| 1934 |
May
5th: he leaves to Spain accompanied by his pregnant
wife.
By the end of May, he assumes the position of Chilean consul
in Barcelona.
June 1st: he travels to Madrid with his wife
and reencounters Federico García Lorca and some other
friends. He’s engaged in a deep friendship with several
poets of the 1927 generation, especially with Rafael Alberti
y Miguel Hernández.
He travels frequently from Barcelona to Madrid.
August 18th: his daughter Malva Marina Trinidad
is born in Madrid, after long complications during delivery.
The girl suffers hydrocephalus.
He meets Delia Del Carril , who will later become his second
wife.
By the first days of December, he establishes his residence
in Madrid.
December 6th: he’s introduced by Federico
García Lorca at Madrid University, where he offers a
recital and a lecture.
December 19th: he’s appointed as consul
attached to the Chilean embassy in Madrid, a position parallel
to his consular functions in Barcelona.
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| 1935 |
April:
a pamphlet titled “Homenaje a Pablo Neruda”
is published in Madrid. It includes his three “Cantos
materiales”. This private edition is accompanied by salutations
to Neruda by the main Spanish poets of that time.
Between June 21st and 25th, the First International Congress
of Writers in Defence of Culture is held in Paris. Neruda is
appointed as delegate to the event.
June: Cruz y Raya magazine publishes “Los
versos de Villamediana”.
September / October: first complete version
of Residencia en la Tierra (1925 – 1935): Two volumes
edition by Cruz y Raya, Madrid.
October: he founds and directs the literary
magazine “Caballo verde para la poesía”
|
| 1936 |
January:
the fourth and last edition on the “Caballo verde para
la poesía” magazine appears.
Julio: his wife María Hagenaar and his
daughter Malva Marina move to Barcelona.
Neruda starts living with Delia Del Carril .
July 11th: last encounter with Federico Garcìa
Lorca.
July 18th: Spanish Civil War explodes.
On August 16th his friend, poet and play writer Federico García
Lorca is killed. The killing of García Lorca, the heavy
bombing over Madrid and the heroic struggle of the spontaneous
popular army against Franco forces, prompt him to compose the
first poems of his work “España en el corazón”
which he will include in the book Tercera Residencia.
October 12th: in Cuenca, he takes part in a
commemorative ceremony where he reads his poem “Canto
a las madres de los milicianos muertos”, previously published
unsigned in El Mono Azul magazine.
November 8th: he leaves Madrid with Delia Del
Carril .
December: he breaks with María Antonieta
Hagenaar, who travels to Monte Carlo with her daughter.
Pointing the absence of conditions for the functioning of its
Madrid consulate, the Chilean government decides to close it.
Neruda becomes unemployed. He’s not assigned to any other
position. His open support to the republican cause had prompted
criticism and accusations against him from, among others, the
ambassador Núñez Morgado.
|
| 1937 |
January:
he travels to Paris, where he meets Delia Del Carril
.
He lobbies to get another consular position.
February: he gives a lecture on Federico García
Lorca in Paris.
From the French capital, he collaborates with the Spanish republican
cause and participates in the organization of the Antifascist
Writers World Congress held in Valencia.
February: together with Nancy Cunard he creates
and prints a magazine called Los poetas del mundo defienden
al pueblo español. In March, the second issue appears
in French.
April: with César Vallejo, he founds
the Hispanic American Group in Support of Spain. Besides, he
works at the Culture Defence Association and in preparations
for the Second Writers’ Congress, in which he will take
part as a member of the directive board (July 4th through 8th).
By the end of this month he is chosen as Latin American representative
to the Constituent Assembly of the Paz and Democracia organization’s
Council.
July 1st: he Publishes “Es Así”,
later to be titled “Explico algunas cosas”, in El
mono azul magazine. The 6th and last issue of Les poètes
du monde défendent le peuple espagnol also appears this
month.
María Antonieta Hagenaar and Malva Marina move to Holland.
August 28th: he embarks to Chile with Delia
Del Carril , Argentinean writer Raúl González
Muñón and his wife Amparo Mom.
October 10th: he arrives in Chile.
November 7th: he founds and leads the Intellectuals
Chilean Alliance for the Defence of Culture.
November 13th: Ercilla publishes España
en el Corazón in Chile.
|
| 1938 |
May
7th: his father, José del Carmen Reyes, dies
in Temuco.
He writes “Descubridores de Chile”, Canto general’s
first poem.
He organizes the Intellectuals Chilean Alliance, organization
which has as purpose to gather antifascist artist ands intellectuals
around big, social, political and cultural issues.
August: the Aurora de Chile magazine is released.
The publication’s purpose is to support Chilean presidential
candidate Pedro Aguirre Cerda and to coordinate the aid and
protection to Spanish republicans in Chile.
August 18th: his “mamadre”, Mrs.
Trinidad Candia Marverde, dies.
September: Pedro Aguirre Cerda is elected as
Chilean Prsident.
