Rereading Gabriela Mistral 100 years after Desolación (1922-2022): A Transhemispheric Encounter
One hundred years ago, Chile's greatest poet, Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), published Desolación (1922) in New York. Yet her voice is an undeniable contribution to the debates of our present. This virtual lecture series brings together leading researchers from Chile and the United States to reread Mistral's work considering the political, social, and economic crises of the new millennium.
Presented by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies with cosponsorship by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA), and the Gender Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame.
Virtual Lecture Series
All sessions are offered in Spanish and English with simultaneous interpretation.
Friday, April 8 | 14:00 Chile Standard Time / 2:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
La Joven Mistral (1905-1929) / The Young Mistral (1905-1929)
Grínor Rojo
Professor of Modern Chilean Literature and Critical Theory, University of Chile
Director, Center for Latin American Cultural Studies (CECLA), University of Chile
This lecture will focus on the formative years of the great Chilean poet, which coincide with the writing and publication of Desolación (1922) and with her stay in Mexico, invited by the Minister of Education José Vasconcelos to work on the national plan for the reform of libraries and schools, to implement a national educational system. These years are key in the creation of Mistral as a poet, educator and public intellectual.
Friday, August 26 | 14:00 Chile Standard Time / 2:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
Relectura de locas mujeres y un alcance político feminista / Rereading 'madwomen' and a feminist political scope
Raquel Olea
Chilean writer, professor, cultural critic, and researcher
Distinguished Professor of Arts, Letters and Humanities, Universidad de Santiago, Chile (Emerita)
Director of the Corporation for the Development of Women, La Morad
This session will focus on “locas mujeres” as a text that deconstructs the opposition reason/madness, by connecting its poetics with the contemporary feminist political imaginary and its aesthetics of the body.
Friday, September 9 | 13:00 Santiago Time / 1:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
UPDATE: This lecture will take place at 13:00 Santiago time, not 14:00 as previously communicated.
Writing the Queer Life of Gabriela Mistral
Elizabeth Horan
Professor of Literature, Arizona State University
This session will explore how the intersection of the national with gender and racial aspects of “lo queer” – evidenced in letters, poems, and periodicals – enabled Mistral’s entry into otherwise all-male friendship networks while she composed Desolación (1922) and then shaped her personal motives and political strategies for securing a consular position in 1933.
Friday, October 7 | 14:00 Santiago Time / 1:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
Latin America Enters with the Cob / Latinoamérica entra con la mazorca
Magda Sepúlveda
Professor of Latin American Literature and Coordinator of the Gabriela Mistral Chair, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Author of "Gabriela Mistral: Somos los andinos que fuimos"
This session will interpret the poem "El maíz" (“Corn”), one of the long poems of the “America” section of Mistral's Tala (1938), from the point of view of Latin American laughter described as mockery and disobedience.
Friday, November 4 | 14:00 Santiago Time / 1:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
Mistral, Diva
Cristián Opazo
Associate Professor of Literature
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Friday, November 18 | 14:00 Santiago Time / 12:00 pm Eastern Time (US)
El Retorno de la Madre Queer / The Return of the Queer Mother
Licia Fiol-Matta
Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
New York University
Friday, December 2 | 14:00 Santiago Time / 12:00 noon Eastern Time (US)
Disidencia sexual y de género en Gabriela Mistral / Gender and Sexual Dissidence in Gabriela Mistral
Claudia Cabello Hutt
Associate Professor of Spanish
Director of Graduate Studies
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro