/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-CHILE: Neruda, Eternal Poet

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Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Sep 23 2003 (IPS) - In the wake of the tributes to former Chilean president Salvador Allende marking the 30 years since his death in the military coup of Sep. 11, 1973, the country – and admirers around the world – now pay homage to Pablo Neruda, the eternal poet, who also died three decades ago.

Neruda, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971, died of cancer the evening of Sep. 23, 1973 in the Santa María Clinic of Santiago.

Two days later, his funeral took place surrounded by military machine guns, but nonetheless it turned into the first act of rebellion and public denunciation against Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorship lasted until 1990.

Beyond the emotional and heartrending political circumstances that surrounded his death and funeral, Neruda has a place in history as one of the great – if not the greatest – 20th century poets in the Spanish language.

The tribute events, which began Jul. 12 on what would have been the poet’s 99th birthday, culminated Sep. 23, with a special ceremony at the museum-house on Isla Negra, 100 km west of Santiago, led by President Ricardo Lagos.

It was from their residence on Isla Negra, raided by the military, that Matilde Urrutia took her husband Pablo and moved him to Santiago. The poet’s health had collapsed as a result of prostate cancer, which had worsened as a result of the emotional impact of the coup against Allende.

The funeral vigil for Neruda was held at La Chascona, another of the poet’s homes, in the bohemian neighbourhood of Bellavista in the foothills of San Cristobal mountain. That event was also ruined by the military, which diverted the water from a nearby stream to flood out the house.

Now, 30 years later, La Chascona is the scenario of an eight-hour marathon of poetry dedicated to Neruda, a militant communist, exquisite chef, and collector of figureheads, shells and exotic pieces.

The 12 young poets who are part of the poetry workshop in La Sebastiana, Neruda’s house on a cliff in Valparaíso, gave a reading in honour of the maestro on Sep. 23.

These and many other events are organised by the Neruda Foundation and by a special commission established by President Lagos for next year, when the poet would have reached his hundredth birthday, born Jul. 12, 1904, in Parral, 340 km south of Santiago.

In 1971, Neruda became the second Chilean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, 26 years after Gabriela Mistral, also a poet, received the award.

His works – poetry, prose and essays – continue to be re-edited, translated and studied around the world.

"Neruda represents one of the highest summits of poetry in the 20th century at the universal level," literary critic and university professor Patricia Espinosa told IPS.

"Although I cannot ignore authors like (Nicaraguan) Rubén Darío, (Peruvian) César Vallejo, (Chileans) Vicente Huidobro, Gabriela Mistral and Nicanor Parra, (Spain’s) Federico García Lorca and (Mexican) Octavio Paz, I do recognise Neruda as the greatest Ibero-American poet of the 20th century," she added.

Is there an over-appreciation of Neruda because of the circumstances surrounding his death? Does this contribute to his continued fame 30 years after his death?

According to Espinosa, "Neruda’s validity is not just related to the ideological aspects of his poetry. Critics in general have agreed that his openly political texts are the weakest."

"His oeuvre can be categorised as the great emergence of metaphysical thinking of the Latin American, the identity and condition of the mestizo (mixed race). Themes that today remain in the discussions of what are known as post-colonial studies," she added.

The 1973 coup accelerated the disease that killed Neruda, said Espinosa, noting that the right-wing daily La Tercera published the notice of his death "in a small note in the middle of an enormous report on book burning in Santiago during the days following the fall of the Allende government."

The love poems that Neruda wrote, beginning with "Crepusculario", his first book, published in 1923, are true classics. "The conservative critic Harold Bloom ranks him with (Miguel de) Cervantes and (William) Shakespeare," she said.

Literary experts agree that the poet’s defining work was "Canto General", an extensive work about the Americas that he wrote while living in clandestinity in 1948 and 1949, when he was persecuted by the government of Gabriel González Videla (1948-1952), which banned the Communist Party, for which Neruda had been elected senator.

"Neruda’s fundamental work is ‘Canto General’. A text that could be an epic, but today can be read as a map of Latin America, with all of its contradictions and hybridisations," said Espinos