Famous Chilean Women

Cote de Pablo is a Chilean-American singer and actress. She is best known for playing Ziva David in the popular action police procedural TV series NCIS. After co-hosting episodes of a Latin-American talk show titled Control, at the age of 15, Cote de Pablo went on to establish herself as a successful actress and musician.

Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet and educator Lucila Godoy Alcayaga was better known by her pseudonym, Gabriela Mistral. The suicide of her first love inspired her poem Dolor. Her diplomatic assignments later took her to places such as Madrid and Lisbon. She is remembered for her emotional verses and her feminism.

Chilean-American singer Paloma Mami first gained fame with the reality show Rojo, el color del talento. She then became the first Chilean singer to seal a contract with Sony Music Latin. She has universal following, as she sings in both Spanish and English, and mingles Latin R&B with pop and trap.

Isabel Allende Bussi is a Chilean politician best known for her service as the President of the Chilean Senate from 2014 to 2015. She was the first woman to serve as the president of the Senate in Chilean history. An important and influential member of the Socialist Party, Isabel Allende is currently serving as Senator for Valparaíso.

Felicia Montealegre was a Chilean actress whose professional achievements were overshadowed by her personal life, thanks to her marriage with popular American conductor, composer, and pianist Leonard Bernstein. She was married to Bernstein from 1951 until her death in 1978.

Chilean politician Michelle Bachelet serves as 7th United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She became the first female politician in Chilean history who was elected as the country’s President and the first elected female leader in South America. She served as the 33rd and 35th President of Chile and held several other prominent positions during her expansive political career.

Born into an affluent family, Chilean author María Luisa Bombal later moved to Paris, where she attended the Sorbonne. She also participated in a literary movement in Argentina and spent 30 years in the US. Her novels portrayed women dissatisfied with their social roles and romantic failures.

Chilean Communist Party leader Gladys Marín had joined the party as a student in Santiago. She went underground in the wake of Augusto Pinochet’s rise and then escaped, first to Moscow and then to Costa Rica. She later returned to Chile and became the first Chilean to file a legal complaint against Pinochet.

Chilean poet Mariela Griffor mostly writes about her country and experience of being in exile in Sweden and the US. She has penned works such as House and The Psychiatrist, and has also the Wayne State University’s Institute for Creative Writers. She also serves as an honorary consul of Chile in Michigan.