Neruda, page 62
As the Church Committee report: Church Committee, Covert Action in Chile, 5.
The CIA funneled weapons: Ibid.
U.S. ambassador Edward Korry: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 8.
The old orthodoxy: Most thoughts in this paragraph come from author discussion with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
In a phone call: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 99, as well as interview and discussion on Democracy Now! September 10, 2013.
After Allende’s inauguration: Steenland, Kyle. “Two Years of ‘Popular Unity’ in Chile: A Balance Sheet,” New Left Review, no. 78 (March–April 1973): 3–25.
The CIA, as confirmed: Church Committee, Covert Action in Chile, 2.
“foot-drag to maximum possible”: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 7–18.
“He wasn’t optimistic”: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 210–211.
The writer Jay Parini: Author correspondence with Jay Parini, June 3, 2016, and from “The Home of Pablo Neruda,” Commentary Series, Vermont Public Radio, November 13, 2007, http://vprarchive.vpr.net/commentary-series/the-home-of-pablo-neruda/.
“sense comes first”: From a recording of the evening.
“one last senile love”: Author interview with Aida Figueroa, July 2003.
While in London, Parini had dinner: Author correspondence with Jay Parini, June 3, 2016.
One day when Alicia had: Author interview with Francisco Velasco, 2008.
“I’ll tell you that your friend”: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 449. When Matilde says that Neruda is “sick,” she is presumably referring to his prostate cancer, which he already had before he met Alicia; she’s not saying that Alicia was the one who made him “sick down there.”
“There is a part of the night”: Ibid., 453.
Despite his departure for Paris: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 296. Edwards doesn’t mention Alicia by name, just that Neruda had fallen in love with a “considerably younger woman” right before he left for France.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE FLOWERS THAT SLEEP
“Autumn”: “Otoño,” Winter Garden. The autumn the title is referring to is the autumn of April–June 1973; the tensions would break that September.
“My country is experiencing”: Neruda interview by Axelsson, SVT.
As soon as they arrived in Paris: Velasco, Francisco. Neruda: El gran amigo (Santiago: Galinost-Andante, 1987), 121.
“Everything is the same”: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 455–456.
“The poet is not a ‘little god’”: “Pablo Neruda—Nobel Lecture.”
“hissed, laughed”: Raymont, Henry. “Neruda Opens Visit Here with a Plea for Chile’s Revolution,” New York Times, April 11, 1972.
“return to the concerns”: OC, 5:357–362.
“there [were] already ashes”: Alegría, Fernando. “Neruda: Reminiscences and Critical Reflections,” trans. Deborah S. Bundy, Modern Poetry Studies 5, no. 1 (1974): 44. Last line truncated from Bundy’s translation to just “did” instead of “did know.”
“We are sick ones”: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 122.
The poet gave him: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 252.
“I realized he was very bad”: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 123.
the truckers blamed: Sigmund, Paul E. The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964–1976 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), 184.
one hundred thousand campesinos: Ibid., 185.
a letter thanking the poet: Letter dated November 16, 1972, APNF.
“carrying on his perpetual dialogue”: Quoted in Poirot, Pablo Neruda, 124.
“bring back phenindione”: Neruda, Cartas de amor: Cartas a Matilde Urrutia, 238.
In her absence, when he went: From 2012 testimony by Alicia Urrutia to Judge Mario Carroza after being summoned to answer questions about Neruda’s health during the investigation of Neruda’s death. Quoted in Montes, Rocío. “El último amor de Neruda: La voz de Alicia,” Caras, December 29, 2014, http://www.caras.cl/libros/el-ultimo-amor-de-neruda-la-voz-de-alicia/.
Alicia was struck: Ibid.
Dr. Velasco remembers: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 124–125.
“The era of those classical names”: Letter dated February 27, 1973, APNF.
“I’ve never been given”: Letter dated March 14, 1973; copy provided to the author by Turner.
“Unfortunately, I must seriously protest”: Letter dated August 8, 1973, APNF.
“The whole cultural movement”: Jara, Joan. Victor: An Unfinished Song (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984), 211–212.
On August 31, 1973, Neruda wrote: APNF and OC, 5:1020.
“I send my best wishes”: Letter dated September 4, 1973, APNF.
