Pablo Neruda is one of the most important poets of the 20th century. He was born as Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile, on July 12, 1904, into a middle-class family.
His father died shortly after his birth and he lived with his mother and grandmother until he was 11 years old. He later moved to Santiago, where he attended high school, and in 1921 he enrolled at the University of Chile, where he studied Law, but did not finish his degree due to economic problems derived from his mother’s illness.
Early life
Pablo Neruda was born as Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto on July 12, 1904 in Parral, Chile. He was the son of Ricardo Reyes Basoalto and Rosa Basoalto.
His father was a railway worker and his mother was a teacher. The family moved to Temuco, Chile, in 1906, and then to Santiago in 1914, when Neruda began secondary school at the Instituto Nacional.
Pablo studied Law at the University of Chile between 1921 and 1926 and published poems in numerous magazines, such as Crepúsculo, Lira Chilena, Los Hijos del Sol, El Imparcial and Revista de Occidente.
Marriage
In 1925 he married Delia del Carril, with whom he had two children: Malva Marina Rosario Luisa María Ligia Ana Isabel Teresa González Pacheco del Carmen Alvarez Villalobos Izquierdo y del Carril who died as a baby from malnutrition during World War II and Alvarito Hipólito Alejandro José Manuel Ignacio Esteban Ramón Francisco Antonio Raimundo Ramón Arturo Juan Carlos César Pacho Andrade Balboa y Blanco
Likewise, he divorced her in 1945 after an affair with María Antonieta Hagenaar Urrutia; a few years later he married María del Carmen Rodríguez Espinosa, who was his official wife until his death on September 23, 1973.
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Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda, whose real name is Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, was born on July 12, 1904 in the Chilean town of Parral. He was a Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet who was once called «the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.»
The poet Pablo Neruda aroused controversy with his affiliation with the Communist Party and his outspoken support for Joseph Stalin, Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro.
His poetic mastery was never in doubt and for it he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Neruda died on September 23, 1973, with subsequent investigations exploring whether he might have been poisoned.
His father was a railway employee and his mother, who died shortly after his birth, was a teacher. A few years later, his father, who had moved to the city of Temuco, remarried Doña Trinidad Candia Malverde.
The poet spent his childhood and youth in Temuco, where he also met Gabriela Mistral, director of the girls’ secondary school, whom he liked.
At the early age of thirteen he began to contribute some articles to the newspaper «La Mañana», among them, Enthusiasm and Perseverance -his first publication- and his first poem.
In 1920 he was a contributor to the literary magazine «Selva Austral» under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda, which he adopted in memory of the Czechoslovakian poet Jan Neruda (1834-1891).
Some of the Neruda’s first poems they are found in his first book, Crepusculario, published in 1923, and one of his best-known works, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, was published the following year.
Twenty love poems made Neruda a celebrity, and later he dedicated himself to verse. In addition to his literary activities, Neruda studied French and pedagogy at the University of Chile in Santiago.
The beginnings of the professional career
Born on July 12, 1904, in Parral, Chile, Neruda’s birth name was Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. His father was a railway worker and his mother worked as a teacher. He had three younger sisters: Laura (1906-1993), Olga (1908-1997) and María Teresa «Trilce» (1911-1990).
He studied at the Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera in Temuco from 1907 to 1909 before moving to the Liceo de Aplicación at the University of Chile in Santiago, where he studied Law from 1912 to 1915.
It was around this time that he met the future Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Gabriela Mistral, who taught him French literature and poetry during their first year together at the university.
It was also here that he published his first poems under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda because none of his teachers could pronounce or spell his first name correctly; they all pronounced it «Neftali».
The spanish civil war
Pablo Neruda was born on July 12, 1904 in Parral, Chile. He became a poet at a young age and published his first book of poetry at age 19.
In 1924 he traveled to Spain and enlisted as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). He would later spend time living in France and Belgium before returning to Chile, where he joined the Chilean Communist Party (PCCh). After becoming one of its leaders, he was elected a senator for three terms, from 1949 to 1964, and was ambassador to France from 1965 to 1970.
Diplomatic career
Between 1927 and 1935, the government put him in charge of several honorary consulates, which led him to:
Burma.Ceylon.Java.Singapore.Buenos Aires.Barcelona.Madrid.
His poetic production during that difficult period included, among other works, the collection of surrealist esoteric poems Residencia en la tierra (1933), which marked his literary breakthrough.
In 1936 the Spanish Civil War began and Neruda recounted the atrocities, including the execution of his friend Federico García Lorca, in his Spain at heart.
