women. Intended for the teaching of language (1923).

- Tenderness. Children's songs: rounds, songs of the land, seasons, religious, other lullabies (1924).

- White clouds: poetry, and the teacher's prayer (1930).

- Tala (1938).

- Anthology (1941).

- The sonnets of death and other elegiac poems (1952).

- Lagar (1954).

- Errands, counting Chile (1957).

Posthumous editions

- Desolation, Tenderness, Tala and Lagar (1957). Compilation.

- Motives of San Francisco (1965).

- Poem of Chile (1967).

- Complete poems (1968).

- Teaching and children (1979).

- Lagar II (1991).

- Gabriela Mistral in the voice of Elqui (1992).

- Senior Anthology (1992). Four volumes: poetry, prose, letters, life and work.

- Gabriela Mistral in El Coquimbo (1994).

- Gabriela Mistral: political writings (1994).

- Complete poems (2001).

- Blessed my tongue. Gabriela Mistral's intimate diary (1905-1956) (2002).

- The pierced eye. Correspondence between Gabriela Mistral and Uruguayan writers (2005).

- Gabriela Mistral: 50 prose in El Mercurio 1921-1956 (2005).

- Hard currency. Gabriela Mistral by herself (2005).

- This America is ours. Correspondence 1926-1956. Gabriela Mistral and Victoria Ocampo (2007).

- Gabriela Mistral essential. Poetry, prose and correspondence (2007).

- Gabriela and Mexico (2007).

- Gabriela Mistral. Personal album (2008).

- Almácigo (2009). Unpublished poems.

- Wandering girl. Letters to Doris Dana (2009).

- My dear daughter (2011).

- American Epistolary (2012). Correspondence with José Vasconcelos and Radomiro Tomic, as well as Ciro Alegría, Salvador Allende, Alone, Pablo Neruda, Ezra Pound and Eduardo Frei Montalva.

- Dance and dream. Unpublished rounds and lullabies by Gabriela Mistral (2012).

- Walking is sown (2013).

- Poem of Chile (2013).

- For future humanity (2015). Gabriela Mistral's political anthology.

- 70 years of the Nobel Prize (2015). Citizen anthology.

- Tales and autobiographies (2017).

- Passion to teach. Pedagogical thinking (2017).

- Manuscripts. Unpublished poetry (2018).

- The renegades (2018).

- Blessed be my tongue: intimate diary (2019).

Brief description of some of his works

Desolation

It was the first poetic work that Gabriela Mistral released, which was published in New York in 1922. The collection of poems was characterized by being expressive and sentimental; in this work, reason and thought were put aside. The main theme was related to love, heartbreak, suffering, pain, religion and infidelity.

Gabriela Mistral Street in Chile. Source: Ivotoledo45, via Wikimedia Commons

Although this work by Mistral was published for the first time in 1922, it was later released in a second edition in Chile in 1923. In the first instance Desolation consisted of five sections:

- "Lifetime".

- "School".

- "Children".

- "Pain".

- "Nature".

Later, in the publication that was produced in Chile, some modifications were made and two more sections were added, which were:

- "Prose".

- "Prose, schoolchildren and stories".

With the publication of this collection of poems, Gabriela Mistral managed to be recognized as a creative, original and brilliant writer. Desolation became the work with which the poet became known internationally.

Fragment of "Obsession"

“It touches me in the relente;

it bleeds at sunset;

he looks for me with the lightning

of the moon through the dens.

Like Thomas the Christ, my pale hand sinks, why don't forget, inside

of his wet wound.

… for moving in my dreams, as on the surface, for calling me in the green

kerchief of trees.

… That you, careless shroud, you did not close his eyelids, nor did you adjust his arms in the box! "

Fragment of "The prayer"

"Lord, you know how, with fiery spirit, for strange beings my word invokes you.

I come now to ask you for one that was mine, my glass of freshness, the honeycomb of my mouth.

Lime from my bones, sweet reason for the day, gurgle of my ear, girdle of my dress.

I even take care of those in which I did not put anything;

Don't have a grim eye if I ask you for this one!

I tell you it was good, I tell you it had

the whole heart to the surface of the chest, which was

soft in nature, frank as daylight, full of miracle like spring.

… I will tire your ear with prayers and sobs,

licking, shy greyhound, the edges of your mantle

and neither can your loving eyes escape me

nor avoid your foot the hot watering of my tears.

Say forgiveness, say it at last! Will scatter in the wind

the word the perfume of a hundred scent bottles… ”.

Felling

It was a collection of poems by Gabriela Mistral that was released for the first time in the city of Buenos Aires in 1938, being considered one of her most significant books. The content of this work was oriented towards the vindication of the idiosyncrasy of the American peoples, without leaving aside the sentimental.

The title of this work was associated with the cutting of trees. In a more symbolic sense, he referred to the dispossession and distancing of the poet from her country for two decades. Mistral reflected her feelings of pain and sadness over her mother's passing in several poems in this book.

Structure

Tala was structured in thirteen sections, each of which dealt with different topics. Below are the titles of the parts:

- "Death of my mother."

- "Hallucination".

- "Crazy story".

- "Subjects".

- "America".

- "Saudade".

- "The dead wave".

- "Creatures".

- "Lullabies".

- "The world-account".

- "Albricias".

- "Two stories".

- "Errands".

Fragment of "Nocturnal of the Consummation"

"You forgot the face you made

in a valley to a dark woman;

you forgot between all your ways

my rise of slow cypress;

live goats, golden vicuñas

the sad and the faithful covered you.

… as you put me in the mouth

the song for mercy alone:

how you taught me this way

to stretch my sponge with gall, I start singing your forgetfulness

for putting my cry on you again.