Allende shot himself: There has been controversy over the circumstances of Allende’s death ever since it happened. Despite some circumstantial accounts, many insisted he would never have killed himself, but rather that he went down fighting and was shot by the military storming the building. But in 2011, the Chilean justice system investigated Allende’s death, one of more than seven hundred criminal inquiries into the deaths and disappearances that took place during the dictatorship. An international forensics team conducted an autopsy. With the help of ballistics experts, the unanimous conclusion was that he had indeed shot himself. Among various sources: López, Andrés, and Javier Canales. “Informe del Servicio Médico Legal confirma la tesis del suicidio de ex presidente Allende,” La Tercera (Santiago), July 19, 2011, http://www.latercera.com/noticia/informe-del-servicio-medico-legal-confirma-la-tesis-del-suicidio-de-ex-presidente-allende/.
“quiet; mild-mannered”: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 155.
Yet by late October, a fact sheet: Ibid., 154.
Instead, he seemed broken: Urrutia, Mi vida junto a Pablo Neruda, 7–9
“Look all you want”: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 303–304.
As Arévalo recalled the visit: Author interview with Hugo Arévalo, July 2003.
Neruda in a state of madness: Matilde’s recounting is from an interview she gave in Bizzarro, Pablo Neruda, 155–156.
As Matilde wrote in her memoir: Urrutia, My Life with Pablo Neruda, 15–16.
Homero Arce asked Inés: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, 2008.
“We knew what we could do”: Ibid.
“We were afraid”: Author interview with Roser Bru, 2003.
EPILOGUE
“coalesce in the realm of paradox”: O’Daly, William. Introduction to The Book of Questions, by Pablo Neruda (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2001), vii.
“Returning”: “Regresando,” in Neruda, Pablo. The Sea and the Bells, trans. William O’Daly (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“Winter Garden”: “Jardín de invierno,” in Neruda, Pablo. Winter Garden, trans. William O’Daly (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“When I went back to Chile”: Author interview with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
He said the Catholic Church: Suro, Robert. “Pope, on Latin Trip, Attacks Pinochet Regime,” New York Times, April 1, 1987.
The pope reportedly advised: O’Connor, Garry. Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II (New York: Bloomsbury, 2005).
Under his dictatorship: Here using much of Peter Kornbluh’s phrasing for the reporting of the numbers, which came from The Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (Pinochet File, 154).
Their vast grassroots: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Chile’s Transition to Democracy: The 1988 Presidential Plebiscite, Washington, D.C., 1988; and Kornbluh, Pinochet File.
“there was a sense”: Author interview with Rodrigo Rojas, November 21, 2015.
The CIA, for instance: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 431–432.
“Compañeros, bury me at Isla Negra”: “Disposiciones” [“Dispositions”], Canto general.
“the victory of poetry”: Boletín de la Fundacíon Pablo Neruda, no. 15 (Summer 1993): 23.
“It was very moving”: Author interview with Francisco Velasco, 2008.
“Neruda was feverish”: Matilde mentions none of this in her memoir, just that Neruda had called her at Isla Negra because he had finally learned about the realities of the coup through his friends and was in a completely agitated state.
That injection: There was an injection that day, which Neruda’s doctor said was Dipirona, and the forensic examinations showed there had been Dipirona in Neruda’s system. As explained by the Mexican journalist Mario Casasús—who at first was one of the main proponents of the allegations but has come to doubt Araya—in 1974 Matilde told a newspaper that the injection was Dolopirona. There are some differences between Dipirona and Dolopirona, and if Neruda needed Dolopirona and they gave him Dipirona, then that could cause an allergic reaction, but it wouldn’t kill him. Also, according to Casasús, the medicine given to Neruda was something that the hospital already had on hand (author correspondence with Mario Casasús, February 1, 2017).