October: he travels around the world giving
lectures.
November 7th: España en el corazón.
Himno a las Glorias del Pueblo en Guerra is published in Spain.
The book is printed in a press at Monserrat Monastery, directed
by Manuel Altolaguirre, close to the battle field .
|
| 1939 |
|
January 6th through 12th: he takes part in
the National Commissions of Intellectual Cooperation First
American Conference.
He buys a piece of land with a small house in Isla Negra
End of March: he travels with Delia Del Carril
to Buenos Aires and Montevideo to collaborate with the aid
to Spanish refugees.
On behalf of the Chilean Intellectual Alliance, he takes part
in the International Democracies Congress in Montevideo.
April: Aguirre Cerda appoints Neruda as consul
in charge of Spanish immigration. His diplomatic title is
Second Class Particular Consul, located in Paris. His mission
is to bring to Chile a contingent of Spanish refugees, specially
technicians and qualified workers.
In mid april he travels to Europe and by the end of the month
he arrives in Paris.
May 12th: he publishes “Las furias
y las penas”, Nascimento, Santiago de Chile. This long
poem will later be included in the book Tercera residencia.
Between May and August, he organizes and directs the transportation
to Chile of approximately 2000 Spanish refugees on board of
the ship Winnipeg.
September 4th: The Winnipeg arrives in Valparaíso.
About this, he will write later: “… they were
fishermen, peasants, workers, intellectuals, a sample of force,
heroism and labour. In its fight, my poetry had been able
to find a home for them. And I was proud”.
Mid november: he visits Maruca Hagenaar and
his daughter Malva Marina in La Haya, Holland.
In early December, he travels with Delia Del Carril to Chile,
stopping in Peru, where he takes part in political demonstrations.
He arrives in our country by the end of the month.
|
| 1940 |
January: Great reception in Santiago. During
the month, he takes part in manifestations of solidarity towards
Spanish refugees.
Summer season in Isla Negra.
Poesía y Estilo de Pablo Neruda, by Amado Alonso, appears.
It is the first academic work that deeply studies Neruda’s
work when he’s only 36 years old.
June 19th: he’s appointed as Second Class
Particular Consul and Chile’s General Consul in Mexico.
July: Delia Del Carril and Pablo Neruda aboard
the Yasukuni Maru to Mexico after several acts honouring the
poet.
August 21st: arrival in Mexico City and possession
of the consular charge. The Aztec country amazes Neruda by means
of the richness and diversity of its geography, the pre-Columbian
legacy and cultural life of those days, strongly influenced
by the presence of reputed Spanish exiles.
October 6th: at composer Silvestre Revueltas’
funeral, he reads his poem “Murió Silvestre Revueltas”,
later known as “A Silvestre Revueltas, de México,
en su muerte (Oratorio menor)” and included to Canto general..
|
| 1941 |
February:
represented by Graciela Matte, he buys the house on avenue Lynch
that he and Delia have left before leaving to Mexico. After
their comeback and as a remembrance of their Mexican years,
they christen the house as “Michoacán”.
April: he concedes a Chilean visa to the great
Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.
May 26th: after giving Siqueiros a visa, and
so ignoring superior orders, he’s suspended from his charge
for one month without payment.
June: he travels by car to Guatemala in the
company of Delia Del Carril.
July: he returns to his consular functions.
In an act commemorating Simón Bolívar he reads
“Canto a Bolívar”, a poem he wrote in honour
of the liberator.
End of august: Neruda and Mexican writer Octavio
Paz break.
September: The Mexican Communist Party engages
in a series of manifestations in his honour.
September 28th: he’s attacked by a nazi
group in Cuernavaca. He is supported by hundreds of intellectuals
over America.
|
| 1942 |
January 5th: photographer Tina Modotti dies.
At her funeral, Neruda reeds his poem “Tina Modotti ha
muerto”, which will be part of the book Tercera residencia.
March / April: Cuadernos Americanos publishes
pieces of Canto General.
He travels to Cuba.
May 3rd: the Cuernavaca newspaper Periódico
Oficial prints the sentence of Neruda and his wife María
Antonieta Hagenaar’s divorce.
September 30th: public reading of his “Canto
a Stalingrado”, a poem received with criticism and objections,
situation that prompts him to write his “Nuevo canto de
amor a Stalingrado”.
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|
1943 |
January 5th: he travels to the US for health
reasons.
Private edition of 100 copies of Canto general de Chile, Fragmentos,
in Mexico City, signed by the author and dedicated to his
friends.
February: he travels to New York with Delia
Del Carril to attend the “Nights of the Americas”.
He gives several lectures.
March 2nd: in Holland, then occupied by Germans,
his daughter Malva Marina dies.
June 18th: he reads his poem “Dura
elegía” during the burial of Brazilian communist
leader Luis Carlos Prestes’ mother. In this poem he
addresses Dictator Getulio Vargas in terms considered offensive
by Brazil’s government.
