Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff.
Speaker 1: I've never told your prediction of I heart radios have
Speaker 1: to works. And today we're super excited to do another
Speaker 1: edition of Female First. And that means our friend Eaves
Speaker 1: is here. Hello, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 1: as always. Yes, I always have a great time when
Speaker 1: I'm here, so we do as well. We do as
Speaker 1: these moments. Yes, and um, you can you can hear
Speaker 1: Eves on this day in history class and on unpopular
Speaker 1: She does all kinds of cool stuff, all the cool things,
Speaker 1: and so we're very glad that you take the time
Speaker 1: to join us and educate. Is about a female first
Speaker 1: the amazing thing. Education is a good thing. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: for all of us. I like we all learn here. Yes, hey,
Speaker 1: yes we try. Question mark, I don't seem to be
Speaker 1: at the end of that one. I'm not quite sure
Speaker 1: what do you do? Actually, I accidentally said that to
Speaker 1: someone once in a conversation and it was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean it to come out that way. I
Speaker 1: was just confused about their actual job. Well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's the thing like that I'm really weird about.
Speaker 1: Like when you're in social spaces, kind of the first
Speaker 1: thing you go to is well, what do you do?
Speaker 1: Those were very like impersonal and very robotic, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of like a weird I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: an American thing or what, but that makes me very
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and I try not to do that. Noted well,
Speaker 1: I love talking to like people in my family, older
Speaker 1: people and like, what do you do? And I'm like
Speaker 1: podcast today saying what is that? Like, it's this radio
Speaker 1: thing that's not on the rais on the internet. Just
Speaker 1: give me this look like that. Yeah. My parents were like,
Speaker 1: huh okay, what you talk on the radio? No? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no get occasion dude, right. I love that question. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: I don't know how but the one when I get
Speaker 1: a lot it's like, oh, like really like officially they
Speaker 1: like not you know, in your own exactly. No shade
Speaker 1: people who do that, because this can be really good
Speaker 1: and very famous. A couple of friends who do it.
Speaker 1: They are great at it. Yeah, better than I am. Oh,
Speaker 1: don't say that. Okay, so you're in the self deprecation team.
Speaker 1: That's my things. I'm trying to steal my thing eaves.
Speaker 1: I'll share. Yes, yeah, we're we're we like to share
Speaker 1: around here. Um, so who who is on your mind today? Eves?
Speaker 1: Who did you bring us? So today we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about Gabriela Mistral. So we're gonna we're gonna test
Speaker 1: my Spanish out today. I can't promise that it's going
Speaker 1: to be perfect. It's not gonna be perfect. I'll just
Speaker 1: say that up front, but I'm gonna try my best
Speaker 1: and I'm going to do my best. And yeah, so
Speaker 1: Gabriella Mistral, she was the first Latin American poet to
Speaker 1: receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. So that's the first
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about today. Yes, Um, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to try my Spanish as well. And this I
Speaker 1: I'm really glad. Um. This is someone I had not
Speaker 1: heard about. And then when I was researching her, Um,
Speaker 1: it gave me a wonderful opportunity. I haven't read poetry
Speaker 1: in a long time. Yeah, and um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: always kind of not the same when you translate it,
Speaker 1: but it's still I just was it felt good some
Speaker 1: some poetry. Yeah, I really wanted to. I know in
Speaker 1: the in our past episodes, we've talked about a lot
Speaker 1: of American people, so I wanted to bring I'm glad
Speaker 1: that you hadn't heard of her, because I wasn't familiar
Speaker 1: with her work either. And you know, we get the
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk about somebody from a different country, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was, you know, good to talk about
Speaker 1: her as well, because she is the first Latin American
Speaker 1: poet in general, not just the first female to to
Speaker 1: to get that award. Yeah, and she has done a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Yes, her story reads like uh, plain
Speaker 1: itinerary basically. I mean, she's been so many places and
Speaker 1: lived in so many places. I'm just like, okay, and
Speaker 1: then she went here, and then she went here, and
Speaker 1: then she went here. I'm like, oh my gosh, yes
Speaker 1: it is. She's dark, heartbroken kind of person. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: kind of my my email poetry. I will bring it
Speaker 1: in one day, I'll do it. Yes, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of pictures of fairies, but you have pictures on
Speaker 1: your poet. Yes, they have a lot of multi tells
Speaker 1: apparently sad and dark and just why just why, just why?
Speaker 1: So so I guess I'm out of the loop here.
Speaker 1: I was never a big like poetry um writer. I
Speaker 1: usually wrote prose yeah, yeah, I wrote a lot of poetry. Um.
Speaker 1: I loved coming. It's one of my favorites. Um, I
Speaker 1: just love the dark and death. But E Commings wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily dark and death. But you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I love I loved his nonsense. Anyway, keep going. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, now let's go deep dive into our poetry
Speaker 1: one day. Oh no, no, no, no, absolutely not, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this was a wonderful reminder to me because
Speaker 1: I also used to write poetry, and uh, I just
Speaker 1: hadn't had the chance to experience it, um in a
Speaker 1: long time. So let's let's get into the story here,
Speaker 1: because there was a lot of ground to cover. There's
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. So she also, in addition to her poetry,
Speaker 1: was a humanist. She was also a diplomat, and she
Speaker 1: was an educator. Those were all things that were huge
Speaker 1: parts of her life. So she was born with the
Speaker 1: name Lucilla god Alka Yaga on April seventh, eight eighty nine,
Speaker 1: and that was in the province of Cocimbo in Vigunya, Chile,
Speaker 1: which is a small town in northern Chile's Elki Valley,
Speaker 1: and so her parents were also school teachers. Her father's
Speaker 1: name was he Villa Nueva, and he was a payador,
Speaker 1: which was a musical performer who composed songs for festivals
Speaker 1: and sang with other village musicians. So he wasn't in
Speaker 1: her life for that long. He abandoned the family when
Speaker 1: she was about three, and when he was around, he
Speaker 1: wasn't around that much. UM, but her heritage was also
Speaker 1: of note, so both of her parents also had Basque
Speaker 1: and Native roots. So before her father left, though, he
Speaker 1: did read poetry to her, so that was a way
Speaker 1: that she had that kind of poetry influence in her life.
Speaker 1: So she was raised in Vicuna and also in nearby
Speaker 1: Monte Grande by her mother and her mother's daughter from
Speaker 1: an earlier marriage, was fifteen years older than her UM,
Speaker 1: but she was also around and she had some tough
Speaker 1: times in her younger years. She was falsely accused of theft. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was scolded by her school teachers and stoned by
Speaker 1: classmates and yeah and um, and at nineteen o one
Speaker 1: the family moved to Las Angea. UM. She eventually applied
Speaker 1: for admission to the normal school while she was there,
Speaker 1: but she was denied permission to enroll there. UM with
Speaker 1: no explanation, but she later said that the reason was
Speaker 1: because the reason she was rejected because the school knew
Speaker 1: about her publications and her support of like liberalizing education
Speaker 1: and giving people of all classes access, and that kind
Speaker 1: of wasn't viewed favorably. Um, But school would become a
Speaker 1: huge part of her life regardless of that fact. So
Speaker 1: when she was fifteen, she began working as a primary
Speaker 1: school teachers assistant in a remote town in the Andian Mountains,
Speaker 1: and so she spent a lot of time visiting her
Speaker 1: paternal grandmother, Isabel Villa Nueva, who would encourage her to
Speaker 1: learn a lot more about the Bible. She like encouraged
Speaker 1: her to recite from memory passages from the Bible. And
Speaker 1: so Christianity and religion in spirituality, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit more, were like huge parts of Gabriella's
Speaker 1: story and like what she what influenced her in writing
Speaker 1: her poetry and all the themes in her poetry. So
Speaker 1: she around this time had been sending a lot of
Speaker 1: contributions to like newspapers, regional newspapers like Lavos de Elki
Speaker 1: and Viguna and el Cokimbo in las Arangia and around
Speaker 1: this time she also started to write poetry in addition
Speaker 1: to the articles she was writing for newspapers, And so
Speaker 1: early on she was already like imbued with this spirit
Speaker 1: of like caring about education and specifically about like girls
Speaker 1: and women's education. So yeah, in the in the nineteen
Speaker 1: oh six article lin which is the education of women,
Speaker 1: she said, let women be educated. Nothing in them requires
Speaker 1: that they be set in a place lower than men.
Speaker 1: And she started teaching secondary school in La Canteta in
Speaker 1: nineteen o six, and by nineteen o nine she had
Speaker 1: also taken on administrative rules in the schools. In nineteen
Speaker 1: o eight when she first started using the pen name
Speaker 1: Gabriela Mistral, and she was contributing to newspaper still in
Speaker 1: literary magazines, just like a ton of work. And by
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen she had kind of like began using Mistral
Speaker 1: as her pseudonym, just regularly basically and not using her
Speaker 1: own name in her writing right. And her pen name
Speaker 1: is said to have come from the names of two
Speaker 1: different poets, are from the archangel Gabriel and the northerly wind,
Speaker 1: the Mistral from southern France. And so she fell in
Speaker 1: love with a a world employee named Rome Leo, and
Speaker 1: he died by suicide in nineteen o nine, and that
Speaker 1: greatly affected her in her poetry, at least according to critics.
Speaker 1: A lot of critics said that that was that had
Speaker 1: a huge impact on her poetry, and all that sorrow
Speaker 1: that she had in grief that she had after the
Speaker 1: death affected her. Although there have been people who said
Speaker 1: that her sonnets which she wrote later, which we'll get to,
Speaker 1: some people have said that he was the subject of
Speaker 1: those while others have like a kind of said that
Speaker 1: that he wasn't the subject of of those poems. They've
Speaker 1: questioned it, they've questioned it, and um, we'll get to
Speaker 1: that later. I won't even tease it. Um. So in
Speaker 1: nineteen times she got her teaching certification, even though she
Speaker 1: hadn't followed a normal course of study. UM. And over
Speaker 1: the next few years she went on to become a
Speaker 1: secondary school professor, an inspector general, and a school director.
Speaker 1: She was um. She she worked her way up in
Speaker 1: this school that like a lot of people were jealous
Speaker 1: that she got into a big high school for girls
Speaker 1: in Santiago. UM and so it would be it would
Speaker 1: be exhaustive to like go through all of the schools
Speaker 1: that she went to. She worked in a lot of
Speaker 1: rural schools in today, and all of the work that
Speaker 1: she did, um, but all those jobs gave her the
Speaker 1: opportunity to know her country better and then many other
Speaker 1: people who stayed there because she traveled so much and
Speaker 1: worked with students so much, and you know, she had
Speaker 1: this knowledge of the country and the geography and the
Speaker 1: people's and those kind of became the basis for her
Speaker 1: interest in national values and that, you know, all that
Speaker 1: knowledge that she had coincided with the political and intellectual
Speaker 1: knowledge about the country as a whole. And so when
Speaker 1: she was twenty one, she met the minute stear of
Speaker 1: Education Prota, who later became the President of Chile, and
Speaker 1: so he would go on to help her expand the
Speaker 1: reach of her poetry. Wow, So she remained, she kept teaching,
Speaker 1: and she was dedicated to that and dedicated to education
Speaker 1: and her whole life and promoting that. But she also
Speaker 1: started getting into poetry at this time. So her name
Speaker 1: became really wildly familiar because a lot of them were
Speaker 1: included in a primary school reader that was used all
Speaker 1: over the country and in Latin America. And she was
Speaker 1: also an active member of the Chilean Theosophical Association and
Speaker 1: adopted Buddhism as her religion at a certain point, though
Speaker 1: she later returned to Catholicism. And so when I teased
Speaker 1: earlier the sonnets, um, those are the sonnets on death,
Speaker 1: and she wrote those in nineteen fourteen, and for that
Speaker 1: this is kind of a defining moment in her life.
Speaker 1: She won the Auegos Florads contest, and this poem is
Speaker 1: like it helped her define her voice, and people began
Speaker 1: viewing her narrative voice as her voice, like her autobiographical voice. Um.
Speaker 1: And that was one marked a bolic sadness, loneliness, despair, passion, jealousy,
Speaker 1: kind of all of those fields. Um. And throughout the
Speaker 1: period of nineteen eighteen and nineteen twenty two she was
Speaker 1: still working. She worked in three different schools, and about
Speaker 1: the early nineteen twenties her poetry was published in a
Speaker 1: lot of different magazines and literary journals. And so her
Speaker 1: first book with desa Lacion, which was a collection of
Speaker 1: poems that were previously published in newspapers and magazines, and
Speaker 1: so Columbia University professor Ferico de Anice introduced her work
Speaker 1: to high school teachers looking to expand Spanish language classes
Speaker 1: in New York City, and a committee for that worked
Speaker 1: on producing her book of poems that could be used
Speaker 1: in US classrooms, and so, with a grant from the
Speaker 1: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace UM, the Instituto deles Aspanes
Speaker 1: published the book in New York. So not Chile UM,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to her story. Like she wasn't um
Speaker 1: super widely recognized in Tila during her time she was,
Speaker 1: but like she got a lot of international attention instead.
Speaker 1: And so death, suffering, sadness, as you can tell by
Speaker 1: the title desolation, you show up a lot inson and
Speaker 1: so yeah, like I said, she was getting all this
Speaker 1: international She was getting more and more international attention for
Speaker 1: her poetry, which she had already had for her journalism
Speaker 1: and her public speaking. UM. So she has a ton
Speaker 1: of poems. And one of the things that was notable
Speaker 1: about her poems was that they were very simple and understandable,
Speaker 1: and that was a big reason they were used in
Speaker 1: schools and people were drawn to them in on Spanish
Speaker 1: speaking UM places that use them for education. UM. But
Speaker 1: they're also still full even though they were simple of
Speaker 1: emotion and they were warm, and so her poetry contained
Speaker 1: all these things of love, death, childhood, maternity, religion. It
Speaker 1: was lyrical but still unpretentious, and it had these religious
Speaker 1: under and overtones, as she was a devout Christian. And
Speaker 1: so in the University dot de Chile granted her the
Speaker 1: professional title of the Teacher of Spanish and recognition of
Speaker 1: her professional and literary contributions, and that same year, the
Speaker 1: President of Mexico asked her to assist in the country's
Speaker 1: education and reform effort, which is a project under the
Speaker 1: direction of Education Minister Jose Vasconcellos, and she helped planning
Speaker 1: and reorganizing the rural education in the country. And at
Speaker 1: the same time she was learning about the people in
Speaker 1: the country and the culture of the country. And so
Speaker 1: while she was in Mexico, in nineteen twenty three, she
Speaker 1: published a collection of essays called or Readings for Women
Speaker 1: that included the works of classic and contemporary writers, including herself.
