Who is Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971?

Poet and writer Pablo Neruda, whose real name is Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes Basoalto, was born on July 12, 1904. Pablo Neruda, whose father is a railroad worker and mother is a teacher, spent his childhood in small provincial stations where his father was stationed. He got to know the villagers, seasonal agricultural workers and mine workers. At school, he was a shy student who liked to dream. He wrote poems and articles and read books non stop. It was during this time that he met Gabriela Mistral, the famous Chilean poetess, who was influenced by literature and politics.

The Spanish Civil War and the death of García Lorca greatly affected him, prompting him to join the Republican movement, first in Spain and then in France. Meanwhile, he began working on Spain in My Heart (España en el corazón (1937)), where he collected his poems. Spain in my heart was raided at the front during the civil war. Returning to his country in the same year, Neruda dealt with political and social issues in his later works.

In 1939, he was appointed consul for Spanish immigrants in Paris. He wrote Canto General de Chile during his consular post in Mexico. In this work, the nature, people and historical fate of the entire South American continent are described in the form of epic poetry. While the work was published in Mexico in 1950, it was also published clandestinely in Chile. The work, which includes about 250 poems, has been translated into ten languages, and because of these translations, Neruda had difficulties in the countries where he was an embassy.

Returning to Chile in 1943, Neruda was elected senator in 1945 and joined the Chilean Communist Party. He lived on the run for 2 years in his home country in 1947, protesting President González Videla's repressive protests against striking miners. He went abroad in 1949 and resided in various countries until 1952. The effect of exile is felt in the works he wrote in this period.

Known for his strong political stance throughout his life, Neruda stood up to fascism in his country and Spain. He was nominated for the Chilean presidency in 1970, but supported Salvador Allende, who was later elected president. When Allende was elected, he appointed Neruda as Chile's ambassador to France. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971. In 1972, he left his embassy due to health problems and returned to Chile. Although it was announced that he died of prostate cancer on September 24, 1973, it was constantly questioned that his death was right after the 1973 Chilean Coup, which was against his worldview.