Valle de Gabriela

In 2018, the Chilean Writer’s Society (SECH) invited me to Chile as a poet, with a permanent invitation to return each year. Its Fourth Region department is named after Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American ever to receive the Nobel Laureate in Literature. A rural teacher in the Andean mountains, Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (April 7, 1889 – January 10, 1957) adopted “Gabriela Mistral” as a pseudonym from her favorite poets, Gabriele D'Annunzio and Frédéric Mistral. She acquired the nom de plume as she feared her loss of work as a teacher should her identity become known. Her birthplace is the Valle del Elqui, a mystical, magical labyrinth of Andean mountains filled with green valleys of pisco grapes and the occasional small village, complete with huaso (Chilean countrymen and skilled horsemen) riding throughout its streets. We visited her birthplace in Vicuña and her school house and grave site in Monte Grande.