Speaker 1: And after two years in Mexico, this is where we
Speaker 1: get to the really traveling part. After two years in Mexico,
Speaker 1: she traveled to Europe and the United States and she
Speaker 1: was kind of welcomed warmly their officials and um she
Speaker 1: was a featured speaker in nineteen four at the Pan
Speaker 1: American Union headquarters. And this is another aspect of her life,
Speaker 1: her pan Americanism and in Washington. So she was walking
Speaker 1: to those headquarters in Washington when she was in the
Speaker 1: United States, and so she championed pan Americanism, which is
Speaker 1: a movement for the advocacy of close cooperation between the countries,
Speaker 1: the member countries of North and South America. And she
Speaker 1: said this in her address. She said, I believe that difference,
Speaker 1: in the case of humanity as well as in nature,
Speaker 1: is a merely another form of enrichment. In this way,
Speaker 1: what is Latin, even in its sharpest contrast, when a
Speaker 1: face to face with Anglo Saxonism is a kind of
Speaker 1: strength through different virtues, through other modes of living, but
Speaker 1: in no sense the occasion of inevitable discord. And she
Speaker 1: went on to say, friendship of the different people's sought
Speaker 1: by the Pan American Union would be easily attained if
Speaker 1: we were all imbued to the farthest limit of consciousness
Speaker 1: with the concept of dissimilarity without inferiority. So that kind
Speaker 1: of gives a good view of like how she felt
Speaker 1: about all her travels. What was like imbued in her work, Um,
Speaker 1: how she felt about relations between people, and we know,
Speaker 1: I mean, this was the nineteen twenties, what was going on.
Speaker 1: And I only know about the United States of America
Speaker 1: because you know, this is where I live, and but like,
Speaker 1: we know what was going on here in the United
Speaker 1: States of America, and everything wasn't like butterflies and rainbows.
Speaker 1: Everybody wasn't getting along well you know. Um So it
Speaker 1: does seem like very optimistic to me. But I think
Speaker 1: a lot of that showed up in her poetry and
Speaker 1: in her writing. Um so she also emphasized like how
Speaker 1: important it was and how important she felt it was
Speaker 1: to approach these ideals of continental unity through the application
Speaker 1: of like Christian faith and value, so that religion showing
Speaker 1: back up. And so years later, in N one, the
Speaker 1: Pan American Union also commissioned her to write a pledge
Speaker 1: for students to stay in the classrooms of all the
Speaker 1: member states, and the players kind of said that North
Speaker 1: and South Americans had this common destiny by way of
Speaker 1: geographic unity. Um yeah, yeah, you have thoughts about that.
Speaker 1: I wish it were true. I know, I know, I know,
Speaker 1: because it's like at the same time, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of imperialism going on from the United States itself,
Speaker 1: and let's talking about you know that, and here specifically
Speaker 1: directed to a lot American countries to like Cuba. UM.
Speaker 1: But she also emphasized in the Pledge the right of
Speaker 1: nations to self determination, and she was kind of anti imperialist.
Speaker 1: So the list of titles and credits and a war
Speaker 1: list of all of that goes on for her. Um.
Speaker 1: She was appointed an executive member of the Institute of
Speaker 1: Educational Cinematography in Rome, and so she kept writing poetry
Speaker 1: as well. So her next book was which included poems
Speaker 1: for children, was called Terra NeuRA or Tenderness, and that
Speaker 1: was published in Madrid, and that contained themes of motherhood,
Speaker 1: of childhood, of the world, and of nature. And so
Speaker 1: she wanted the book to be and this is our quote,
Speaker 1: poetry for school that does not cease to be poetry
Speaker 1: because it's saturated of things of the heart, more affected
Speaker 1: by the breath of the soul. I just love that.
Speaker 1: Like I feel this is probably very stereotyping, but I
Speaker 1: feel like poets always talking like speed poetry as well,
Speaker 1: even when they're not writing poetry, or I like to
Speaker 1: imagine that at least always a poet always do to
Speaker 1: know exactly, but only the non self deprecating poets, because
Speaker 1: self deprecating poets probably just cry, yeah, we're like my stuff,
Speaker 1: or don't you know it's gonna burn anyway, It's true.