“evil ordered by”: Note that Araya never actually saw the injection take place. Unless otherwise indicated, Araya’s testimony is from an interview by Francisco Marín, published in “Neruda fue asesinado,” Proceso (Mexico), May 12, 2011, http://www.proceso.com.mx/269909/269909-neruda-fue-asesinado.
it wasn’t until 2004: Confirmed in Witt, Emily. “The Body Politic: The Battle Over Pablo Neruda’s Corpse,” Harper’s, January 2015.
the regime did not begin: Taylor Branch and Eugene M. Propper wrote about the sarin attacks (Project Andrea) taking place in 1976 in their coauthored Labyrinth: The Sensational Story of International Intrigue in the Search for the Assassins of Orlando Letelier (New York: Viking, 1982). Actual supporting documents are found in Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 178–179, 201. Further insight was provided through author interview and correspondence with John Dinges, former Washington Post foreign news editor and author of The Condor Years, among other books on Pinochet, January 2017.
the press and others ran with it: Wills, Santiago. “Pablo Neruda May Have Been Killed by a CIA Double Agent,” ABC News, June 6, 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/pablo-neruda-killed-cia-double-agent/story?id=19332813. Through previous research on Townley for his role in a 1976 assassination (ordered by the Pinochet regime and carried out in Washington, D.C.), John Dinges, along with fellow coinvestigators, has a paper trail—including all of Townley’s passports (and their stamps) and some personal letters he sent from Miami at the time—showing he could not have been in Santiago for the murder (“US Experts: Documents Place Michael Townley in Florida During Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda Death,” Associated Press, June 3, 2013, and author correspondence with Dinges, January 2017). It has also been shown that while Townley did work for Chile’s secret police, he never did work for the CIA (Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 401, and author interviews with Dinges, 2016 and 2017).
“worthy of crime fiction”: Among other reports, González, Alejandro. “Caso Neruda: ¿Quién es el Doctor Price?” 24horas, May 30, 2013, http://www.24horas.cl/nacional/caso-neruda-quien-es-el-doctor-price--671677.
“results mean that there is no”: Among other sources, “Expertos descartan que Pablo Neruda haya sido envenenado,” CNN Español, November 8, 2013, http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2013/11/08/expertos-descartan-que-pablo-neruda-haya-sido-envenenado/.
“it is clearly possible”: Brief addressed to Judge Mario Carroza Espinosa of the Appellate Court of Santiago on behalf of the Interior Ministry’s Human Rights Program, March 25, 2015. Available at https://ep00.epimg.net/descargables/2015/11/05/5d1ddae7d84b280f588c8dfc710c87d1.pdf?rel=mas.
“No Foul Play”: Lopez, Erik. “No Foul Play in Death of Chilean Poet Neruda, Researchers Say,” Reuters, May 28, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-neruda-idUSKBN0OD1QD20150528.
one last pathogen: They are testing for Staphylococcus aureus, which had been found in his remains. As it is not directly associated with cancer, speculation arose that Neruda may have received a lethal injection containing lab-manufactured staph. Yet even in modern hospitals, natural deaths from staph infections continue to occur. A needle tip that just happens to have staph on it can be deadly when injected into a patient whose immune system is suppressed due to cancer, pneumonia, or other disease.
“rule out or prove”: Doctor Aurelio Luna, a Spanish forensic specialist from the University of Murcia, as quoted in multiple sources, including “Neruda no murió producto del cáncer de próstata, concluyeron los peritos,” Cooperativa.cl (Santiago), October 20, 2017. http://www.cooperativa.cl/noticias/cultura/literatura/pablo-neruda/neruda-no-murio-producto-del-cancer-de-prostata-concluyeron-los-peritos/2017-10-20/170817.html.
in “100% agreement”: Ibid.
a state he was clearly not in: Author correspondence with panelist Debi Poinar, a fellow research associate at the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, October 29, 2017.
do not believe he died from the Staphylococcus aureus: Author correspondence and conversation with Debi Poinar, October 26–30, 2017.
“a long history”: Author correspondence with Debi Poinar, October 26, 2017.
“enable us to rule in”: Author conversation with Hendrik Poinar, the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre’s Principal Investigator (and husband of Debi Poinar), October 28, 2017.
Neruda’s role as the people’s poet: Conway, Diana. “Neruda, Skármeta, and Ardiente paciencia,” Confluencia 7, no. 2 (Spring 1992): 141.
Politics are treated vaguely: Hodgson, Irene B. “The De-Chileanization of Neruda in Il postino,” in Pablo Neruda and the U.S. Culture Industry, ed. Teresa Longo (New York: Routledge, 2002), 104.
In 2010, the renowned Plácido: Johnson, Reed. “L.A. Opera to Deliver ‘Il postino’ Premiere on Thursday,” Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/19/entertainment/la-ca-daniel-catan-20100919.
“because they hit you”: Author interview with Jorge Rodríguez, 2003.
