Gabriela Mistral's Letters to Doris Dana
The Nobel Prize-winning poet Gabriela Mistral is celebrated by her native Chile as the "mother of the nation" even though she spent most of her life in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. Throughout the Spanish-speaking world and especially in Chile, Mistral was characterized as a sad, traditionally Catholic spinster. Yet her voluminous correspondence with Doris Dana, long believed to be her secretary, reveals that the two women were lovers from 1948 until Mistral's death in 1957. These letters, published in Spanish in 2010 and now translated for the first time into English, provide insight into her work as a poet and illuminate her perspectives on politics, especially war and human rights. The correspondence also sheds light on the poet's personal life and corrects the long-standing misperceptions of her as a lonely, single, heterosexual woman.
This masterful translation of Mistral's letters into English will serve to bring greater attention in the English-speaking world to an extraordinary poet and public figure from Latin America.'--Chasqui
García-Gorena's work clearly positions the letters as a significant contribution to literary studies and intellectual, LGBTQ, Latin American, and women's history.'--The Americas
An enormous contribution to Mistral scholarship.'--Marjorie Agosín, author of Of Earth and Sea: A Chilean Memoir
Velma García-Gorena is a professor of government at Smith College and the author of Mothers and the Mexican Antinuclear Power Movement.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Gabriela Mistral and Doris Dana: Their Lives and Letters
Chapter One. 1948-1950: California and Mexico
Chapter Two. 1952: Italy
Chapter Three. 1953-1956: Roslyn (Long Island) and New Orleans
Afterword. Doris Dana and her Family
Doris Atkinson
Appendix A. Correspondence about Gabriela Mistral
Appendix B. Biographies of Some of the Individuals Mentioned in the Letters
Appendix C. Chronology of Gabriela Mistral
Selected Bibliography