“IT SOUNDS LIKE A FABLE BUT IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED”: ORALITY AND UTOPIA IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INCA EMPIRE IN “SOMETHING ABOUT THE QUECHUA PEOPLE” BY GABRIELA MISTRAL

Abstract

In this paper I propose to broaden critical discussions regarding the influence of the Andean world, as thought and poetics, in the poetry of Gabriela Mistral by bringing attention to Mistral’s particular understanding of prose as “Recado”. My study focuses on the text “Something about the Quechua People”, published on July 20, 1947, and draws on trans-Andean cultural studies to re-read indigenous subjectivities and destabilize national imaginaries. In “Something about the Quechua People” I argue that the conversational language used not only allows the inclusion of historically marginalized indigenous communities but also tells the pre-Columbian past as a social utopia. By presenting the peaceful expansion of the Inca Empire as an exemplary model, Mistral is making a veiled criticism of the world powers of the 20th century, whose imperialist interests have caused and may continue to cause devastating wars. At the same time, the Nobel Prize winner is encouraging the Latin American countries to abandon foreign models of government and learn from the collectivist model of the Incas to unite among themselves to ensure the economic and social well-being of all their inhabitants.