In 1939, Neruda was named consul for Spanish emigration, residing in Paris, and, shortly after, consul general in Mexico, where he rewrote his Canto General de Chile, turning it into an epic poem about the entire South American continent, its nature, its people. and its historical destiny.
This work, titled Canto General, was published in Mexico in 1950, and also underground in Chile. It consists of approximately 250 poems gathered in fifteen literary cycles and constitutes the central part of Neruda’s production.
Shortly after its publication, the Canto General was translated into some ten languages. Almost all of these poems were created in a difficult situation, when Neruda lived abroad.
The return to Chile
In 1943, Neruda returned to Chile, and in 1945 he was elected senator of the Republic, also joining the Chilean Communist Party.
Due to his protests against the repressive policy of President González Videla against striking miners in 1947, he had to live underground in his own country for two years until he managed to get out in 1949.
After living in different European countries, he returned home in 1952. Much of what he published during that period bears the stamp of his political activities; an example is Las Uvas y el Viento (1954), which can be considered Neruda’s exile diary.
In Elementary Odes (1954-1959) his message is extended to a more extensive description of the world, where the objects of the hymns – things, events and relationships – are duly presented in alphabetical form.
two volumes
Neruda’s production is exceptionally extensive. For example, his Collected Works, constantly reissued, had 459 pages in 1951; in 1962 the number of pages was 1,925, and in 1968 it amounted to 3,237, in two volumes.
His works in recent years include Cien sonnetos de amor (1959), which includes poems dedicated to his wife Matilde Urrutia, Memorial de Isla Negra, an autobiographical poetic work in five volumes, published on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Arte de birds (1966), La Barcarola (1967), the work Fulgor and death by Joaquín Murieta (1967), The hands of the day (1968), End of the world (1969), The stones of heaven (1970) and The sword on fire.
The Spanish civil war and the assassination of García Lorca, whom Neruda knew, affected him strongly and made him join the republican movement, first in Spain and then in France, where he began working on his collection of poems España en el Corazón (1937). ).
That same year he returned to his native country, to which he had been remembered, and his poetry during the following period was characterized by an orientation towards the political and the social. España en el Corazón had a great impact because it was printed in the middle of the front lines during the civil war.
Exile
Pablo Neruda became an exiled poet. He lived in Spain, Chile and France. He was a prolific writer and poet. He wrote in many styles and genres, including sonnets, haiku, free verse, and lyric poetry, to name a few.
Death and investigations
Neruda died just two years after receiving his Nobel Prize on September 23, 1973, in Santiago de Chile.
Although his death was officially attributed to prostate cancer, there have been allegations that the poet was poisoned, as he died just after the rise to power of dictator Augusto Pinochet. (Neruda supported Pinochet’s deposed predecessor, Salvador Allende.)
In 2011, Neruda’s driver alleged that the writer said that a doctor had given him an injection at a clinic that worsened his health.
Chilean judge Mario Carroza later authorized an official investigation into the cause of death. Neruda’s body was exhumed in 2013 and examined, but a forensic team found no initial evidence of foul play.
later years
In 1973, Neruda received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 and 1972. On September 23, 1973, he died in Santiago at age 69 due to complications from prostate cancer. His body was buried in his native country, Chile.
After his death, Neruda’s house was turned into a museum called La Chascona («the matted hair» or «the disheveled one»). The house is filled with memorabilia from his life, including letters and photographs, as well as paintings by Pablo himself and other important Latin American artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
2015
However, in January 2015, the Chilean government reopened the investigation with new forensic evidence.
Although Judge Carroza ordered Neruda’s body returned to his grave, the discovery of unusual bacteria on the writer’s bones indicated that the matter had not yet been fully resolved.
In 2016, the life of the renowned poet inspired the acclaimed Chilean film Neruda, directed by Pablo Larraín, which follows a police inspector (played by Gael García Bernal) on the hunt for Neruda as he goes into hiding to escape arrest for his communist views. .
His poetry helped define the role of the poet in 20th century Latin America.
What can we say about Pablo Neruda? He was a prolific and influential poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. A political activist, he was ambassador to France from 1945 to 1946 and again from 1949 to 1950, and later a diplomat and senator for his country’s Communist Party (although by Little time). His poetry helped define the role of the poet in 20th century Latin America.
The best literary works of Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda is one of the most influential authors in history. His poems are known for their vivid imagery and beautiful use of language. Yeah…