Madwomen The Locas mujeres poems of Gabriela Mistral

Widely known throughout Latin America, the iconic Mistral (1889-1957) is often referred to as the mother of 20th-century Latin American poetry. This bilingual edition of her later poem contains the original 16 poems Mistral subtitled "Locas mujeres" and published in her collection Lagar (1954). According to Couch (an administrator at Univ. of Pennsylvania), Lager is Mistral's "most complex and least 'popular' book of poems." Couch offers a succinct, comprehensive biocritical introduction to Mistral and her "Locas mujeres" poems, particularly exploring autobiographical issues in the poems. He also provides an overview of Mistral's literary influences, the particular characteristics of her poetry, and difficulties he faced in translating the poems, some of which appear here in English for the first time. A final section explains how the selection for the "final" poems came about: the task was difficult because Mistral often revised poems in subsequent editions. Plentiful information on the rich cross-references (for example, to the Bible and other sources) in Mistral's poems and on the identities of those to whom Mistral dedicated her poems enhances this volume, will which interest Spanish and English speakers alike. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers, all levels. R. Ocasio Agnes Scott College