Speaker 1: There is a lot more to this story, but first
Speaker 1: we're gonna pause for a quick break or word from
Speaker 1: our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored. So she
Speaker 1: returned to ul A and and there she formally retired
Speaker 1: from the country's education system, but throughout her whole life
Speaker 1: she would receive a pension um so as the government
Speaker 1: that the government at this time granted her retirement due
Speaker 1: to her years of service and her contribution to the culture,
Speaker 1: but she depended on that pension for the rest of
Speaker 1: her life. And so she also returned to Catholicism around
Speaker 1: this time, and she was a follower of Saint Francis
Speaker 1: of Assisi, and she entered the Franciscan Order as a
Speaker 1: member of Laity. And so she was appointed the country's
Speaker 1: representative to the Institute for Intellectual Cooperation WHOA, which is
Speaker 1: a part of the League of Nations. And in nineteen
Speaker 1: six she moved to France. Um, which Annie you know well, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: probably not as well as she did. Okay, are you
Speaker 1: trying to get me to speak French? Oh no, leave
Speaker 1: that to you. We'll see. My name is deceiving because
Speaker 1: I'm really bad at speaking French. Um. You know, you
Speaker 1: just gotta give it a go. Yeah. So, while one
Speaker 1: language at a time. And while she was there, she
Speaker 1: started the publication of a series of Latin American literary
Speaker 1: classics in French translation. And she gave lectures and toured
Speaker 1: around the United States around Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Brasil, Uruguay,
Speaker 1: and Argentina, among other places. And she lived mostly in
Speaker 1: Italy and France from nineteen to nineteen thirty two. In
Speaker 1: the ninety the Chilean Teachers Association sent her as its
Speaker 1: delegate to the Congress of Educators at Locarno and more
Speaker 1: more things, more accolades. She represented Chile and Ecuador at
Speaker 1: the International University Federation in Madrid. And um, here's an
Speaker 1: interesting personal part of her story. When she was living
Speaker 1: in Provence, a brother that she didn't know that she had,
Speaker 1: her father's son. Um left. His son was her as
Speaker 1: his mother had just died. And you know, he became
Speaker 1: a part of her life. Her Her mother died in
Speaker 1: ninet so not long after that, and she wrote a
Speaker 1: series of eight poems where at the Demi Madre about
Speaker 1: you know, influenced by that. And so in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: the government suspended her retirement benefits and she began doing
Speaker 1: more journalistic writing to make up for that lack of finances.
Speaker 1: She's the suspended them. Yeah, she got it back. Though,
Speaker 1: she got it back. Okay, I'm like worried for this person.
Speaker 1: She made it through, you know. Yeah, she lived a
Speaker 1: full life. She didn't and another thing she did to
Speaker 1: you know, keep those finances following During that time, she
Speaker 1: did a lot of um. She went to a lot
Speaker 1: of universities. She was at Barnard College of Columbia University
Speaker 1: from nineteen thirty and nineteen thirty one. She worked at
Speaker 1: Middlebury College, a Vassador College and teen thirty one, and
Speaker 1: she gave conferences and wrote at the University of Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico ad Rio pier Ras. In the nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: she became to Land consul and two years later Chilean
Speaker 1: Congress named her the country's Soul Life Counsul. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: this is also where a lot of her travel comes in.
Speaker 1: She was in Naples, Madrid, Lisbon, Niece, Petropolis, Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: Santa Barbara, Racruz, Rapayo, and New York and as a
Speaker 1: consul she interacted with Pablo Naruta, who is a well
Speaker 1: known poet and also a diplomat and a politician. And
Speaker 1: when she was in when Gabriela was in Temuca in
Speaker 1: southern Chile, when she was teaching, that's where Naruta grew up,
Speaker 1: and so she had actually give in him books and
Speaker 1: encouraged his talent um in Chula when he was younger.
Speaker 1: So there is like Pablo Neruda's more of a probably
Speaker 1: at the time more recognized into La for his work,
Speaker 1: whereas she did a lot. She was very recognized internationally.
Speaker 1: So she's widely quoted form in which she said this,
Speaker 1: we are guilty of many errors and many faults, but
Speaker 1: our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain
Speaker 1: of life. Many of the things we need can wait,
Speaker 1: the child cannot. Right now is the time his bones
Speaker 1: are being formed, his blood is being made, and his
Speaker 1: senses are being developed. To him, we cannot answer tomorrow.
Speaker 1: His name is today. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's too
Speaker 1: real today, too real, too real. Yeah so. In her
Speaker 1: book tala Are Felling in English was publish in Buenos
Speaker 1: Aires by the writer and critic Victoria Ocampo, and Gabriella
Speaker 1: donated her author's rights for the book to Spanish children
Speaker 1: who were displaced and orphaned by the Spanish Civil War.
