Gabriela Mistral - Poet of Education
Devoted to education, family and children, the figure of Gabriela Mistral acquires special relevance on the 130th anniversary of her birth, at a time when the fundamental values that drove her life and work appear more urgent than ever.
Although known for her poetry, which earned her the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1945 (being the first hispanic-american woman to receive this distinction), Gabriela Mistral was in essence an educator and pedagogue, who also performed amply in the diplomatic service, representing her country with dignity around the world.
Of Diaguita (on her father’s side) and Basque (on her mother’s side) heritage, Gabriela Mistral was born in 1889 in the Valle del Elqui, in the Coquimbo Region, north of Chile.
Baptized Lucía Godoy Alcayaga, her father abandoned the family when she was only three years old. However, the paternal image remained untarnished in her mind, and Gabriela always named him as his main influence to become a poet.
“Give me your hand and we’ll dance;
give me your hand and you’ll love me,
as one flower we’ll be
as one flower, nothing more.
Your name is Rose and mine is Hope
but your name, you’ll forget.”
give me your hand and you’ll love me,
as one flower we’ll be
as one flower, nothing more.
Your name is Rose and mine is Hope
but your name, you’ll forget.”
(Dame la Mano - ronda)
In 1904, when she was barely fifteen years old, Lucía began working as a teacher’s assistant, while sending her first contributions - articles and first verses - to regional newspapers. Even then she used pseudonyms - ‘Someone’, ‘Soledad’ (Solitude) and ‘Alma’ (Soul) - instead of her real name.
Although she continued working as teacher, Lucía could not get a diploma in Education as she lacked the means to pay for her studies. In 1910, and after almost six years working as a teacher, she earned the degree of “State Professor”, through a revalidation of her professional experience.
However, her lack of specific studies in Pedagogy earned her a strong discrimination among her colleagues, which accompanied her throughout her career as teacher in Chile, in all the regions and schools where she worked, north and south of the country: Antofagasta, Los Andes, Punta Arenas, Temuco y Santiago.
Despite this discrimination in her native land, her experience was valued in other latitudes, being guest professor at the Barnard, Middlebury and Puerto Rico Universities.
In 1922 was hired by the Mexican government to create the grounds for their new educational system, which remains almost intact since its creation.
From 1910, Lucía begins to write her first verses, as a escape valve to her feelings, while she continued her pedagogical work.
“The future of children will always be today.
Tomorrow will be too late.”
- Gabriela Mistral
From 1910, Lucía begins to write her first verses, as a escape valve to her feelings, while she continued her pedagogical work.
However, it is in 1914 when she receives her first recognition as poet, winning the first prize of the Juegos Florales literature competition in Santiago, for her “Death Sonnets”.
From then on, she used the literary pseudonym “Gabriela Mistral”, chosen in homage to two of her favourite poets: the Italian Gabriele D'Annunzio, and the French Frédéric Mistral.
The question of social issues was a subject tackled by most of the creators of the time, and Gabriela was no exception, writing articles in favour of unprotected childhood and compulsory primary schooling, which still wasn’t established by decree at the time.
On the same line, much of her poetic work possess educational hues, directed towards children and adults alike, in which her pedagogical vocation is clearly evidenced.
In 1920, when she moved to Temuco, in the South of Chile, to occupy the position of principal of the Girl’s High School of that city, Gabriela met a young Neftalí Reyes, later known worldwide as Pablo Neruda, who named her as a crucial influence in his poetry.
In 1922, “Desolation” was published in New York, considered her first poetic master piece.
From 1926 onwards, Gabriela established herself abroad, first as secretary for one of the sections of the League of Nations (precedent to the current United Nations), and later in the secretary of the Institute of International Cooperation of the Society of Nations, in Geneve, Switzerland.
From 1933 and throughout the next twenty years, Gabriela worked as consul of her country in cities of Europe and America. Her poetry was translated into English, French, Italian, German and Swedish, and became a source of influence for the work of many Latin American artists and writers.