“a component of our nationality”: Lagos Escobar, Ricardo. Prologue to Centenario de Neruda. Available at Archivo Chile, http://www.archivochile.com/Homenajes/neruda/sobre_neruda/homenajepneruda0020.pdf.
“has touched so many different”: Quoted in “Celebran los 100 de Neruda,” La Opinión, July 12, 2004.
“sign in some sense”: Author interview with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
“because I felt it was a way”: Dorfman, Ariel. “Words That Pulse Among Madrid’s Dead,” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2004.
“You would have no idea”: Seipp, Catherine. “Times Never Changes,” National Review, April 1, 2004, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/210108/times-never-changes.
“In some magnetic way”: “El mar” [“The Sea”], Memorial de Isla Negra. Note that this is a different poem from the previously quoted “The Sea” here.
“Let us look for secret things”: “No me hagan caso” [“Forget About Me”], Estravagario.
“Lazybones”: “El perezoso,” Estravagario. Translated by Jessica Powell.
APPENDIX II: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF POETRY IN CHILE
“Chile has an extraordinary history”: Guibert, “Pablo Neruda,” 64–65.
The use of nature as the protagonist: Edwards, “A Conversation with Forrest Gander and Raúl Zurita.”
“very humble origins”: Author interview with Rodrigo Rojas, June 15, 2015.
Index
The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.
Adíos, poeta (Edwards),449
African Americans, 358–59, 445–46
Aguirre, Margarita, 192, 338, 401, 443
Aguirre, Socrates, 204
Aguirre Cerda, Pedro, 274, 277, 280–83, 289, 294
Ai Qing, 433
Alberti, Rafael, 199, 223, 227–28, 234–35, 238, 248, 253, 256, 299–300, 319, 375n, 491
Spanish Civil War and, 259, 261, 268
Alegría, Fernando, 469
Aleixandre, Vicente, 232–34, 238, 253, 300
Spanish Civil War and, 259, 268–69
Alessandri, Arturo, 66, 195, 266, 336, 338, 456
Alessandri, Jorge, 456–57, 479
Alfonso XIII, king of Spain, 221–22, 249n
Allende, Isabel, 9–10, 503
Allende, Salvador, 8, 283, 451
coup against, 1, 9, 458–61, 477–78, 483
death of, 1, 478, 598n
politics of, 1, 48, 456–57, 459–60
presidency of, 48, 378n, 456, 460–61, 464, 466, 468, 470–71, 474–78
presidential campaigns of, 1–2, 399–401, 452–53, 456–59, 461, 596n
Alliance of Anti–Fascist Intellectuals for the Defense of Culture, 251–53, 261, 271, 274, 276
Altolaguirre, Manuel, 240, 259, 300, 305
Alviso, Amelia, 48, 56, 97, 123, 148
Amado, Jorge, 326, 395, 416
American Continental Peace Congress, 361–68
amores de Neruda, Los (The Loves of Neruda) (Cardone), 163
Anahuacalli, 370–71
Ancud, 130–32
Antofagasta, 320, 322, 324, 330, 346, 366
Antúnez, Nemesio, 383–85
Aragon, Louis, 227, 245–46, 252, 267, 358, 375n
Araucana, La (de Ercilla), 519–20
Araya, Manuel, 492, 600n
Arce, Homero, 109, 175, 401, 432, 480
Arenal, Angélica, 291, 295
Arévalo, Hugo, 479, 503
Argentina, 21, 117, 148–49, 158, 162–63, 188, 199–200, 225–26, 250, 317–18, 333, 342, 366, 368, 371–72, 476, 488
and Neruda’s flight from Chile, 338–39, 346, 348, 351, 354–55
Neruda’s life in, 202–7, 209
Arrué, Laura, 107–9, 113, 122–23, 131, 132n, 136–37, 140, 147, 174–75, 446
Asturias, Miguel Ángel, 295–96, 355, 435–36, 439n
Auden, W. H., 259, 269
aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, Die (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) (Rilke), 79
Ávila Camacho, Manuel, 294, 298
Aymaran music, 518
Azaña, Manuel, 249
Azócar, Adelina, 97
Azócar, Albertina Rosa, 95–109, 191
Neruda’s letters to, 101–6, 119, 121–23, 131, 137, 143, 148, 167, 174–76, 196–97, 220
Neruda’s marriage and, 196–97
The CIA funneled weapons: Ibid.