June 22nd: once more, he publicly criticizes
the Brazilian government due to Carlos Prestes imprisonment.
Brazilian government starts pressing for Neruda’s removal
of his charge.
July 2nd: in a marriage later to be pronounced
illegal by Chilean justice, he makes his relationship with
Delia Del Carril official.
July 6th: he asks for and gets a six months
license to travel to Chile and begin his “retirement
from service”. About this, he writes “…
the Chancelor hurried to accept the voluntary end of my career.
My diplomatic suicide gave me the biggest happiness: to be
able to comeback to Chile”.
August: Mexico says good bye to him with
big homage events and San Nicolás de Hidalgo University
grants him the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa.
He begins his return to Chile with Delia Del Carril, stopping
by Panama and Colombia.
October 15th: he arrives in Lima, Peru. He
climbs to know Machu Picchu heights. This contact with that
ancestral American reality will flourish later in the magnificent
poem “Alturas de Machu Picchu”.
November 4th: he arrives in Santiago, where
he is greeted by a big delegation of politicians and intellectuals.
|
| 1944 |
April: he begins the extension works in the
Isla Negra house.
May 21st: he is given the Poetry Prize of
Santiago City Council
.
December: he is proclaimed candidate to the
Senate by the Chilean Communist Party.
First English bilingual edition of Residence on Earth, New
Directions publishers, New York.
|
| 1945 |
He is fully committed to an intense electoral campaign.
March 4th: he wins the senatorial election
in the provinces of Tarapacá y Antofagasta.
May 24th: he is awarded with Chile’s Literature
National Prize.
March 30th: he pronounces his first speech at the
senate. From then on he makes a point that he is not a writer
in politics, but a politician who will defend the workers’
rights and interests.
June 16th: the PEN Club, the Intellectuals
Alliance and the Writers Society of Chile pay homage to him
for winning the Literature National Prize.
July 8th: he becomes an official member of
the Chilean Communist Party.
In mid July he travels to Brazil, where he engages in different
activities such as the massive homage to Luis Carlos Prestes
in front of over a million people. He gives lectures in Sao
Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where he is received in the Language
Academy.
August: he offers recitals and gives lectures
in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
September: he returns to Chile and starts
writing “Alturas de Macchu Picchu”.
In early September he takes part in the opening of the Fifth
Communist Party Regional Congress in Coquimbo.
October / December: he takes part in the
preparation of the Chilean Communist Party 13th Congress.
|
| 1946 |
January 18th: he is decorated with the Aztec
Eagle Order by the Mexican Government.
He is actively involved in the political struggle with speeches
at the senate, articles and permanent presence in Gabriel
González Videla’s presidential campaign.
The Chilean Democratic Parties Union, electoral alliance to
which the Communist Party belongs, appoints him as national
propaganda chief in González Videla’s campaign.
December 28th: a legal ruling establishes
Pablo Neruda as his legal name.
|
| 1947 |
April:
Gabriel González Videla, who had reached the Republic’s
Presidency in November the year before, breaks his partnership
with the Communist Party.
August: the Chilean Writers Society publishes
some of his lectures.
August 15th: Tercera Residencia (1935-1945)
appears under Losada publishers, Buenos Aires, which becomes
his main publishing house.
October: Gabriel Gonzáles Videla’s
government starts repressing the Communist Party and its newspaper,
El Siglo.
Due to the persecution of the communist party by the government,
Neruda embarks on a violent campaign in which he accuses the
President of betraying his promises to the workers.
October 27th: newspaper El Nacional of Caracas
(Venezuela), prints his “Carta íntima para millones
de hombres”, in which he denounces the repressive, demagogue
and unpopular politics of González Videla.
End of December: President González
Videla begins legal actions against him.
|
| 1948 |
| January
6th: he speaks at the Republic Senate Session and
pronounces a long speech titled “I Accuse”, a
paraphrase of Zola’s defence of Dreyfuss.
January 12th: in a House of Representatives
extraordinary session, representative Carlos Rosales reads
his poem “Patria prisionera”, which the censored
newspaper El Siglo couldn’t publish.
January 21st: President of the Senate Arturo
Alessandri grants him permission to travel out of the country.
January 27th and February 2nd: failed intent
to exit towards Argentina.
January 3rd: the Supreme Court approves Neruda
impeachment as Senator. On February 5th, the Courts order
the poet’s apprehension to process him for offences
against the President.
Neruda chooses to live underground. Thanks to the solidarity
of several persons he starts living hidden, moving continuously
from home to home and avoiding the police persecution. He
seizes these difficult and random times to write most part
of Canto General.
Through this period, manifestations of solidarity towards
the poet take place internationally. Different countries hold
vigils in his honour. London Adam International Review devotes
a whole issue to him. At the World Intellectuals Congress
in Wroclaw, Poland, Pablo Picasso pronounces his only public
speech to comment on Neruda’s situation and express
his solidarity towards him.
End of September: the law of democracy defence,
also known as “Ley Maldita” is passed.
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