1. “Someday, somewhere - anywhere, unfailingly, you'll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”

2. Pablo Neruda is the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He assumed this name in recognition of Jan Neruda a Czech poet Born in Parral, Chile, on July 12, 1904 to a school teacher mother and a railroad working father. Begin writing at a very young age and was published at 13 in a daily newspaper His mother died shortly after his birth.

3. During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic posts and served as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. He was Chile’s counsel to Burma, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico Chronicled the Spanish Civil War – and lost one of his good friends Federico Garcia Lorca (Blood Wedding author) When Neruda joined the Chilean Communist Party in 1945 it was extremely controversial (prior to this he was writing poetry reflecting his leftist views). In 1948, Conservative Chilean President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile and a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. He escapes to Argentina through a mountain pass and the help of friends.

4. Neruda returns to Chile in 1952 Much of the poetry he wrote during his exile and prior has strong, social and political themes Upon his return, he marries his third wife and continues to write poetry He becomes known as the “People’s poet” In 1971, he receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. At this time President Salvador Allende of Chile (a socialist and friend of Neruda’s ) has him read his poetry at the National Stadium

5. Up until 2013, there was controversy surrounding the death of Neruda. Many believed that he had been poisoned by anti-Allendale individuals. Some claiming that a CIA operative from the US was responsible for his death or the military coup which overthrew Allendale from Chile’s government. Yet, new evidence shows that he did in fact die from colon cancer and was not poisoned.

6. 1.His love poetry, such as the youthful Twenty Love Poems and the mature Los versos del Capitán (1952; The Captain's Verses), is tender, melancholy, sensuous, and passionate. 2.In “material” poetry, such as Residencia en la tierra, loneliness and depression immerse the author in a subterranean world of dark, demonic forces. 3.His epic poetry is best represented by Canto general, which is a Whitmanesque attempt at reinterpreting the past and present of Latin America and the struggle of its oppressed and downtrodden masses toward freedom. 4.And finally there is Neruda's poetry of common, everyday objects, animals, and plants, as in Odas elementales.

7. The poems, subtle and elegant, were in the tradition of Symbolist poetry, or rather its Hispanic version, Modernismo. His second book, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (1924; Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair), was inspired by an unhappy love affair. It became an instant success and is still one of Neruda's most popular books. The verse in Twenty Love Poems is vigorous, poignant, and direct, yet subtle and very original in its imagery and metaphors. The poems express young, passionate, unhappy love perhaps better than any book of poetry in the long Romantic tradition. Love Poetry

8. In Residencia en la tierra, 1925–1931 (1933; Residence on Earth) Neruda moves beyond the lucid, conventional lyricism of Twenty Love Poems, abandoning normal syntax, rhyme, and stanzaic organization to create a highly personalized poetic technique. His personal and collective anguish gives rise to nightmarish visions of disintegration, chaos, decay, and death that he recorded in a cryptic, difficult style inspired by Surrealism. These puzzling and mysterious poems both attract and repel the reader with the powerful and awe-inspiring vision they present of a modern descent into hell.

9. Traveling throughout Central and South America, he absorbed images of people and places, and began to imagine a poem that would delineate Latin American identity. The gradual evolution of this plan is illustrated by the career of The Song of Chile (1943), which Neruda began in 1938 as a national epic but which was later incorporated as canto 7 of the broader General Song (1950).

10. While traveling in Europe, Cuba, and China, Neruda embarked upon a period of incessant writing and feverish creation. One of his major works, Odas elementales (Elemental Odes), was published in 1954. Its verse was written in a new poetic style—simple, direct, precise, and humorous—and it contained descriptions of everyday objects, situations, and beings

11. 1450 Incas from Peru conquer Chile 1520 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan becomes the first European to sight Chile as he sails through the strait now named for him. 1541 Pedro de Valdivia begins the Spanish conquest of Chile. He founds Santiago, the capital of Chile. 1818 Chile wins its independence from Spain after Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins lead an army to defeat the Spanish at the battles of Chacabuco and Maipu. 1879-1883 Chile goes to war against Peru and Bolivia. Chile wins Antofagasta, Bolivia's only outlet to the sea, along with mineral-rich areas of Peru. 1925 A new constitution grants workers extensive rights and calls for the president and congress to be popularly elected. 1927 General Carlos Ibanez del Campo seizes power and establishes dictatorship. 1948 Communist Party banned. 1973 General Augusto Pinochet leads the armed forces in the overthrow of Allende. Pinochet establishes a brutal dictatorship.

12. Neruda always wrote in GREEN ink because it was the color of esperanza (hope)! “Latin America is very fond of the word “hope.” We like to be called the “continent of hope.” Candidates for deputy, senator, president, call themselves “candidates of hope.” This hope is really something like a promise of heaven, an IOU whose payment is always being put off. It is put off until the next legislative campaign, until next year, until the next century.”

13. “Pablo Neruda ” Dr. Rearick’s Readers Corner. http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/readings/au thors/specific/neruda.htm http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/readings/au thors/specific/neruda.htm http://meetpneruda.tripod.com/id3.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/122290 5.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/122290 5.stm