U.S. ambassador Edward Korry: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 8.
The old orthodoxy: Most thoughts in this paragraph come from author discussion with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
In a phone call: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 99, as well as interview and discussion on Democracy Now! September 10, 2013.
After Allende’s inauguration: Steenland, Kyle. “Two Years of ‘Popular Unity’ in Chile: A Balance Sheet,” New Left Review, no. 78 (March–April 1973): 3–25.
The CIA, as confirmed: Church Committee, Covert Action in Chile, 2.
“foot-drag to maximum possible”: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 7–18.
“He wasn’t optimistic”: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 210–211.
The writer Jay Parini: Author correspondence with Jay Parini, June 3, 2016, and from “The Home of Pablo Neruda,” Commentary Series, Vermont Public Radio, November 13, 2007, http://vprarchive.vpr.net/commentary-series/the-home-of-pablo-neruda/.
“sense comes first”: From a recording of the evening.
“one last senile love”: Author interview with Aida Figueroa, July 2003.
While in London, Parini had dinner: Author correspondence with Jay Parini, June 3, 2016.
One day when Alicia had: Author interview with Francisco Velasco, 2008.
“I’ll tell you that your friend”: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 449. When Matilde says that Neruda is “sick,” she is presumably referring to his prostate cancer, which he already had before he met Alicia; she’s not saying that Alicia was the one who made him “sick down there.”
“There is a part of the night”: Ibid., 453.
Despite his departure for Paris: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 296. Edwards doesn’t mention Alicia by name, just that Neruda had fallen in love with a “considerably younger woman” right before he left for France.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE FLOWERS THAT SLEEP
“Autumn”: “Otoño,” Winter Garden. The autumn the title is referring to is the autumn of April–June 1973; the tensions would break that September.
“My country is experiencing”: Neruda interview by Axelsson, SVT.
As soon as they arrived in Paris: Velasco, Francisco. Neruda: El gran amigo (Santiago: Galinost-Andante, 1987), 121.
“Everything is the same”: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 455–456.
“The poet is not a ‘little god’”: “Pablo Neruda—Nobel Lecture.”
“hissed, laughed”: Raymont, Henry. “Neruda Opens Visit Here with a Plea for Chile’s Revolution,” New York Times, April 11, 1972.
“return to the concerns”: OC, 5:357–362.
“there [were] already ashes”: Alegría, Fernando. “Neruda: Reminiscences and Critical Reflections,” trans. Deborah S. Bundy, Modern Poetry Studies 5, no. 1 (1974): 44. Last line truncated from Bundy’s translation to just “did” instead of “did know.”
“We are sick ones”: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 122.
The poet gave him: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 252.
“I realized he was very bad”: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 123.
the truckers blamed: Sigmund, Paul E. The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964–1976 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), 184.
one hundred thousand campesinos: Ibid., 185.
a letter thanking the poet: Letter dated November 16, 1972, APNF.
“carrying on his perpetual dialogue”: Quoted in Poirot, Pablo Neruda, 124.
“bring back phenindione”: Neruda, Cartas de amor: Cartas a Matilde Urrutia, 238.
In her absence, when he went: From 2012 testimony by Alicia Urrutia to Judge Mario Carroza after being summoned to answer questions about Neruda’s health during the investigation of Neruda’s death. Quoted in Montes, Rocío. “El último amor de Neruda: La voz de Alicia,” Caras, December 29, 2014, http://www.caras.cl/libros/el-ultimo-amor-de-neruda-la-voz-de-alicia/.
Alicia was struck: Ibid.
Dr. Velasco remembers: Velasco, Neruda: El gran amigo, 124–125.
“The era of those classical names”: Letter dated February 27, 1973, APNF.
“I’ve never been given”: Letter dated March 14, 1973; copy provided to the author by Turner.
“Unfortunately, I must seriously protest”: Letter dated August 8, 1973, APNF.
“The whole cultural movement”: Jara, Joan. Victor: An Unfinished Song (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984), 211–212.
On August 31, 1973, Neruda wrote: APNF and OC, 5:1020.
“I send my best wishes”: Letter dated September 4, 1973, APNF.
