The motif of the Indian in Gabriela Mistral's social thought Contributions to contemporary Catholic reflection

Abstract

This article is intended as an exercise in receiving the contribution of literature—in this case, the journalistic prose of Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral—to the inductive moment of the theological method of a theology of the signs of the times. While highlighting the convergences between Gabriela Mistral's social thought and Catholic intellectualism, this paper examines Gabriela Mistral's social thought, with special attention to the motif of the Indian, which is presented as an indicator of Gabriela Mistral's avant-garde position. Gabriela Mistral's indigenism exhibits characteristics that set it apart from the norms of her time: not only does she champion the social cause of a marginalized and impoverished group, but she also proposes ways to acknowledge the value of their race and culture. In this way, Mistral's proposal goes beyond simple assimilationist integration, suggesting a genuine recreation of Andean culture in Spanish, which preserves the cultural identity of the indigenous people and fosters a genuine inculturation of the faith. In this synthesis, we find valuable elements for a Latin American contextual theology that seeks to articulate Christian faith and indigenous cultural reality.