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November 28, 1972
CABRINI COLLEGE, RADNOR, PA.
Poet Presents Poet by Terry Cavanaugh Doris Dana came to Cabrini a few weeks ago to speak about a poet named Gabriela Mistral. About whom? Well, not even the English teachers knew who Gabriela Mistral was, until the chairman of the department, Dr. Frank Saul, invited Ms. Dana to come to Cabrini. Ms. Dana brought with her an excitement and a love that was instantly communicated and very contagious. She had traveled and lived with Gabriela Mistral for the ten years preceding the poet's death, and was the recipient of hundreds of pages of Mistral's unpublished manuscripts. All this undoubtedly makes Ms. Dana qualified to speak about Gabriela Mistral, but really, who was she? Gabriela Mistral was a Chilean poet , the first Latin American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1945). If the Nobel Prize conjures up images of a genius working in isolation, you will have to rearrange those images in this particular case. Gabriela Mistral was thrown out of school when she was eleven, because her teacher thought she was feebleminded. Young Gabriela was really only very shy and quiet. She went on to educate herself, with some help from an older sister. Despite the lack of formal education, Gabriela became a teacher . She traveled around the rural areas of Chile, teaching in one room schoolhouses. Today
there are several schools bearing her name is every country of Latin America. She always considered herself primarily a teacher; she always concerned herself with the condition of the children. Gabriela was a moving force in the establishment of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Gabriela did not limit her campaigns to children's needs, however . She dedicated her life to the fight against war , poverty , and racial hatred. One area to which she gave her particular concern was prison reform. The power of her love, and the power of her verse may be seen in a poem related to this issue of reform, "The Prisoner's Wife ." In this blazing bonfire of brick they keep my love, my husband, prisoner. Through corridors of bitter, knife-sharp edges, in this oblique bat-gloom of light , groping like a sea-diver through grottos, I walk- - I walk until I find him ringed with scoffing stripes, my love, a zebra, painted in mockery. This poet was first and foremost a human being in love with humanity. The intensity of this love is revealed in all of her work, which is incredible in its hearty and startling in its simplicity.
Doris Dana and Gabriela Mistral God, the Father soundlessly rocks His thousands of worlds. Feeling His hand in the shadow I rock my son. Ms. Dana spoke at Cabrini, as she has at many other places, to spread the name of Gabriela Mistral , to help Gabriela gain the recognition Ms . Dana feels she deserves. Although she is widely known and loved in Spanish speak-
it took some time before she felt confident in her ability to translate the poems. She also said that during the time that she lived with Gabriela, she never envisioned herself in the role she now plays, executrix of Gabriela ' s literary estate . Ms. Dana found in the man-
ing countries , very few Americans are familiar with her work. This problem is fundamentally due to the extreme lack of adequate translation , which existed until fairly recently. Gabriela's death in 1957 placed Ms. Dana in the unique position of one who not only recognizes a poet's merit , but who has the tools for the poet's fame at her disposal. Ms . Dana said that
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The Friedan Mystique by (
Bob Colameco On Nov . 14, Cabrini had its first major guest speaker of the year , Ms. Betty Friedan. Ms . Friedan, one of leading figures in the Women's Liberation Movement, spoke before an audience of four hundred in the Sacred Heart Auditorium . A majority of the audience was composed of students from Cabrini and Eastern College and 92% of it was female .
Ms . Betty F riedan
Ms. Friedan began her lecture by stating that we are now in the middle of the second wave of feminism, the first ending around 1920, after a century of intense struggle , with women voting rights. After 1920 the movement seemed to stop . It lay dormant for almost 50 years , until about ten years ago when Ms . Friedan published her book entitled The Fem- inine Mystique in 1963. After it was published she discovered that there were thousands of women, who, like herself, were unsatisfied with the present state of the female
existence . There were thousands of women who felt that there should be something more than just mop• ping floors and cleaning shirts. There were thousands of women who knew that there had to be a difference between love and subservience. And so, said Ms. Friedan, the second wave of Feminism was under way. considers the Ms . Friedan women's liberation movement as a human liberation movement. It is something which must come about for the good of both men and women . Most people with whom I spoke after the lecture , agreed that although Ms. Friedan ' s ideas are realtively conservative, they are nevertheless very basic. They are views which are first and foremost sincere in their meaning and practical in their application. Ms. Friedan would rather keep the bra but burn the mystique surrounding feminism.