Pablo Neruda: the poet, the man, the inspiration for Ardiente Paciencia

Pablo Neruda was one of the most original and prolific poets to write in Spanish in the 20th century. He is regarded as the poet who cried out against social injustices and was not afraid to voice his opinions.

His real name is Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, and he was born on July 12, 1904 in the town of Parral, Chile. The poet began to write when he was ten years old. At the age of 16, while writing for the literary journal "Selva Austral" he created the pen name of Pablo Neruda, which he adopted in memory of the 19 th century Czechoslovakian poet Jan Neruda. His father had tried to discourage him from writing, providing another reason for creating his pen name, Pablo Neruda.

In 1923 Neruda wrote his first published book: Crepusculario. The following year he published Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, one of his best-known and most translated works. During this time Neruda attended college at the University of Santiago in Chile, but he abandoned his studies to focus full time on poetry and politics. By the time Pablo reached the age of twenty his poetry was well respected but unfortunately he was poor. He was forced to travel to foreign countries in order to make a living. At the age of only 23 Neruda was appointed by the Chilean government as consul to Burma (now Myanmar). Between 1927 and 1935, the government put him in charge of a number of honorary consulships, which took him to Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid (where he met and befriended the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.) Many of his works published during the Spanish Civil War turned him into a celebrity political activist.

From the 1940s on, his works reflected the history and political struggles of South America. Neruda returned to Chile in 1943, and he was elected senator of the Republic in 1945. He also joined the Communist Party of Chile during this time, and protested against President González Videla's repressive policy against striking miners. Neruda's criticism of González Videla culminated in a dramatic speech in the Chilean senate on January 6, 1948 called Yo acuso, in the course of which he read out the names of the miners and their families who were imprisoned at a concentration camp. Due to his protests, he had to live underground in his own country for two years until he managed to leave for Europe in 1949.

In 1952 he returned to Chile and later established a permanent home in Isla Negra, and in 1966 he was married for the third and final time to Chilean singer Matilde Urrutia. She was the inspiration of much of Neruda's later poetry, including One Hundred Love Sonnets published in 1960. He continued to travel extensively, visiting Cuba in 1960 and the United States in 1966.

Neruda’s political activism increased when Salvador Allende was elected president in 1970. Allende appointed Neruda as Chile’s ambassador to France. He served the position for 2 years, until the death of the President soon after General Pinochet’s military forces took control of the country in a violent coup d’etat.

Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 for his humanitarian poetry and activism. However, shortly after receiving the prestigious award, he died of leukemia in Santiago, Chile on September 23, 1973. Subsequent to his death, Neruda's homes in both Valparaiso and Santiago were looted and vandalized by the armed forces. His wife moved his body to lie in state amid the rubble in the couple's Santiago house, as her way of drawing world attention to the ongoing conduct of Pinochet's junta. His funeral took place with a massive police presence, with mourners taking advantage of the occasion to protest the Pinochet regime.

During his long literary career, Neruda produced more than forty volumes of poetry, translations, and verse drama. Neruda is recognized to be among the major poets of the 20th century. Four trends are generally associated with Neruda’s writing. The themes correspond to four aspects of Neruda's personality: his passionate love life; the nightmares and depression he experienced while serving as a consul in Asia; his commitment to a political cause; and his ever-present attention to details of daily life, his love of things made or grown by human hands.