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Gabriela Mistral: The voice of a continent and champion of education
Born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga on April 7, 1889 in the small town of Vicuña in Chile‘s Elqui Valley, Gabriela Mistral began her life in humble conditions but grew up to be the first Spanish American author to earn a Nobel Prize in Literature. A girl who at age three witnessed her father abandon her mother, throughout her early years Mistral lived in poverty with her mother and sister and had the responsibility of financially supporting her family. Adversity fuelled Mistral’s passion to help others, though, and she immersed herself in education and literature.
Monumento a Gabriela Mistral | © Andrea Fernández
Deeply spiritual and an enthusiastic scholar, Mistral worked as a teacher for much of her life, starting out in small towns and cities all over Chile. Her experiences as an educator and nomad played a large role in her writing. While working as a principal in Punta Arenas, the southernmost Chilean port, Mistral wrote Paisajes de Patagonia (‘Patagonian Landscapes’), exploring her pangs of isolation throughout this time.
Solidarity with indigenous people is an important aspect of Mistral’s legacy. During her time in Temuco, she saw how the indigenous Mapuche were treated, especially the women. She wrote the heartbreaking Poemas de la madre más triste (‘Poems of the Saddest Mother’) based on these women’s experiences and loss. The depth of Mistral’s compassion was also evident in her social work, as she set up evening classes for workers in Punta Arenas. Her poetry broke boundaries for its time, reflecting new aspects of female lives, particularly the feelings of lonely women and mothers.
Leaving Chile
Leaving Chile, Mistral began her world travels in the 1920s. She traveled to Mexico and began to write journalistic pieces in addition to her poetry. From there she explored Latin America, Europe and the United States, where a group of teachers collected her work and published the tome as Desolación (‘Despair’). Mistral rarely returned to Chile after she left, as she associated her home country with painful memories of abandonment and poverty which haunted her until her death in 1957.
With her face on the pink 5,000 peso bill, Gabriela Mistral’s legacy in Chile is as present as the lively wind that inspired her pen name. The spectacular performing arts center in Santiago Centro was named after Mistral, which goes to show how Mistral continues to watch over Chile and educate people of all ages and backgrounds. She even has a liquor brand named after her!
El Templeman | © Klausiee
Nicanor Parra: The anti-poet who has seen a century
Still kicking (and writing about it) at 102, Nicanor Parra has lived through both World Wars, Chile‘s 17-year dictatorship, and the stark political shifts and changes occurring in his home country. Parra’s deadpan humor and rejection of poetry’s traditional language and style have solidified his reputation as a non-conforming poet who challenged the system. Known as the father of antipoesia, or antipoetry, Parra’s legacy is defined by everything he isn’t. Opting for colloquial language and prose-like poems, Parra opened the gates for a flood of tradition-bucking poets after publishing Poemas y antipoemas (‘Poems and Antipoems’) in 1954, which is highly regarded among 20th century literary works.
Coming from a celebrated family of artists, Parra isn’t the only prolific creative mind in his family. His sister, Violeta Parra, an icon in her own right who passed away in 1967, was a treasured Chilean folk singer and artist. A museum commemorating her work opened in Santiago in 2015. Nicanor Parra has been proposed to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature on four separate occasions. In 2011 he won Spain’s Cervantes Prize, which is the highest literary honor in the Spanish-speaking world.
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Source link : https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/chile/articles/why-is-chile-the-land-of-poets
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Publish date : 2023-07-25 03:00:00
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