Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral , of its true name Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga (April 7th 1889 with Vicuña - January 10th 1957 with New York), is a teacher, diplomat, feminist and poetess Chile enne, Nobel Prize of literature in 1945.

One commemorates in 2007 the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

Its life

Gabriela Mistral was born with Vicuña, in the north of the Chile, in the Cordillière of the Andes, in the Vallée of Elqui. His/her father, teacher, gave up his family when Gabriela was three years old, reducing this one to a poor and difficult life. She however attends the elementary school (with interruptions) then secondary, before earning her living as assistance-teacher as of the fourteen years age. His/her mother, Petronila Alcayaga, will die in 1929 and Gabriela will dedicate to him the first part of its book " Tala" in 1938.

In 1904 it publishes under various pseudonyms in a local newspaper, El Coquimbo of Serena, its first poems like " Ensoñaciones" , " Carta Íntima" and " Junto Al Mar".

In 1906 she works as teacher and meets Romeo Ueta, a railroad worker, which commits suicide in 1909. This tragic event will produce deep effects on Gabriela Mistral which will put the reflection on the life and death in the middle of its work. Its life will be however enriched by very many male or female friendships which it will cultivate through a very active correspondence.

The first literary recognition arrives in December 1914 when it gains with Santiago the price Juegos Florales with its collection Sonetos of Muerte ( Sonnets of Dead the ). It then takes the pseudonym of Gabriele Mistral made up starting from the names of its two favorite poets, Gabriele D' Annunzio and Frederic Mistral.

In 1922, it is invited by the Minister of education of the Mexico to set up a system of libraries and schools within the framework of the new policy of education of the Mexican Revolutionary Party. It publishes in this same year 1922, its collection Desolación which is worth an international reputation to him. The following year, in 1923, it publishes Lecturas para Mujeres ( Lectures for Women ), a text in prose and worms which celebrates maternity, the education of the children and the love of the fatherland.

From return in its country, it obtains the academic title of Spanish professor at the University of Chile. Then, confirming its international statute, it makes readings and conferences in the United States and in Europe. It publishes in Madrid Ternura ( Tendresse ), a collection of counting rhymes and rounds intended for the children but who is also an anthem with the body of the women.

The year following it traverses the Latin America - Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina - before returning to Chile where it gives up its functions of professor. From 1925 to 1934, she will live then primarily in Europe - in France and Italy - while taking part in actions for the intellectual co-operation of the Société of the Nations and while intervening in various primarily American universities.

As much of South American artists or writers, it will be also until its consul death of Chile in many countries like the United States, France, Italy or Spain. It is besides in Madrid that it côtoie the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, future Nobel Prize him also, of which it makes recognize the value. She writes during this period of the hundreds of articles for the newspapers and the Spanish-speaking magazines of the whole world.

Tala is published in 1938 with Buenos Aires with the assistance of his/her old friend and corresponding Victoria Ocampo and the benefit of bookstore are given to come to assistance of the orphans caused by the Spanish civil war. The collection comprises many poems which evoke the Tradition S and the Folklore of the American and Mediterranean southern people: Gabriela Mistral leads a strong reflection on its identity and its multiple roots, at the same time Basque S and Indian born, while being defined as " una india vasca".

In August 1943 occurs the suicide of its seventeen year old nephew: the pain of this disappearance will be one of the topics of Lagar , the last work published of alive sound in 1957, in which Gabriel Mistral also reacts to the tensions of the Cold war. An ultimate collection will be published after its death in 1967 by his/her friend Doris Dana: heading Poema de Chile , it evokes the return to Chile of the poetess died in company of an Indian of the desert of Atacama and of a " huemul" , one cervidé Andean.

In November 1945 the Nobel Prize of Literature is decreed to him: it is the first writer of Latin America to receive it, on December 10th, 1945. It will also receive in 1947 the title of doctor honoris causa of the Millets College of Oakland, in California before being crowned in 1951 by the National Literary prize of Chile. One can note that there exists a stele in its honor in the splendid garden of Dar Sebastian, splendid villa built by a Rumanian aristocrat with Hammamet in Tunise.

From a fragile health, worsened by its many voyages, it spends the last years of its life to Hempstead in the State of New York where it dies of a cancer on January 10th, 1957, at the 67 years age. Its skin is brought back to Chile ten days later and the Chilean government issues three days of mourning national while hundreds of thousands of Chilean greet their poetess while witnessing its funeral respectfully.

Glances on Work

the topics which animate the work of Gabriela Mistral are varied and marked by a large humanity and also, often, a deep sadness. To the lyric subjects like the love of the native land (landscapes Andean) and nostalgia, maternity and the child (although it was never married nor mother), or the love and death, are added a constant concern for the humble ones which accompanies its catholic faith and " fransciscaine". The place made with its Indian roots still contributes to the force of an outstanding and personal work.

Formellement, its poetry is made of simplicity, which makes its texts close to the people that it forever disavowed.

First writer of Latin America to obtain the Nobel Prize of Literature (in 1945), Gabriela Mistral enjoys a great prestige in its country, with equal perhaps of Pablo Neruda, another Chilean poet crowned in 1970. It also is very estimated in the Spanish-speaking world and also in the United States. It is less known in France where its works were little published put aside the translations of Roger Caillois in 1945 and of Claude Couffon in 1989.

the Féministe S know liking to have treated to him conditon of the women in Latin America since 1923 in Lecturas para Mujeres and also to have paid homage to their maternal body in Ternura in 1924. She is thus recognized like a pionnière of the engagements for female dignity.

Works

Spanish Titles :

• Sonetos of Muerte (1914)

• Desolación (1922)

• Lecturas para Mujeres (1923)

• Ternura (1924)

• Nubes Blancas there Breve Descripción de Chile (1934)

• Catholic student (1938)

• Antología (1941)

• Lagar (1954)

• Recados Contando has Chile (1957)

• Poema de Chile (1967, posthumous publication)

Publications in French :

Poems , transl. of Spanish by Roger Caillois, bilingual Edition, ED. Gallimard, 1946
Of love and desolation , transl. Claude Couffon, collection pocket Orphée n° 20/éd. The Difference, 1989
selected Poems , ED. Rombaldi, 1967 (collection " Price nobels")

On Gabriela Mistral:

Gabriela Mistral , 1976, collection Poets of Today, ED. Seghers, 1963/1976, by Mathilde Apples.

Gabriela Mistral public and secret , ED. The harmattan, 2003, by Volodia Teitelboim.

Quotation

Cordillera

“Petrified Flesh of America,/ blown in stone hallali,/ dream of stone, our dream,/ stones of the world with their shepherds; / stones which are drawn up of a blow/ in order to link itself with their hearts! / In the closed valley of Elqui,/ by full moon of phantom,/ we doubt: let us be us men/ or many rocks in extase!

Times return, deaf river,/ and one intends them to approach/ of Cuzco the meseta, steps/ climbing with the furnace bridge of the grace. / Under the ground you whistled/ for the people with the ambrée skin; / your message, we untie it/ wrapped salamander; / and in your breaches, by puffs,/ we collect our destiny. ”

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) - Nobel Prize 1945, “Cordillera”, editions Orphée/La Difference, 1989. Translated from Spanish (Chile) by Claude Couffon.

External bonds

http://espacehispano.literaturismena.com/gabriela/primerapagina.htm

Be-X-old: ГабрыэлаМістраль

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