Gabriela Mistral will have a new monument in Santiago's Plaza Italia, the epicenter of the 2019 uprising.

Starting next year, four faces of Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral will observe the future of the city on Santiago 's main avenue. and a place of national meetings and protests, in Plaza Italia , also known as Plaza Baquedano .

In the context of the 80th anniversary celebration since she received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945 , becoming the first recipient in Latin America and, to date, the only woman in the region, the winning proposal for the "Monument to Gabriela Mistral and the Women of Chile" competition was announced. The competition will share space with the statue traditionally located there.

This is "Lucila", the real name of the poet Lucila Godoy Alcayaga , 1889–1957, who used a pseudonym in her literary career in honor of her favorite poets, Gabriele D'Annunzio and Fréderic Mistral.

The work designed by artists Norma Ramírez , a graduate in Visual Arts from the University of Chile, and Mariana Silva consists of 16 vertical steel prisms , whose faces will display – in fragments – the face of the distinguished national poet, as well as the names of hundreds of Chilean women.

These are four restored photographs of the Mistral , printed on polished aluminum plates and resting on a reinforced concrete base, "conceived as a contemporary agora," according to one of the authors of the work.

The proposal, chosen from among 10 projects , will integrate its image with the names of hundreds of Chilean women, who will be chosen through a participatory process and will appear printed on aluminum plates.

The verses from the poem “We Were All Going to Be Queens,” which correspond to the fragment “And our kingdoms being great, we will all reach the sea,” will be placed on the concrete base of the work.

“We wanted to create a work that would integrate into the space, not one that invaded or resembled the typical monument defined by a plinth with a sculpture on top. Rather, it wanted to coexist and interact, inviting everyone to move around and appreciate the work from different angles,” explained Norma Ramírez.

For her part, Mariana Silva stated that "placing Gabriela on such an important stage is a wonderful opportunity . Having her there, projecting her, is a great challenge, not only for us, but for all the women who earn a place."

The nerve center of the Chilean capital, on the Alameda/Providencia axis, is undergoing a major renovation following the dilapidated state it was left in following the 2019 Social Outbreak , which saw it as its main stage and which led to its rebranding as Plaza Dignidad.

Work began in 2024 and aims to create more pedestrian space and improve connectivity between the three parks that meet there. In addition, a new civic plaza will be created , overcoming the divisions that arose there and led to the vandalism of the statue of General Manuel Baquedano.

A hero of the War of the Pacific, but also a figure of the "pacification of Araucanía," which for many only symbolizes the massacre of the Mapuche people and the dispossession of their lands in the south of the country, his statue was restored and will finally return to its original location to share space with the work honoring Gabriela Mistral in the new Plaza Italia.