Education, Pedagogy and Cculture are strong links that unite the University with the poet. The institution is currently custodian of more than 5.400 valuable documents and the house that Lucila Godoy Alcayaga lived in Las Compañías.

35 years ago, when commemorating the centenary of the birth of the poet and Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Gabriela Mistral, the Mistralian Center of the University of La Serena was created, which has allowed the institution to preserve and disseminate the legacy

With its launch, the institution assumed the mission of keeping the memory alive and preserving, studying and disseminating the works, documents and writings and all material related to the teacher.

Years later, through the “Legado de Gabriela Mistral” project, the University of La Serena became one of the few institutions in the country that keeps copies of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and other documents of the Nobel Prize winner (legacy to Chile by his executor Doris Dana, through his niece Doris Atkinson).    

The center - located next to the house he lived in in Las Compañías - has more than 5.400 thousand documents, writings and others that constitute the first classified and ordered archive that exists in the Coquimbo Region, in addition to some objects that belonged to Gabriela.

On the other hand, it preserves the memory and work of Gabriela Mistral by offering cultural, investigative and educational activities related to her legacy. This contributes to keeping alive the cultural and literary heritage of one of the most outstanding writers in the history of Chile.

Neighbors of the sector, tourists, students, researchers, teachers and the community in general can connect, learn and benefit from this specialized center that provides a space for enjoyable and rewarding readings, for permanent dialogues, specialized answers and vast material about the poet.

To the construction project of the Mistralian Center offices in said sector of La Serena, -inaugurated in 2010-, was added years later the restoration of the first house inhabited by Lucila Godoy in La Serena and the spaces that surround the premises. She arrived at this place at the age of 14, and it is there where she adopted her pseudonym, she wrote her first articles for the newspapers in the area, she began her teaching career and fell in love for the first time with Don Alfredo. Videla.

For the current director of the Mistralian Center, Desirée López de Maturana, “the University of La Serena as a regional public higher education entity, has collected Gabriela's cultural and pedagogical legacy, valuing her great contribution to pedagogical, critical and social thinking. , which have strengthened the fundamental principles of the institution.”

The importance of Gabriela and her legacy is reflected in the fact that other emblematic places of the institution also bear her name, for example, the recently renamed Gabriela Mistral Campus.