Gabriela Mistral

The subsequent death of a beloved nephew some years later further saddened her already broken soul.

As a dedicated and concerned educator cum feminist, she passionately fought for the rights of children, women and the poor.

Gabriela Mistral was born to Juan Ger�nimo Godoy Villanueva and Petronila Alcayaga. Her mother was of Basque descent while her father was a school teacher of Indian and Jewish descent. She also had one step-sister named Emelina who was fifteen years older to her.

She grew up in a world of poverty after her father abandoned his family leaving his wife and daughters to fend for themselves.She had begun to get her poems published in local newspapers from an early age.

Gabriela Minstral began her career as a teacher’s aide at the age of fifteen. In spite of her lack of a solid foundation in formal education, her sister helped her to get a teaching job.

The suicide of her lover, a railway worker named Romelio Ureta, affected her deeply and had a profound influence on her works.

Her growing popularity as a poet also helped her in rising from one position to another.

She got the opportunity to teach in a number of schools in various Chilean cities. The government of her country awarded her the title “Teacher of the Nation” in 1923.

As she became increasingly famous for her works in the fields of education and poetry, she received many invitations to attend conferences and make speeches.

In 1914, she was awarded the first prize in the Juegos Florales a national literary contest for her work Sonetos de la Muerte.

In 1945, she was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world".

She received the Chilean National Prize in literature in 1951.