Osaka Expo 2025: The Week Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of Gabriela Mistral's Nobel Prize Begins
Between August 4th and 10th, the country will launch an intensive cultural, literary, and diplomatic agenda in Japan, commemorating the eight decades of the award with activities inside and outside the Universal Expo.
Chile will present at the Thematic Week "80 years of Gabriela Mistral's Nobel Prize" as part of the Universal Expo in Osaka 2025, with a comprehensive proposal that projects the literary, pedagogical, and diplomatic legacy of Gabriela Mistral onto the international stage. The cultural programming is designed to encourage engagement, participation, and dialogue between the cultures of Chile and Japan.
The delegation is led by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, through the National Service of Cultural Heritage (SERPAT), in coordination with ProChile (General Directorate of Export Promotion of the Foreign Ministry), where the project has had the work and support of institutions such as the National Library, the National Film Archive, the Gabriela Mistral Museum of Vicuña, among others. The project has been coordinated by the SERPAT team, led by Aldo Contreras, responsible for carrying out the management and realization of week 13 at the Expo Osaka 2025.
The program considers not only an active presence in the Chile Pavilion at the Expo Osaka 2025 -which houses the "Makün: The Mantle of Chile", a loom of 242 square meters woven by 200 Mapuche craftswomen-, but also a series of parallel activities in Tokyo, including literary meetings, encounters with the Japanese publishing ecosystem, and collaboration spaces with universities and cultural centers.
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The presence of Chile at the Expo Osaka, dedicated to a fundamental figure like Gabriela Mistral, is a clear sign of our country's commitment to culture, public diplomacy, and dialogue between nations. 80 years after her Nobel Prize, the first one given to a person from Latin America, Mistral embodies our country's international vocation, and this commemoration honors not only her poetry, but also her role as an educator and cultural ambassador of Chile to the world," said the Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage, Carolina Arredondo Marzán.
"Gabriela Mistral Week at the Chilean Pavilion in Expo Osaka 2025 is an invitation to share with new audiences the universal legacy of our poet and Nobel laureate: her words connect identity, nature, and justice, crossing territorial and generational borders. Celebrating her in Japan is projecting the voice of a woman who transformed culture into diplomacy. We can say that Gabriela is Chile to the world and her message is more relevant than ever," says the General Commissioner of Chile at the Expo Osaka 2025, Paulina Nazal.
Activities in Tokyo
The agenda of activities in Tokyo, a key city in the publishing exchange, includes: u2022 Monday, August 4 - International literary meeting"Latin American literature: a journey from the end of the world", with the participation of María José Ferrada, María José Barros and Vivian Lavín, at the Kudan-Kaikan Terrace in Chiyoda. (Includes cocktail and networking).u2022 Tuesday, August 5 - Bilateral meetings with the Japanese book ecosystem, at the ProChile Tokyo Office (Minato-ku).u2022 Wednesday, August 6 and Thursday, August 8 - Academic and publishing interest meetings with local universities and publishing houses.
Activities in the Chile Pavilion - Osaka
Throughout the week, the Chile Pavilion will present the immersive installation "What will become of Chile in the sky?", an audiovisual projection based on the landscapes and Mistralian symbols that consists of six states: The Question, Gabriela and the Journey, Gabriela and the Children, Nobel Prize, Elqui Valley and Open Legacy.
In addition, participatory activities open to the public will be developed:
- Origami Workshop "Folding the Chilean Landscape", (August 6-8), led by Megumi Kato from the Chilean-Japanese Cultural Institute, inspired by the Poem of Chile.
- Illustrated kamishibai reading: "Lucila and the Voice of the Earth", with narration by Maria José Ferrada
- Reading of kamishibai by the Director of the Chilean-Japanese Cultural Institute, María Cristina Pérez de Arce.
- Public interview with María José Ferrada, hosted by Vivian Lavín.
- Delivery of bilingual haikus (Spanish-Japanese), created by girls, boys, and young people.
- Delivery of Bilingual Postcards (Spanish-Japanese)
- Virtual Origami Book Exhibition (Spanish-Japanese)
- Mistraliana Trivia, with open participation.
Cultural Tastings: Chilean wine and pisco bar in the evenings.
The official materials for public distribution consist of more than 40 thousand prints: booklets of haikus, commemorative postcards and book separators, all in bilingual format, with translations especially made for the occasion.
"This commemoration is the result of a collective effort sustained by the National Service of Cultural Heritage and its teams, in conjunction with the Ministry, and the institutions that safeguard its legacy. It is also an opportunity to project Gabriela Mistral as a living heritage of Chile to the world, and to continue strengthening our cultural relationship with Asia from the value of memory, creation, and speech," said Nélida Pozo Kudo, director of the National Service of Cultural Heritage.
The official Chilean delegation is composed of María José Ferrada (Writer and narrator), María José Barros (Academic and publishing specialist), Vivian Lavín (Cultural journalist), María Cristina Pérez de Arce (Manager and Director of the Chilean-Japanese Cultural Institute), Megumi Kato (Workshop facilitator at the Chilean-Japanese Cultural Institute), Eduardo Echavarria (National Coordinator of the Editorial and Narrative Sector for ProChile), Teresita Muñoz (Implementing Unit Expo Osaka 2025) and Aldo Contreras (Coordinator Expo Osaka 2025 Heritage Service).
The Expo Osaka 2025, whose general theme is " Designing the society of the future for our lives ", is one of the most relevant showcases at a global level to display the identity of countries. The theme week dedicated to Gabriela Mistral will not only make her poetic work visible, but also her influence as a Chilean woman, cultural ambassador, and global figure whose voice continues to inspire entire generations around the values of education, nature, justice, and creation.