Mexico wishes to show its intellectual life to the sister nations: Gabriela Mistral and the Mexican writers (1916-1922)

Abstract

This article explores an important stage in the intellectual biography of Gabriela Mistral: her residence in Mexico (1922-1924). I focus on how Mistral approached to Mexican intellectuals before her travel to Mexico, which resulted in her appointment to the Secretary of Public Education. I propose that this approach enabled her successful insertion to the cultural field of post-revolutionary Mexico, particularly through relationships with central Mexican writers -linked to José Vasconcelos- that occupied important positions in the State apparatus as well as cultural and diplomatic institutions. Mistral’s symbolic capital was thus strengthened, as can been noticed in her role of editor and author of Readings for Women (1923) for the Secretary of Public Education, a fundamental book in her career. In this regard, I conclude that the Mexican years of Gabriela Mistral enabled the internationalization of her work.