The poetics of walking and wandering in Poema de Chile by Gabriela Mistral and A pie por Chile by Manuel Rojas

Abstract

In this article, I set forth a reading in dialogue with Poema de Chile by Gabriela Mistral and A pie por Chile by Manuel Rojas, two Chilean writers who lived wandering lives and created a poetics out of this kind of roaming. Understanding walking as a historical and cultural practice, the hypothesis of this article is that, in both texts, the exercise of writing the walk through Chilean lands implies mapping an embodied geography, which centers the nourishing experience of the body and a collaborative ethics of walking. In this way, both Mistral and Rojas address the vicissitudes of their wandering lives and celebrate walking as a creative and liberating act that enhances the encounter with nature and with others.