In Mistral's footsteps: “The Other” (1954) as the substrate poem for contemporary Chilean women poets

Abstract

This study proposes that Gabriela Mistral's poem “The Other” (1954) is a work that has inspired many contemporary Chilean women poets. Evidence from three poetry collections—Alejandra Del Río's Written in Braille (1999), Marina Arrate's Uranium (1999), and Malú Urriola's Butterfly Stroke (2007)—connect directly to Mistral's proposal in “The Other.” These contemporary poets take up the psychic unfolding of the speaker in that poem to vindicate the woman that in Mistral's work was annihilated. These three contemporary poets prove that now is time for women to freely express themselves and their desires through the written word, subverting traditional patriarchal discourse.