Anunciating vestiges: Christian marks in Gabriela Mistral’s poetry.

Abstract

This paper draws the context of modern and Latin American poetry and, focusing in Gabriela Mistral’s literary work, collects the most evident Christian signals in Mistral’s four books of poems published during her life: Desolación, Ternura, Tala, and Lagar. These signals help us evaluate the way Christian faith is present in Mistral’s poetry: Christianity we name as “a Good Friday Christianity” because as the voices of poems empathize with Crucifed Jesus, they perceive the desolating distance from Father God and, at the same time, long for His welcome and consolation. This paper also o?ers a starting point for larger studies.