On July 12th, 1904, Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto was born in Parral. He was the son of a rail worker and a school teacher, who died two months after his birth.
His father, being a widower, moved to Temuco, where he got married with Trinidad Candia Marverde, and she was called «mamadre» by the child. From 1910 until 1920, he did his studies at the Liceo de Hombres in that city.
Neftali Reyes started to write poetry since he was very young in many newspapers and magazines. In 1920, he took his pen name Pablo Neruda (because of the Czech poet Jan Neruda). He received his first literary awards in the years 1919 and 1920 in Maule and Temuco, accordingly.
In 1921, he moved to Santiago to study pedagogy in French in the Instituto Pedagogico de la Universidad de Chile (Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile); however, he left the institution shortly thereafter.
In 1923, he published his first book, Crepusculario, which was followed by the work that reached international fame, Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada.
During 1927, he started his consulate career, which made him live in Burma, Ceylon, Jakarta, Java and Singapore. In 1930, he got married with the Dutch woman Maria Antonieta Hagenaeer, but they got divorced later.
He continued with his diplomatic work in Spain (between 1934 and 1938), where he surrounded himself with important artists and intellectuals of that time.
In 1935, he was in charge on the magazine Caballo Verde, where he became a co-worker of practically all of the Spanish poets of the Literary Generation of 1927. That same year he published Residencia en la tierra.
Neruda joined the republican cause when the Spanish civil war started and wrote the work España en el corazon.
He returned to Chile and in 1938 he was named as the Spanish immigration consul with its head office in Paris. In that position, he achieved to embark a significant group of refugees in the French freighter Winnipeg who arrived to Valparaiso. At that same time, he met Delia del Carril, to whom he got married in 1943.
Once he was settled in Chile, he kept on writing one of his biggest works, Canto General (which he published in 1950).
He left the country one more time in order to move to Mexico, where he was named as the general consul.
In may of 1945, he obtained the National Prize of Literature. In that period, he also started his political career, being chosen as a senator. He wrote Alturas de Machu Picchu.
In 1946, he was designated as the national chief of propaganda for the presidential candidate Gabriel Gonzalez Videla. In addition, he met Matilde Urrutia, who later became his new wife.
From his position as a senator, he pronounced a polemic speech against the government of Gonzalez Videla, which caused him to loose his position, and later, caused his persecution, thus forcing him to remain as a clandestine in Chile.
In 1947, he published his book Tercera Residencia and two years later, he crossed the mountains and took refuge in Argentina, later he went to Mexico and then to Europe. While he was exiled, he became in an active promoter of the peace. In fact, he was recognized with the Lenin Prize of Peace for his poem Que despierte el leñador.
At that time, he visited many countries such as France, U.S.S.R, Hungary, Poland and Italy.
In 1952, he returned to Chile, and was received with great tributes. That same year, he published Los versos del capitan. Later, in 1954, he edited Las uvas y el viento and Odas elementales.
He got divorce with Delia del Carril and went to live with Matilde Urrutia.
Later, he was named as a doctor honoris cause of many universities, such as Yale, of Chile, Oxford. Meanwhile, he continued to publish works such as Cien Sonetos de Amor (1959), Cancion de Gesta (1960) and Plenos Poderes (1964). In 1967, he published Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta, the only play written by Neruda.
In 1970, he quit the presidential candidature in favor of his friend Salvador Allende, who named him soon after as the ambassador in Paris.
His international work and prestige was recognized in 1971, year in which he received the Nobel Prize of Literature.
Two years later, being seriously ill, he returned to Chile, where he died on September 23rd of 1973. His posthumous publishing is the autobiography Confieso que he vivido.