Allende shot himself: There has been controversy over the circumstances of Allende’s death ever since it happened. Despite some circumstantial accounts, many insisted he would never have killed himself, but rather that he went down fighting and was shot by the military storming the building. But in 2011, the Chilean justice system investigated Allende’s death, one of more than seven hundred criminal inquiries into the deaths and disappearances that took place during the dictatorship. An international forensics team conducted an autopsy. With the help of ballistics experts, the unanimous conclusion was that he had indeed shot himself. Among various sources: López, Andrés, and Javier Canales. “Informe del Servicio Médico Legal confirma la tesis del suicidio de ex presidente Allende,” La Tercera (Santiago), July 19, 2011, http://www.latercera.com/noticia/informe-del-servicio-medico-legal-confirma-la-tesis-del-suicidio-de-ex-presidente-allende/.
“quiet; mild-mannered”: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 155.
Yet by late October, a fact sheet: Ibid., 154.
Instead, he seemed broken: Urrutia, Mi vida junto a Pablo Neruda, 7–9
“Look all you want”: Edwards, Adiós, poeta, 303–304.
As Arévalo recalled the visit: Author interview with Hugo Arévalo, July 2003.
Neruda in a state of madness: Matilde’s recounting is from an interview she gave in Bizzarro, Pablo Neruda, 155–156.
As Matilde wrote in her memoir: Urrutia, My Life with Pablo Neruda, 15–16.
Homero Arce asked Inés: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, 2008.
“We knew what we could do”: Ibid.
“We were afraid”: Author interview with Roser Bru, 2003.
EPILOGUE
“coalesce in the realm of paradox”: O’Daly, William. Introduction to The Book of Questions, by Pablo Neruda (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2001), vii.
“Returning”: “Regresando,” in Neruda, Pablo. The Sea and the Bells, trans. William O’Daly (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“Winter Garden”: “Jardín de invierno,” in Neruda, Pablo. Winter Garden, trans. William O’Daly (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“When I went back to Chile”: Author interview with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
He said the Catholic Church: Suro, Robert. “Pope, on Latin Trip, Attacks Pinochet Regime,” New York Times, April 1, 1987.
The pope reportedly advised: O’Connor, Garry. Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II (New York: Bloomsbury, 2005).
Under his dictatorship: Here using much of Peter Kornbluh’s phrasing for the reporting of the numbers, which came from The Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (Pinochet File, 154).
Their vast grassroots: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Chile’s Transition to Democracy: The 1988 Presidential Plebiscite, Washington, D.C., 1988; and Kornbluh, Pinochet File.
“there was a sense”: Author interview with Rodrigo Rojas, November 21, 2015.
The CIA, for instance: Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 431–432.
“Compañeros, bury me at Isla Negra”: “Disposiciones” [“Dispositions”], Canto general.
“the victory of poetry”: Boletín de la Fundacíon Pablo Neruda, no. 15 (Summer 1993): 23.
“It was very moving”: Author interview with Francisco Velasco, 2008.
“Neruda was feverish”: Matilde mentions none of this in her memoir, just that Neruda had called her at Isla Negra because he had finally learned about the realities of the coup through his friends and was in a completely agitated state.
That injection: There was an injection that day, which Neruda’s doctor said was Dipirona, and the forensic examinations showed there had been Dipirona in Neruda’s system. As explained by the Mexican journalist Mario Casasús—who at first was one of the main proponents of the allegations but has come to doubt Araya—in 1974 Matilde told a newspaper that the injection was Dolopirona. There are some differences between Dipirona and Dolopirona, and if Neruda needed Dolopirona and they gave him Dipirona, then that could cause an allergic reaction, but it wouldn’t kill him. Also, according to Casasús, the medicine given to Neruda was something that the hospital already had on hand (author correspondence with Mario Casasús, February 1, 2017).
“evil ordered by”: Note that Araya never actually saw the injection take place. Unless otherwise indicated, Araya’s testimony is from an interview by Francisco Marín, published in “Neruda fue asesinado,” Proceso (Mexico), May 12, 2011, http://www.proceso.com.mx/269909/269909-neruda-fue-asesinado.
it wasn’t until 2004: Confirmed in Witt, Emily. “The Body Politic: The Battle Over Pablo Neruda’s Corpse,” Harper’s, January 2015.
the regime did not begin: Taylor Branch and Eugene M. Propper wrote about the sarin attacks (Project Andrea) taking place in 1976 in their coauthored Labyrinth: The Sensational Story of International Intrigue in the Search for the Assassins of Orlando Letelier (New York: Viking, 1982). Actual supporting documents are found in Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 178–179, 201. Further insight was provided through author interview and correspondence with John Dinges, former Washington Post foreign news editor and author of The Condor Years, among other books on Pinochet, January 2017.
the press and others ran with it: Wills, Santiago. “Pablo Neruda May Have Been Killed by a CIA Double Agent,” ABC News, June 6, 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/pablo-neruda-killed-cia-double-agent/story?id=19332813. Through previous research on Townley for his role in a 1976 assassination (ordered by the Pinochet regime and carried out in Washington, D.C.), John Dinges, along with fellow coinvestigators, has a paper trail—including all of Townley’s passports (and their stamps) and some personal letters he sent from Miami at the time—showing he could not have been in Santiago for the murder (“US Experts: Documents Place Michael Townley in Florida During Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda Death,” Associated Press, June 3, 2013, and author correspondence with Dinges, January 2017). It has also been shown that while Townley did work for Chile’s secret police, he never did work for the CIA (Kornbluh, Pinochet File, 401, and author interviews with Dinges, 2016 and 2017).
“worthy of crime fiction”: Among other reports, González, Alejandro. “Caso Neruda: ¿Quién es el Doctor Price?” 24horas, May 30, 2013, http://www.24horas.cl/nacional/caso-neruda-quien-es-el-doctor-price--671677.
“results mean that there is no”: Among other sources, “Expertos descartan que Pablo Neruda haya sido envenenado,” CNN Español, November 8, 2013, http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2013/11/08/expertos-descartan-que-pablo-neruda-haya-sido-envenenado/.
“it is clearly possible”: Brief addressed to Judge Mario Carroza Espinosa of the Appellate Court of Santiago on behalf of the Interior Ministry’s Human Rights Program, March 25, 2015. Available at https://ep00.epimg.net/descargables/2015/11/05/5d1ddae7d84b280f588c8dfc710c87d1.pdf?rel=mas.
“No Foul Play”: Lopez, Erik. “No Foul Play in Death of Chilean Poet Neruda, Researchers Say,” Reuters, May 28, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-neruda-idUSKBN0OD1QD20150528.
one last pathogen: They are testing for Staphylococcus aureus, which had been found in his remains. As it is not directly associated with cancer, speculation arose that Neruda may have received a lethal injection containing lab-manufactured staph. Yet even in modern hospitals, natural deaths from staph infections continue to occur. A needle tip that just happens to have staph on it can be deadly when injected into a patient whose immune system is suppressed due to cancer, pneumonia, or other disease.
“rule out or prove”: Doctor Aurelio Luna, a Spanish forensic specialist from the University of Murcia, as quoted in multiple sources, including “Neruda no murió producto del cáncer de próstata, concluyeron los peritos,” Cooperativa.cl (Santiago), October 20, 2017. http://www.cooperativa.cl/noticias/cultura/literatura/pablo-neruda/neruda-no-murio-producto-del-cancer-de-prostata-concluyeron-los-peritos/2017-10-20/170817.html.
in “100% agreement”: Ibid.
a state he was clearly not in: Author correspondence with panelist Debi Poinar, a fellow research associate at the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, October 29, 2017.
do not believe he died from the Staphylococcus aureus: Author correspondence and conversation with Debi Poinar, October 26–30, 2017.
“a long history”: Author correspondence with Debi Poinar, October 26, 2017.
“enable us to rule in”: Author conversation with Hendrik Poinar, the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre’s Principal Investigator (and husband of Debi Poinar), October 28, 2017.
Neruda’s role as the people’s poet: Conway, Diana. “Neruda, Skármeta, and Ardiente paciencia,” Confluencia 7, no. 2 (Spring 1992): 141.
Politics are treated vaguely: Hodgson, Irene B. “The De-Chileanization of Neruda in Il postino,” in Pablo Neruda and the U.S. Culture Industry, ed. Teresa Longo (New York: Routledge, 2002), 104.
In 2010, the renowned Plácido: Johnson, Reed. “L.A. Opera to Deliver ‘Il postino’ Premiere on Thursday,” Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/19/entertainment/la-ca-daniel-catan-20100919.
“because they hit you”: Author interview with Jorge Rodríguez, 2003.
