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| La Isla Negra |
The poet-diplomat purchased a stone house in 1938 after returning to Chile from his consul post in Spain. It is actually two buildings connected by an outdoor "hallway," with a kitchen, dining room, bar, living room and bedroom in one house, and a library, den, stable (that he built for the papier mâché horse he purchased at auction), and writing room in the other.
It is not uncommon in this part of Chile to go outside to get to other rooms in the house - this is true for half of the houses for rent (including the
one we live in now), the
jardín we work in, and of the house of our local contact (her kitchen and dining room are outdoors)).
Life in modern day Chile can take its toll on the people (at least, according to a slightly drunk housemate who talked about how difficult life in Chile is between the
terremotos and
incendios, long work hours and various obligations), but in general it seems like spirits are maintained through play and relaxation. If that's true, Pablo Neruda was very Chilean in this regard.
Life's trials affected him deeply, but creating intentional, playful spaces for himself and having fun is something he excelled at.
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| Always looking toward the ocean, that girl |
Everything about the house meant something to him, and one thing that
meant a lot to him was the sea. Every window and doorway contained
colored glass, so that he could see the sea in different light every
day. He populated his house with figureheads, seashells, ships in
bottles, and other navigational paraphernalia to surround himself with
the look and feel of the sea as much as possible. His writing desk was
made out of a door that he and his wife rescued from the ocean. He
anchored his house to the ground, literally, and kept a small boat in
the yard to share drinks with his friends (an activity that also gave
him the feeling of being at sea, what with how much the boat swayed
after a few drinks). He placed figureheads of Captain Morgan and a woman
in his dining room so that they would look at each other and fall in
love - but it was never meant to be because the woman's glance was
askew, and she was always looking at the ocean. As one would.
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Don't drink and boat.
Unless the boat never goes in the water. |
It wasn't
all about the ocean. He loved his friends and neighbors. He rang a giant bell when he got home to let everyone know he had arrived. He loved hosting parties - he had a costume party and had all the guests bring gifts for the papier mâché horse. He bought a train in honor of his father's memory and had it ceremoniously paraded to the house. He angled the bed in the bedroom so that the sun would rise at his head and set at his feet. (I angled my bed in my bedroom growing up too, but nothing poetic about it. It was mostly because I was bored one day and decided to rearrange, as I do).
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| Get the party started |
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Regrese demas viajes Navegue construyendo la alegriaSomething about returning from travel
and constructing happiness | | | |
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| Party train |
As was his wish, he and his wife are buried at Isla Negra, but it took
awhile for this to happen. He fell ill at Isla Negra in 1973 (a few days
after the coup) and was transferred to Santiago for care. He died in
Santiago, was buried there for 20 years, and finally moved to Isla
Negra. His body was recently exhumed as part of an investigation into
whether he died of heart failure and prostate cancer, or if he was
poisoned because of his opposition to Pinochet.
He wasn't.
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| Burial site of Pablo and Matilda |
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