In 1945 Gabriela was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. At the end of that year, she returned to the United States where she established herself permanently.
Throughout this period, Gabriela continued writing, and in 1946 she publishes “Lagar I”, in which she reflects about the atrocities of World War II.
In 1951, Gabriela received the highest literary prize in her country, the National Prize of Literature, an award seldom given to women writers.
In addition to this, Gabriela received several Honoris Causa doctorates from the Universities of Oakland, California in Los Angeles, National University of Guatemala and the University of Florence, among others.
Named consul in New York in 1953, in 1954 Gabriela Mistral was welcomed back to Chile for a visit with the highest honours, attending an invitation made by president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, where, aside from a popular welcome fit for a hero, she was awarded a doctorate Honoris causa of the Universidad de Chile.
Gabriela Mistral died in 1957 in New York, of pancreatic cancer. Her remains are buried in Montegrande, Valle del Elqui, following her express wishes.
In her will, Gabriela stipulated that all the profits from the sales of her books in South America should be destined to the disadvantaged children of Montegrande.
From then on, she used the literary pseudonym “Gabriela Mistral”, chosen in homage to two of her favourite poets: the Italian Gabriele D'Annunzio, and the French Frédéric Mistral.
The question of social issues was a subject tackled by most of the creators of the time, and Gabriela was no exception, writing articles in favour of unprotected childhood and compulsory primary schooling, which still wasn’t established by decree at the time.
On the same line, much of her poetic work possess educational hues, directed towards children and adults alike, in which her pedagogical vocation is clearly evidenced.
“Where there’s a tree to be planted,
you plant it,
Where there’s a mistake to be corrected,
you correct it,
Where there’s an effort that everyone avoids,
you do it.
Be the one who removes the stone out of the way.”
- Gabriela Mistral
In 1920, when she moved to Temuco, in the South of Chile, to occupy the position of principal of the Girl’s High School of that city, Gabriela met a young Neftalí Reyes, later known worldwide as Pablo Neruda, who named her as a crucial influence in his poetry.
In 1922, “Desolation” was published in New York, considered her first poetic master piece.
From 1926 onwards, Gabriela established herself abroad, first as secretary for one of the sections of the League of Nations (precedent to the current United Nations), and later in the secretary of the Institute of International Cooperation of the Society of Nations, in Geneve, Switzerland.
From 1933 and throughout the next twenty years, Gabriela worked as consul of her country in cities of Europe and America. Her poetry was translated into English, French, Italian, German and Swedish, and became a source of influence for the work of many Latin American artists and writers.
In 1945 Gabriela was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. At the end of that year, she returned to the United States where she established herself permanently.
Throughout this period, Gabriela continued writing, and in 1946 she publishes “Lagar I”, in which she reflects about the atrocities of World War II.
In 1951, Gabriela received the highest literary prize in her country, the National Prize of Literature, an award seldom given to women writers.
In addition to this, Gabriela received several Honoris Causa doctorates from the Universities of Oakland, California in Los Angeles, National University of Guatemala and the University of Florence, among others.
“There are kisses that pronounce by themselves
the condemning love sentence.
There are kisses given with a glance,
there are kisses given with the memory.
There are silent kisses, noble kisses
there are enigmatic kisses, sincere.
There are kisses given only among souls
There are kisses that, forbidden, are true
There are kisses that sear and hurt,
There are kisses that take away the senses
there are mysterious kisses that have left
a thousand errant and lost dreams.”
(“Besos” - Gabriela Mistral)
Named consul in New York in 1953, in 1954 Gabriela Mistral was welcomed back to Chile for a visit with the highest honours, attending an invitation made by president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, where, aside from a popular welcome fit for a hero, she was awarded a doctorate Honoris causa of the Universidad de Chile.
Gabriela Mistral died in 1957 in New York, of pancreatic cancer. Her remains are buried in Montegrande, Valle del Elqui, following her express wishes.
