Gabriela Mistral

Lucila Godoy Alcayaga was born in 1889 in the Elqui Valley of Chile’s Andean Mountains to Basque and Indigenous parents. She spent her childhood in a small farming community, and as an adolescent she chose the pseudonym Gabriela Mistral, inspired by the Archangel Gabriel and the Mistral wind, to spread her writings. With limited opportunities for study, her struggle for an education was the biggest challenge. She started teaching at 14 in a rural school, publishing at 15 in local newspapers. She dedicated her life to children and education, both as a teacher and as a poet. In 1922 she took an assignment in Mexico to work in the educational reforms ensuing from the Mexican revolution. She never returned to live in Chile, working instead in different countries in Europe and the Americas.

She was a diplomat and activist, a citizen of the world who won praise and awards. Her works are widely published and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Gabriela Mistral is, to date, the only Spanish-language female to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature