Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)

"We are gulity of many errors and many faults bit our worst crime is abandoning our children, neglacting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right...

-Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral

1889-1957

Bibliography

http://home.wlu.edu/~barnettj/Holding/99/cstovall/newmistral.htm

http://theculturetrip.com/south-america/chile/articles/making-poetry-out-of-politics-gabriela-mistral-and-pablo-neruda/

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/gabriela-mistral-3280.php

http://allpoetry.com/Gabriela-Mistral

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1945/

What we learned

Stepahanie: I learned that Gabriela Mistral was not only passionate about writing poems but about helping the poor, the women and the children. She lived a tough life with getting her heart broken by death and abandonment by her close ones. She is a female figure who stood up when no one did for the poor. She did not give up with she got denied from school but only got stronger and proved that no matter what obstacles you face with passion you will achieve your goal.

Examples of work

She won the Chilean prize for "Sonetos de la Muerte" (Sonnets of Death), love poems in memory of the dead in 1914. Much of her poetry is simple and direct in language, but full of warmth and emotion. The main themes in her poems are love, maternal love, nature, sorrow and recovery. Her lover, Romelio Ureta's suicide in 1909, left deep marks on her writings. Several of Mistral's early poems were written for him.

Ingrid : I learned from Gabriela Mistral that you do not have to be a strong male figure to make a difference in something. She was a women and she made lots of changes in educational issues invovling children which helped young kids to be able to write and read and have a proper education.

Impacted the world

In 1922 she published her second collection of poems under the title "Desolacion", which gained an immediate international acclaim. Its main themes were Christian faith and death - she promises that, after death "sunny land" will emerge from decay. In the final sonnet she expresses faith in a forgiving God.

Gabriela Mistral won the Nobel Prize in Literature 1945 for as quoted "for her lyric poerty which,inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name symbol of the idelaistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"

Mistral was concerned about her society and engaged with political disputes; she fought for the rights of the disenfranchised of Chilean society and attempted to use her poetry as a weapon to reach the world’s conscience. She gave a voice to Chilean women and fight for their rights.

A member of the cultural committee of the League of Nations and Chilean consul to Madrid, Lisbon, Nice, and Naples, Mistral combined her educational ministry with her poetic talent to influence those she visited.

In 1922 she was able to further her influence in Mexico, where upon the invitation of Jose Vasconcelos, she helped enhance the Mexican government’s attempts at educational reform.

As a dedicated and concerned educator cum feminist, she passionately fought for the rights of children, women and the poor.She was a deeply spiritual person.

Time Period

Personal Life

Gabriela Mistral lived through World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust.Even though Mistral have lived through historical events, those events did not influence her work.

Love, suffering, and childhood were her main themes for her poems.

Her personal life was tough and difficult from the very beginning .She grew up in a world of poverty after her father abandoned his family leaving his wife and daughters to fend for themselves. As well as the suicide of her lover, a railway worker named Romelio Ureta, affected her deeply and had a profound influence on her works. She never married but had a very profound love for children that she adopted one but sadly passed away.

Education

Early Life

Mistral was denied admission to Normal School in La Serena .Due to the deny she turned into an elementary school teacher and later proceeded with her education career as a college professor.

In 1921 Mistral reached her highest position in the Chilean educational system when she was made principal of the newly created Liceo de Niñas number 6 in Santiago, a prestigious appointment desired by many colleagues.

During her years as an educator and administrator in Chile, Mistral was actively pursuing a literary career, writing poetry and prose, and keeping in contact with other writers and intellectuals.

Full Name

Lucila Godoy Alcayaga

She was born to Juan Gerónimo Godoy Villanueva and Petronila Alcayaga. Her mother was of Basque descent while her father was a school teacher of Indian and Jewish descent. She also had one step-sister named Emelina who was fifteen years older to her. Her initial life was traumatic. She was raised by her mom, after her dad left the family when she was 3 years of age. In any case, her mom's declining well being, Gabriela needed to begin working early – from the age of 16, she filled in as an educator's assistant. She had begun to get her poems published in local newspapers from an early age.

Birth date

April 7,1889

Death Date

January 10,1957

Place of Birth

Vicuna, Chile