Speaker 1: And the book includes poems inspired by her mother's death
Speaker 1: that that has showed up before and also poems divided
Speaker 1: into three sections that weren't matter um verse about britt
Speaker 1: saltwater and air land of Chile and America and after
Speaker 1: World War Two, she also served as to Land delegate
Speaker 1: to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
Speaker 1: until her death in nineteen fifty seven. So uh. She
Speaker 1: also suffered more loss in her life of people who
Speaker 1: are close to her, and nineteen forty two her friend
Speaker 1: Stefan Zvik and his wife they died by suicide, and
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty three her nephew, the the boy who
Speaker 1: that she had adopted and raised as her son, who
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, he died from arsenic poisoning and that
Speaker 1: was ruled as a suicide, but um mr All believed
Speaker 1: that he was murdered. Oh really, Yeah, that's rough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is barely rough. And it was two years after
Speaker 1: that ninety five when she became the first Latin American
Speaker 1: to get the Nobel Prize in Literature. And she was
Speaker 1: awarded the Nobel Prize for her lyric poetry, which inspired
Speaker 1: by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of
Speaker 1: the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world. M
Speaker 1: her lyric poetry. What a year to get it too.
Speaker 1: So near the end of her life she was writing
Speaker 1: Poema de Chile, which was a long narrative poem that
Speaker 1: she worked on but she never finished it. Um. And
Speaker 1: she also in it she explored musical poetry for children
Speaker 1: and poetry of nature. In the nineteen fifty one she
Speaker 1: was awarded the National Literature Prize in tu l and
Speaker 1: going back to talking about the Pablo Neruta thing, he
Speaker 1: had already won the National Literature Prize into a years earlier. Um.
Speaker 1: So Gabrielle's last book was leagd Or Wine Press, and
Speaker 1: that was published in nineteen fifty four, her last book
Speaker 1: during her lifetime, because she did have stuff published posthumously. Um.
Speaker 1: She went back to Santiago in nineteen fifty four as well,
Speaker 1: which was the first time she had been back to
Speaker 1: Chile since nineteen thirty eight, So she didn't go back
Speaker 1: to Chile much when she started. When she left, she
Speaker 1: was like, I'm gone check out all these things. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And she was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty six. UM and the last years of her life
Speaker 1: she lived in Rosalind, New York. She had diabetes and
Speaker 1: she had also had heart issues, and she died in
Speaker 1: Long Island of pancreatic cancer in January of nineteen five
Speaker 1: d seven, when she was sixty seven years old. So
Speaker 1: during her lifetime she published around eight hundred essays of
Speaker 1: magazines and newspapers, and Ascessar earlier, she wasn't much celebrated
Speaker 1: in Chile. Um and there were a lot of things
Speaker 1: that were published posthumously for her. So Lanks and Hughes,
Speaker 1: which who was a friend of hers, prepared the first
Speaker 1: volume of her poetry translated into English, and that was
Speaker 1: published in ninety seven, shortly after her death. Um And
Speaker 1: she she also had schools and libraries named after her.
Speaker 1: Her images on the five thousand to Land Paso bankonnote,
Speaker 1: which is cool. Yeah, right, you want your money, your
Speaker 1: your face on money, don't just right. There was this
Speaker 1: image that formed of of Gabriela Mistral after she she died.
Speaker 1: She had public success as a figure in the US
Speaker 1: when she was alive, although a lot of people were
Speaker 1: invoking her name and image in a certain way, as
Speaker 1: little of her work appeared in English when she was alive,
Speaker 1: and she criticized the US policy, and that could have
Speaker 1: had something to do with the lack of placement of
Speaker 1: her work in the US press because of this image
Speaker 1: of like American, this pan americanism, this image of American
Speaker 1: unity that she became a symbol of in a way,
Speaker 1: and people also uplifted her image as being a figure
Speaker 1: of national sentimentality. This conservative kind of said, you know, depressed,
Speaker 1: lonely woman who kind of bent to the will of
Speaker 1: the patriarchal state and exalted motherhood. Um and like this
Speaker 1: this image of her being is a ver virgin Christian,
Speaker 1: pure life of like maternal service. Thinking about all the
Speaker 1: education that she was involved in during her lifetime and
Speaker 1: the themes of her work itself kind of diametrically opposed
Speaker 1: to this idea or these ideas of this image of
Speaker 1: Pablo Neruda, who is atheist. You know, a lot different. Um.
