por Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a Chilean writer, poet, educator and diplomat considered one of the most outstanding intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. Her work was oriented to express love and respect for the children and her country.
Mistral’s literary work was initially characterized by being framed within the modernist movement, later becoming more intimate and emotional. The writer herself used simple, expressive and often colloquial language. In her texts, the rhythm, the sound, the symbolism and the use of metaphorical images were notorious.
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, Felling and Winery. The literary work of this Chilean writer earned her several awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945.
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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 an educated family and of 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 herself began working as an assistant teacher in 1904 when she was just a teenager. At that time she dedicated herself to writing in the newspaper the 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 his life trade.
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. That was 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 the one in love with her inspired her to write several verses of deep meaning. However, the romance did not have a happy ending because Ureta took his own life in 1909.
First professional work
After the sad experience of Ureta’s death, Lucila Godoy went to the Traiguén region in October 1910. She did this with the aim of beginning activities as a professional teacher and clearing her mind.
While in that region, she taught drawing, home economics, labor and hygiene classes at the Girls’ High School. 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 the settler. The poems released by Lucila in 1910 were inspired by her love affair with Romelio Ureta. The most outstanding titles were “Rhymes” and “Sadness”. At that time, the writer began the development of death sonnets.
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 death sonnets. 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 arose 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 correspondences for fear that they would be found and singled out for being involved with a married man. In one of her letters, the author expressed: «I adore you, Manuel… I am dying of love in front of a man who cannot caress me…».
teaching continuity
Gabriela Mistral continued developing her teaching work along with her career as a poet. The writer she held the position of supervisor of the Liceo de Señoritas in the town of La Serena around 1915. She Later she served as director of the Liceo nº1 de Niñas in the region of Punta Arenas.
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 established a lasting friendship.
Trip to Mexico
Gabriela Mistral achieved the publication of her first work desolation 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.
The writer lived for about two years in the Aztec territory and dedicated herself to working for the 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 on Mexican soil, he published readings for women in 1923, what would be his second book.
Mistral and Yin Yin
Gabriela Mistral had no children, but raised her nephew Juan Miguel Godoy (who became known as Yin Yin) as her own. The boy was born in 1925 and was the son of her half-brother Carlos Miguel. Some time later, the writer received custody of the child and raised him together with her secretary Palma Guillén.
stay in Europe
Mistral went from Mexico to tour the United States and then in the mid-twenties he returned to his native country. The political and social situation in Chile led her to Europe. In her passage through the old continent, the writer went to Switzerland in 1925 as secretary of the Institute of 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 took place largely outside of her native Chile. That was how she traveled to the United States in the early thirties and worked as a teacher at Vassar College, Middlebury College and Bernard College.
It was at that time that he made his work known. White clouds: poems, and the teacher’s prayer. After that, she made a trip through 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 Benemérita of the Defense Army of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua by the military officer Augusto Sandino.
Diplomatic career
His diplomatic career was added to his literary and teaching life. The intellectual she served as consul of her country in the capital of Spain in 1933. During that stage, she toured several countries in Europe and America as 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: felling in 1938 and Anthology in 1941.
Goodbye Yin Yin
Mistral went through one of the most difficult moments of her life when her beloved nephew Juan Miguel Godoy, alias “Yin Yin”, passed away. The young man had gone to live in Brazil, but he failed to adapt to the environment and fell into a deep depression.
Not being able to handle the circumstances that were presented to him, Yin Yin decided to put an end to his 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 herself 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 millennial importance of northern European culture.
Weather in the United States
After having received the Nobel Prize, Mistral traveled to the United States as the Chilean ambassador in the city of Los Angeles in California. Along with her diplomatic labors, she continued the production of her literary works.
While in the northern country, the author wrote a preview of winepress Ia collection of poems that reflected the events of World War II.
At that time he became friends with the intellectual Doris Dana. Her close and long relationship aroused certain suspicions in critics and the general public about the sexual orientation of the Chilean poet. While the comments around her life were interwoven, Mistral made known in 1952 The death sonnets and other elegiac poems.
Return to Chile
Gabriela Mistral returned to Chile in 1954 after twenty years of being abroad. She arrived in the company of Doris Dana and was received with multiple tributes from the presidential cabinet. That same year his book was published. Winery.
Last years and death
The Chilean writer returned to the United States (specifically to New York) in the middle of the 20th century. While she was there she stayed close to her good friend Dana and continued to develop her poetry. During that time, Ella Mistral fell ill with diabetes and pancreatic cancer.
Despite her health situation, the author managed to publish the work Recados, counting to Chile. Finally, the life of Gabriela Mistral went out 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.
Mistral’s Testament
Gabriela Mistral left a will in which she stipulated that Doris Dana be the executor of her property 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 most needy children in Montegrande.
On the other hand, the writer authorized that the money produced by the sale of her literature in other countries be divided between Dana and Palma Guillén, who was her secretary in Mexico. After Dana’s passing, her niece Doris Atkinson handed over the Mistral 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 traits.
Mistral’s literary work…