Pablo Neruda Born: Chile's Voice of Love and Revolution
He was 19 when he wrote Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Pablo Neruda was born in Parral, Chile in 1904, the son of a railway worker who died before the poems came out. The book sold millions. He became a Chilean senator, a communist, and an exile when Pinochet's coup came in September 1973. He died twelve days after the coup, officially of heart failure. His housekeeper said he'd been injected in the stomach at a clinic. Investigations continued for decades. He'd been nominated for the Nobel six times before he finally won it in 1971.
July 12, 1904
122 years ago
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