In her will, Gabriela stipulated that all the profits from the sales of her books in South America should be destined to the disadvantaged children of Montegrande.
On the same line, she destined the profits of her work in the rest of the world to her closest friend and collaborator, Doris Dana, who relinquished the bequeath in favour of the disadvantaged children of Chile.
However, this noble wish could not be carried out for years due to bureaucratic hurdles, which conducted these profits to editorials and intellectuals.
However, this noble wish could not be carried out for years due to bureaucratic hurdles, which conducted these profits to editorials and intellectuals.
Only when Doris Dana refused to return the legacy of Mistral to Chile unless the poet received the respect she deserved, these hurdles where lifted and finally Mistral’s wish could be carried out.
Widely recognised on international level as one of the most relevant figures in the Spanish language literature, in her home country Gabriela Mistral has received posthumous honors, such as the creation of a house-museum in which was one of her first schools as a teacher, a mural of tiles created by artist Fernando Daza, the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center and the University Gabriela Mistral, as well as dozens of schools bearing her name, as if invocating in her the saint patron of national education.
Her effigy also appears on the five-thousand pesos bank note, a rare honor for a woman in this country.
However, despite all her achievements, Gabriela seemed to have a rather negative perception of herself, as revealed by a few lines of a letter sent to writer Manuel Magallanes Moure: “I was born mean, headstrong, enormously egoistical, and life exacerbated these vices and made me ten times harsher and cruel”.
A vision that, without a doubt, history and all of those who benefited from her legacy and the beauty of her poetry, do not share.
Desolación/ Desolation (1922)
Lecturas para mujeres - destinadas para la enseñanza del lenguaje/ Readings for women - destined to language teaching (1923)
Ternura. Canciones de niños: rondas, canciones de la tierra, estaciones religiosas y otras canciones de cuna / Tenderness. Children songs: ditties, earth songs, religious stations and other lullabies (1923)
Nubes Blancas: poesía y la oración maestra/ White Clouds: poetry and the master prayer (1930)
Tala/ Felling (1938)
Los sonetos de la muerte y otros poemas elegíacos/ Death Sonnets and other elegiac poems (1952)
Lagar (1954)
Recados. Contando a Chile/ Errands. Telling about Chile (1957)
Sources: Profesorenlinea.cl , Wikipedia, Universidad de Chile
Widely recognised on international level as one of the most relevant figures in the Spanish language literature, in her home country Gabriela Mistral has received posthumous honors, such as the creation of a house-museum in which was one of her first schools as a teacher, a mural of tiles created by artist Fernando Daza, the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center and the University Gabriela Mistral, as well as dozens of schools bearing her name, as if invocating in her the saint patron of national education.
Her effigy also appears on the five-thousand pesos bank note, a rare honor for a woman in this country.
However, despite all her achievements, Gabriela seemed to have a rather negative perception of herself, as revealed by a few lines of a letter sent to writer Manuel Magallanes Moure: “I was born mean, headstrong, enormously egoistical, and life exacerbated these vices and made me ten times harsher and cruel”.
A vision that, without a doubt, history and all of those who benefited from her legacy and the beauty of her poetry, do not share.
Works:
Desolación/ Desolation (1922)
Lecturas para mujeres - destinadas para la enseñanza del lenguaje/ Readings for women - destined to language teaching (1923)
Ternura. Canciones de niños: rondas, canciones de la tierra, estaciones religiosas y otras canciones de cuna / Tenderness. Children songs: ditties, earth songs, religious stations and other lullabies (1923)
Nubes Blancas: poesía y la oración maestra/ White Clouds: poetry and the master prayer (1930)
Tala/ Felling (1938)
Los sonetos de la muerte y otros poemas elegíacos/ Death Sonnets and other elegiac poems (1952)
Lagar (1954)
Recados. Contando a Chile/ Errands. Telling about Chile (1957)
Sources: Profesorenlinea.cl , Wikipedia, Universidad de Chile
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