Speaker 1: But there has been since debate of her sexuality, with
Speaker 1: a lot of people saying that she was a lesbian
Speaker 1: and wasn't out about it, and even though she herself
Speaker 1: denied it, she wrote that she was not a lesbian
Speaker 1: and that the rumors were unfounded. They were silly American
Speaker 1: doroth Dana, who was her friend and had inherited Garbadriella's
Speaker 1: estate and they sent letters to each other that were
Speaker 1: published after Dana died. Um, she's an executive her estate,
Speaker 1: but after she died they were published in Spanish and
Speaker 1: then later in English, not that long ago in English,
Speaker 1: and they expressed a lot of love for each other
Speaker 1: in these letters. And there's a there's a film out
Speaker 1: there about Gadriella and her lesbianism. Um. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: something that Okay, even though she is kind of one
Speaker 1: of those said not said things. Um, it's something that's
Speaker 1: still contested like whether she I don't think we need
Speaker 1: to spend too much time on that, whether she was
Speaker 1: a lesbian or not, but it is something that's been
Speaker 1: brought up about her life. She was bisexual, and they
Speaker 1: were just missing representing her altogether. Yeah, she would say
Speaker 1: she was not just a straight lesbian. Yeah, well so
Speaker 1: it did come up, how you know in her poems. Well,
Speaker 1: thinking about the guy who died by suicide was the
Speaker 1: subject of her poetry. Um A lot of the times
Speaker 1: we can put hittero sexuality on a poem because that's
Speaker 1: how we read it. So or that's the assumptions that
Speaker 1: we make based on the paechriarchal system that we are
Speaker 1: influenced by, brainwashed by. Um. So re kind of re
Speaker 1: contextualizing everything that she wrote and instead of assuming that that, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe this relationship that she had with Doris Dana and
Speaker 1: maybe with other people were um, you know, romantic relationships,
Speaker 1: and for that reason we can reinterpret, you know, the
Speaker 1: way her poetry was written. She wasn't this lonely, sad,
Speaker 1: depressed woman who was like subject to the whims of
Speaker 1: the patriarchy. And it's something that's still debated and contested,
Speaker 1: but still her her work speaks for itself. This is
Speaker 1: from one of her poems, and Fassando el frio grande
Speaker 1: los mari posts and guilto Ian el adre amigo las
Speaker 1: hostel Romeo helsine fasoltadas huelo, And that means as soon
Speaker 1: as the big cold left, the butterflies returned. And in
Speaker 1: the air, my friend is a sweet charmer and the
Speaker 1: Rosemary leaves sway under their light. Angel and angel all
Speaker 1: painted as if it were for real or just for play.
Speaker 1: That's lovely, lovely and very excellent job. Yeah. I love
Speaker 1: how she had a lot of her work was characterized
Speaker 1: by you know, darkness and death and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: But despite the things that she had gone through, she
Speaker 1: still had this very it seems like hopeful streak and
Speaker 1: and this desire to to help children or be there
Speaker 1: for people who didn't have a voice, and she was
Speaker 1: writing that voice. She's one of those who, much like me,
Speaker 1: the people who consistently are in battle mode have to
Speaker 1: let out their darkness somehow, so much like that gathers
Speaker 1: within them because they're fighting a system, which she was
Speaker 1: a fighter, seemingly with a social us this point as well,
Speaker 1: and for children and for education and for women, and
Speaker 1: so part of this poetry is to let out her
Speaker 1: grief in the parts that she doesn't have to she
Speaker 1: can't talk about consistently when she's in the middle of
Speaker 1: trying to advocate for others, that's what it seems. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she saw it, and she saw so much in
Speaker 1: her travel as well that it was a really turbulent time.
Speaker 1: And I it was she lived a life of service essentially,
Speaker 1: was a life of service. And so yeah, just her
Speaker 1: her story as an inspiration for women and and for
Speaker 1: poise and for writers and for people who want to
Speaker 1: contribute to the world the things that they have to
Speaker 1: give to the world, what they have to offer. And
Speaker 1: it's very inspirational. It absolutely, she's very inspirational. She women
Speaker 1: contained multitudes, and she contained many multitudes. She she accomplished
Speaker 1: a lot. And yeah, we you would highly recommend going
Speaker 1: finding her poetry and reading it checking it out. We
Speaker 1: have some more for you listeners, but first we're going
Speaker 1: to pause for one more QUICKI for to our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Now we're back, Thank you sponsorb. Is that Do you
Speaker 1: have anything else you want to add before we come
Speaker 1: to an end? No, I want grace people with UM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that's all. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: That was yeah, awesome, awesome, um and uh oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just so glad to have learned about her. I
Speaker 1: hope that let's nerds are as well. Um also just
Speaker 1: behind the scenes side note, Eves and I bonded over SpongeBob,
Speaker 1: swear pants and ad break and I feel very very
Speaker 1: old as I was listening to the two of you
Speaker 1: enjoy life and SpongeBob. Thank you. There shall be a
Speaker 1: poem about that about SpongeBob. We can do maybe finding
Speaker 1: joy and SpongeBob. Maybe we should this. I don't want
Speaker 1: to take credit for this. This is a joint, you know,
Speaker 1: a team effort, and then we'll do a dramatic reading
Speaker 1: of it. Yes, for the office. We're not going to
Speaker 1: tell them we're gonna do it. We're just gonna do
Speaker 1: it like the joys of SpongeBob. Just occasionally there is
Speaker 1: just a mic out in our like open areas, so
Speaker 1: next time, yes, But it's usually like for meetings or something,
Speaker 1: so next time. So why I The question is why
Speaker 1: aren't we doing office talent shows? That is an excellent question, Eves.