“a component of our nationality”: Lagos Escobar, Ricardo. Prologue to Centenario de Neruda. Available at Archivo Chile, http://www.archivochile.com/Homenajes/neruda/sobre_neruda/homenajepneruda0020.pdf.
“has touched so many different”: Quoted in “Celebran los 100 de Neruda,” La Opinión, July 12, 2004.
“sign in some sense”: Author interview with Ariel Dorfman, 2004.
“because I felt it was a way”: Dorfman, Ariel. “Words That Pulse Among Madrid’s Dead,” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2004.
“You would have no idea”: Seipp, Catherine. “Times Never Changes,” National Review, April 1, 2004, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/210108/times-never-changes.
“In some magnetic way”: “El mar” [“The Sea”], Memorial de Isla Negra. Note that this is a different poem from the previously quoted “The Sea” here.
“Let us look for secret things”: “No me hagan caso” [“Forget About Me”], Estravagario.
“Lazybones”: “El perezoso,” Estravagario. Translated by Jessica Powell.
APPENDIX II: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF POETRY IN CHILE
“Chile has an extraordinary history”: Guibert, “Pablo Neruda,” 64–65.
The use of nature as the protagonist: Edwards, “A Conversation with Forrest Gander and Raúl Zurita.”
“very humble origins”: Author interview with Rodrigo Rojas, June 15, 2015.
Index
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Adíos, poeta (Edwards),449
African Americans, 358–59, 445–46
Aguirre, Margarita, 192, 338, 401, 443
Aguirre, Socrates, 204
Aguirre Cerda, Pedro, 274, 277, 280–83, 289, 294
Ai Qing, 433
Alberti, Rafael, 199, 223, 227–28, 234–35, 238, 248, 253, 256, 299–300, 319, 375n, 491
Spanish Civil War and, 259, 261, 268
Alegría, Fernando, 469
Aleixandre, Vicente, 232–34, 238, 253, 300
Spanish Civil War and, 259, 268–69
Alessandri, Arturo, 66, 195, 266, 336, 338, 456
Alessandri, Jorge, 456–57, 479
Alfonso XIII, king of Spain, 221–22, 249n
Allende, Isabel, 9–10, 503
Allende, Salvador, 8, 283, 451
coup against, 1, 9, 458–61, 477–78, 483
death of, 1, 478, 598n
politics of, 1, 48, 456–57, 459–60
presidency of, 48, 378n, 456, 460–61, 464, 466, 468, 470–71, 474–78
presidential campaigns of, 1–2, 399–401, 452–53, 456–59, 461, 596n
Alliance of Anti–Fascist Intellectuals for the Defense of Culture, 251–53, 261, 271, 274, 276
Altolaguirre, Manuel, 240, 259, 300, 305
Alviso, Amelia, 48, 56, 97, 123, 148
Amado, Jorge, 326, 395, 416
American Continental Peace Congress, 361–68
amores de Neruda, Los (The Loves of Neruda) (Cardone), 163
Anahuacalli, 370–71
Ancud, 130–32
Antofagasta, 320, 322, 324, 330, 346, 366
Antúnez, Nemesio, 383–85
Aragon, Louis, 227, 245–46, 252, 267, 358, 375n
Araucana, La (de Ercilla), 519–20
Araya, Manuel, 492, 600n
Arce, Homero, 109, 175, 401, 432, 480
Arenal, Angélica, 291, 295
Arévalo, Hugo, 479, 503
Argentina, 21, 117, 148–49, 158, 162–63, 188, 199–200, 225–26, 250, 317–18, 333, 342, 366, 368, 371–72, 476, 488
and Neruda’s flight from Chile, 338–39, 346, 348, 351, 354–55
Neruda’s life in, 202–7, 209
Arrué, Laura, 107–9, 113, 122–23, 131, 132n, 136–37, 140, 147, 174–75, 446
Asturias, Miguel Ángel, 295–96, 355, 435–36, 439n
Auden, W. H., 259, 269
aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, Die (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) (Rilke), 79
Ávila Camacho, Manuel, 294, 298
Aymaran music, 518
Azaña, Manuel, 249
Azócar, Adelina, 97
Azócar, Albertina Rosa, 95–109, 191
Neruda’s letters to, 101–6, 119, 121–23, 131, 137, 143, 148, 167, 174–76, 196–97, 220
Neruda’s marriage and, 196–97
