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Mother Earth, Earth Mother

Gabriela Mistral as an Early Ecofeminist

Bibliographic Data

ID4163420
AuthorsErin S Finzer (corresponding author), Erin Finzer
Year2015
Volume98
Issue2
Pages243-251
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispania (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2133 • E-ISSN: 2153-6414
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/hpn.2015.0058
OpenAlexW605230749
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited7

Historians have noted that male bureaucrats and natural resource experts tended to dominate early twentieth-century national and hemispheric conservationist movements in Latin America, but a constellation of female activists, notable among them Gabriela Mistral, strengthened conservationism in the cultural sphere. Capitalizing on her leadership in Pan-Americanism, transnational feminist networks, and cutting-edge teaching, Mistral functioned throughout her career as an advocate for conservationism, gendering the natural environment in strategically essentialist ways. Important tropes throughout her poetry, Nature and Mother Earth became specific themes in Mistral's journalistic prose. Here, Mistral blended conservationism with anti-imperialism, arguing that Mother Earth was threatened both by man's failure to care for her and by predatory imperialists. Environmental stewardship also played a central role in her Pan-American initiatives and complimented the "official" Pan-American Conservation Movement of the interwar period. Mistral's de facto ecofeminism is echoed in Latin American women's writing of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, suggesting that Nature represented an alternate sphere for women beyond the urban manifestations of modernization. The gathering of female voices around the gendered image of Mother Nature also represents a corpus of early environmental prophets in Latin American letters and culture

Art · Astrobiology · Astronomy · Earth (classical element) · Physics · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · History

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Unique citing works5
Citations per year0.83
Citation span2020 - 2026 (7)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 4

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