I tell you that you have forgotten me

-Earth bread of insipidity-

sad log left over in your bundles, a shadowy fish that defies the net.

I tell you with another that "there is time

to sow as to reap… ”.

Fragment of "Madre mía"

"My mother was little

like mint or grass;

barely cast a shadow

about things, barely, and the earth wanted her

for feeling light

and because he smiled at her

in happiness and in pain.

… Because of her it will be

this loving what does not rise, what without rumor walks

and silently speaks:

the parched herbs

and the spirit of water.

… And when does it come and come?

a voice that sings far away, I follow her madly, and I walk without finding it.

… You come, mother, you come, you arrive, also like this, not called.

Accept to see again

and hear the forgotten night

in which we were orphaned

and without direction and without gaze… ”.

Sonnets of death and other elegiac poems

This work was about a set of poems written by Mistral at the time that he began in his teaching career. Many of the verses were inspired by the love affair that the author had with Romelio Ureta and even more so with her suicide.

The poet participated with some of these sonnets in the Floral Games of 1914 and was the winner. These writings later became known on the pages of the Primerose and Zig-Zag publications in 1915.

Fragment

"From the frozen niche in which men put you, I will bring you down to the humble and sunny land.

That I have to sleep in it, men did not know, and that we have to dream on the same pillow.

I'll lay you down on the sunny earth with a

sweet motherhood for the sleeping child, and the earth has to become cradle softness

upon receiving your aching child's body.

… This long fatigue will grow one day, and the soul will tell the body that it does not want to continue

dragging its mass down the rosy track, where men go, happy to live…

Only then will you know why it does not mature, for the deep bones your flesh still, you had to go down, without fatigue, to sleep.

There will be light in the area of ​​the sinuses, dark;

you will know that in our alliance star signs there were

and, having broken the huge pact, you had to die… ”.

Winery

It was the last work published in life by Mistral and the first to be published in Chile before other countries. The writer reached literary maturity with this collection of poems, hence the title was associated with the place where the fruits were squeezed. Lagar was the reflection of the transformation of the author by all the experiences she lived.

The theme of this work focused on feelings, the end of existence, loneliness, sadness, war, society and religion. On the other hand, the book was structured in twelve sections, an introduction and a closing. Here are the titles of each of its parts:

- "Foreword".

- "Crazy women."

- "Nature II".

- "Delirium".

- "War".

- "Playing games II".

- "Mourning".

- "Night".

- "Trades".

- "Religious".

- "Vagabundaje".

- "Weather".

- "Terrestrial message".

- "Epilogue".

Fragment of "The Naked Side"

"Again on earth

my side is bare, the poor span of meat

where dying is faster

and the blood is showing

as to the edges of the glass.

The side goes like glass

from temple to feet elongated

or in the spoil without a voice

of the harvested bunch,

and more naked than ever,

just like skinned.

It is exposed to the wind without sense

who drank it on the flank, And if I sleep it is exposed

to the malice of the snare, without the cross of that chest

and the tower of that shelter… ”.

Fragment of "A word"

"I have a word in my throat

and I don't let go of her, and I don't get rid of her

although his thrust of blood pushes me.

If I let it go, it burns the living grass, bleeds the lamb, makes the bird fall.

I have to get it off my tongue

find a beaver hole

or bury it with lime and mortar

because it does not keep the flight like the soul.

I don't want to show signs that I'm alive

while my blood comes and goes

And up and down my crazy breath

Although my father Job said it, burning,

I don't want to give it, no, my poor mouth

because it does not roll and the women find it

who go to the river, and get tangled up in their braids

or twist or burn the poor bush… ”.

Awards and honours

- Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the Mills College of Oakland in 1947, California-United States.

- Serra de las Américas Award in 1950.

- National Prize for Literature of Chile in 1951.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Chile in 1954.

- In his memory, the Gabriela Mistral Order of Educational and Cultural Merit was instituted in 1977 by the Chilean government.

- The "Gabriela Mistral" Inter-American Culture Award was created in her honor in 1979 by the Organization of American States.

- Creation of the Gabriela Mistral University in 1981 in the city of Santiago.

- Gabriela Mistral's image was featured on the 5000 Chilean peso bill and has been in circulation since 1981.

- Creation of the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center in 2009 in Santiago de Chile to preserve its memory and literary legacy.

- Creation of the Gabriela Mistral Museum Room at the University of Chile in 2015 to disseminate his life and work.

Phrases

- "The future of children is always today. Tomorrow will be late".

- "The world changes in an instant and we are born in one day."

- “I have one day. If I know how to take advantage of it, I have a treasure ”.

- “To say friendship is to say complete understanding, quick confidence and a long memory; that is to say, fidelity ”.

- "What the soul does for its body is what the artist does for his people."

- "There are kisses that produce ravings of fiery and crazy loving passion, you know them well, they are my kisses invented by me, for your mouth."

- "The world was more beautiful since you made me ally, when next to a hawthorn we were speechless and love like hawthorn pierced us with fragrance!"

- "Education is, perhaps, the highest way of seeking God."

- "The happiest days are those that make us wise."

- "Where there is a tree to plant, plant it yourself. Where there is a mistake to amend, amend it yourself. Where there is an effort that everyone dodges, do it yourself. Be the one who moves the stone out of the way ”.

References

1. Tamaro, E. (2019). Gabriela Mistral. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
2. Gabriela Mistral. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
3. Gabriela Mistral. Biography. (2017). Spain: Instituto Cervantes. Recovered from: cervantes.es.
4. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957). (2018). Chile: Chilean Memory. Recovered from: memoriachilena.gob.cl.
5. Gabriela Mistral. (2019). Chile: University of Chile. Recovered from: uchile.cl.