Gabriela Mistral (1889-1986) was an important figure in twentieth-century Latin American literature. She was the only woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her writings are characterized by their blend of lyricism and realism, which she developed in her poetry and short stories. Mistral's poetry is especially well known, and she is considered one of the most important poets in Spanish language
She was born Gabriela Mistral Lazo in Valparaíso, Chile. The name "Mistral" was adopted because it sounded like "Valparaíso." Her father was a celebrated poet who published under the pseudonym Manuel Alcântara. In her youth she lived on a farm near Santiago, where she became a journalist and wrote poetry that reflected the harshness of the environment.
In 1919, she visited Buenos Aires to cover a South American Congress on Literature. While there, she met María Lila Betancourt, whom she married in 1922. They settled in Chile in 1925 and had three children: Alicia (1923), Carlos (1926), and Paulina (1929).
You shall create beauty not to excite the sensesbut to give sustenance to the soul.Gabriela Mistral
Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.Gabriela Mistral
