This last weekend I went to La Chascona, one of famed poet Pablo Neruda's three homes. This one is at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal, the huge hill I went to the weekend before. It's in the artsy neighborhood of Bellavista in Providencia, and as soon as you walk into the gift shop area, pay for a tour, and enter the cafe/garden area, you are instantly transformed into Pablo Neruda's world: that of a poet, author, philanthropist, diplomat and Nobel Prize winner. His house in Santiago is gorgeous, and is actually two houses built in one. He had plans for a fourth, but wouldn't live to build it.
Pablo Neruda had such an interesting life...I can't possibly take time to write down all I learned at La Chascona. He died two weeks after the coup that took place (ironically) on September 11th, 1973 in Santiago. Later this year, his body will be exhumed to see what if the cause of death really was heart failure (as his third wife, Matilde and loved ones presumed) or if he was poisoned by the Pinochet government.
His travels and view of politics is something that is still talked about today. I met a Chilean couple at La Chascona who travel to his resting place (and another of his houses) at La Isla Negra, which is about two hours away from Santiago, on the coast. They go there every year on the day of Neruda's passing to show their support. His poetry is everywhere here, it's as if he's still alive. With his left, socialist leanings, he was criticized by many people like Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borgés for his political thoughts, but even Borgés praises Neruda's talent, calling him "one of the best poets who ever lived".
To be in his house and to see where he wrote poetry and lived the last years of his life was, for lack of better words, inspiring. You feel his presence in the house from the moment you step in the front door. His legacy is still alive and well in Santiago and all of Chile, and 39 years after his death, his work is still as cherished and loved as it was the day he died.
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