Chile Commemorates 80 Years Since Gabriela Mistral Became the First Latin American Nobel Laureate

Chile Celebrates 80 Years of Gabriela Mistral’s Nobel Prize with National and International Tributes

Chile pays a national tribute to the 80th anniversary of Gabriela Mistral’s Nobel Prize with large-scale events and a reaffirmation of her legacy.

On December 10, at the Palacio de La Moneda, over 50 artists brought her verses to life in the show “Chile Sings to Gabriela,” led by President Gabriel Boric and Culture Minister Carolina Arredondo.

The President emphasized that Mistral “cultivated the public sphere” as “a meeting point for different people” driven by “love for humanity,” according to official coverage of the event. The Minister added that the poet is “probably the most important woman in Chile’s history,” highlighting the ongoing relevance of her educational and cultural legacy.

The event featured a variety of national artists reflecting on the life and work of Mistral, including Amparo Noguera, Javiera Parra, Nicole, Akriila, Camila Gallardo, Horacio Salinas, Joe Vasconcellos, Zaturno, Metalengua, and Dúo Pajaritos, among others.

Watch the video: “Chile Sings to Gabriela”

Simultaneously, communities linked to her life intensified tributes. In Montegrande, Paihuano, “poetic rests” featuring works like Sonetos de la Muerte and Tala were inaugurated, in a ceremony in front of a full mausoleum, highlighting the community’s appreciation of her heritage, as published by Elqui Global.

Meanwhile, in Vicuña, the Gabriela Mistral Museum opened the exhibition “Mistral: 80 Years of the Nobel, a Contemporary Look at Her Legacy,” which included manuscripts, original editions, and community activities like “Canto a lo Poeta,” as detailed by the institution.

Gabriela Mistral’s Journey to the Nobel Prize

The University of Chile, in a special report, revealed the complex journey Mistral took to receive the Nobel Prize, highlighting that it was a decades-long process involving diplomatic and intellectual efforts. According to research by Prensa UChile, the first push occurred in the 1920s following the publication of Desolación (1922), but the official nomination did not take shape until 1939, driven by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda and facilitated by the Faculty of Philosophy and Education at the University of Chile.

The nomination faced political and technical obstacles. Initially, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo’s government (1927-1931) rejected an early proposal due to ideological differences, according to the Andrés Bello Central Archive. In 1939, the University of Chile submitted the official nomination, arguing that Mistral possessed a “personality that no other woman or poet surpasses” in the Hispanic world, but the Swedish Academy required translations into European languages, delaying the process.

The suspension of the prize during World War II (1940-1944) was pivotal. As author José Goñi cites in UChile, this period allowed for translations of her works into Swedish, French, and English to circulate, gaining support from Brazilian and European academies. Ultimately, in 1945, Mistral surpassed French poet Paul Valéry in votes, receiving the news on November 15 in Petrópolis, Brazil, where she served as consul.

On December 10, 1945, Mistral was awarded the prize in Sweden, becoming the first Latin American to achieve this honor. In her speech, she noted that the award honored “distant Ibero-American America,” according to the record from the University of Chile. Eighty years later, her legacy continues to unify Chile, allowing the celebration of one of its greatest historical achievements.