Quote by Gabriela Mistral: “We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children.”

Society commits many wrongs, but leaving children without care, love, or opportunity is the gravest of all. Every other failure can be recovered from, but a neglected childhood shapes everything that follows — for the child and for the world.

Mistral wrote and spoke extensively on children's welfare during the 1930s, a decade marked by global economic depression and the rise of fascism across Europe and Latin America. Millions of children across the continent faced poverty, illiteracy, and institutional neglect as governments prioritized military and economic concerns.

Chilean poet and diplomat, the first Latin American author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1945. Her poetry explored themes of love, loss, childhood, and maternal devotion, and she was a passionate advocate for education and children's rights across Latin America.