Pablo Neruda, a nobel-prize winning Chilean poet and politician died on September 23, 1973, from complications of prostrate cancer. Though some would question the circumstances surrounding his death, there was no doubt regarding his close association with Salvador Allende, the former socialist president of Chile whose government was overthrown by a military coup. A known communist and support of Allende, Neruda became not only a symbol of national pride but of resistance to the Pinochet military-dictatorship following his death.
Neruda and his work had a profound effect on Isabel Allende, particularly in her novel The House of the Spirits, where Neruda is represented by a character simply referred to as “the poet”. This is not the only depiction of Neruda as a character within Latin American literature, as Gabriel Garcia Marquez would go on to include Neruda as a protagonist in his 1992 short story “I sell my dreams”. As a forerunner to the explosion of Latin American literature that would occur in the late 20th century, a political player involved in the events of the military coup, and a symbol of Chilean identity, Neruda has an undeniable significance to the thematic concerns of The House of the Spirits and its surrounding contexts.
Long, Gideon. “Pablo Neruda: Chilean Poet’s Death Still Shrouded in Mystery.” BBC News, BBC, 23 Sept. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66853120.
Maurya, Vibha. “Power of Poetry and Pablo Neruda.” Indian Literature, vol. 47, no. 5 (217), 2003, pp. 180–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23341498.