Speaker 1: I've actually thought about what talent I would do. Do
Speaker 1: you ever worry about that kind of thing? But He's like,
Speaker 1: it must perform at a talent show, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I have no talents, like I have no talents and
Speaker 1: all that happened, it might at any minute. Movies tell
Speaker 1: me that it could happen. We have to save the
Speaker 1: world by singing a song you have. Yeah, well, it's
Speaker 1: very important to your reputation unless your world that you
Speaker 1: perform well at whatever talent show. I don't think i've
Speaker 1: ever No, I've definitely competed in the talent show. I
Speaker 1: did tap dancing. Can you tap dance? Still? I have
Speaker 1: a really an embarrassing story about the talent show. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not that embarrassing. I feel like it's a normally
Speaker 1: embarrassing story. Um, when I was in elementary school. When
Speaker 1: I was in elementary school, we had a talent show,
Speaker 1: and do you remember the song by LLL couj and
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lopez. Um, you're laughing before. If you get it out,
Speaker 1: it's okay, Andy. It was embarrassing. Um, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to sing it now. But there was a song um
Speaker 1: by j Lo and Llo Couja, and I was go, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll see it. She was like, it's such a shame
Speaker 1: that I'm leaving. Can'ta the way you mistreated me that song?
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna keep sinking and Um, I think I
Speaker 1: had Llo Couja's part and the girl who I was
Speaker 1: performing with had j Loo's part, and she I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure was that way. It may have been the other way,
Speaker 1: but I knew both parts anyway, Okay, so yeah, and
Speaker 1: then she just totally flowed and forgot her works and
Speaker 1: just like was stuck in the middle of the performance
Speaker 1: and I had to like pick it up for her.
Speaker 1: But and I did it, but I was crying in
Speaker 1: the car after her, and I was so embarrassed. And
Speaker 1: then a girl that I knew that I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: she was like a great older than me. But anyway,
Speaker 1: a girl who was also I think she's also in
Speaker 1: the UM in the Talent show knocked on my window
Speaker 1: and she said, I will never her get her face
Speaker 1: and she said, she like motioned putting her I'm putting
Speaker 1: my fingers like as if there were two tears running
Speaker 1: down my face, and like this is gonna be in
Speaker 1: the show anything. Oh, now it is, And she was like,
Speaker 1: I was crying too for you, No, not for me.
Speaker 1: That would have been really nice. Um, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty embarrassing. But I still know that my heart did right.
Speaker 1: And you just felt embarrassed. I mean, I guess yeah,
Speaker 1: but like when you were a kid, everything words. I
Speaker 1: did a talent show and I sang a Maria Carry song,
Speaker 1: which by the way, I did not hit that note,
Speaker 1: just so you know. But then I performed with a
Speaker 1: girl who it was just like three or four of us.
Speaker 1: There's not even that many of us to do this
Speaker 1: talent show. And she had her whole it was a
Speaker 1: little mermaid song. She had a set, she had the
Speaker 1: costume and everything. And I came in with my one
Speaker 1: bad tape of the Mariah Carrey songs. I really messed up.
Speaker 1: So that's my memories. I'm like, I'm sing Maria Carry again.
Speaker 1: It feels what you're saying exactly. We're going to do it.
Speaker 1: And curious, this is your redemption story. I see you
Speaker 1: want to call j j Lo and you're gonna do
Speaker 1: my partner. Though I never really messed at the top dancing.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I did fall off the stage once, but
Speaker 1: that was a different that was a different thing. Never
Speaker 1: falling off stage. Well, it's the sound people make when
Speaker 1: a young child falls off the stage. I won't soon
Speaker 1: forget it. And I broke my ankle. Oh but now
Speaker 1: everyone is up to speed on what we're going to
Speaker 1: do at the talent show. Uh, and our SpongeBob home
Speaker 1: will keep everybody up to date on that SpongeBob songs.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, Eve, thanks again for joining us.
Speaker 1: Where can listeners find you? Hear you? You can hear
Speaker 1: me on this day in history class as well as unpopular,
Speaker 1: and you can find both of those on all the
Speaker 1: social media things Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Yeah yeah, and highly
Speaker 1: recommend checking them out. Can't wait until you come back? Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: he just do this twice a month, get this once
Speaker 1: a month. He's just like we do. Here's the media.
Speaker 1: We just do the one person split up in two
Speaker 1: with all of our side bits attitude. You've got something there,
Speaker 1: I mean some content. We could have a segment that's
Speaker 1: called just just the Bits. I like it all right,
Speaker 1: Well look out for that or maybe don't. It sounds
Speaker 1: like it could be sexual, yeah a little. You know
Speaker 1: people like de blon thunder Right. It won't be sexual
Speaker 1: because it won't exist, but you know what does exist.
Speaker 1: Our email address you can find us at Steff Media
Speaker 1: mom stuff at iHeart media dot com, or on Instagram
Speaker 1: at stuff I've Never told you are on Twitter at
Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast. Thanks as always to our super producer
Speaker 1: Andrew Howard, and thanks to you for listening Stuff I've
Speaker 1: Never told you the production of I Heart Radio's how
Speaker 1: Stuff First Promore podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, orrever you listen to your favorite shows.