The home of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet, is famous for its quirky art and eclectic layout. Neruda called his home in Santiago La Chascona, after his nickname for his lover Matilde Urrutia. Chascona means “tangled one,” a name he gave her because of her curly red hair.
The home is very near where we used to live in Santiago, and when we lived there in 2011, we visited the house several times. In our recent return to Santiago, we made a point of seeing it once more. A little had changed in 15 years. Some of the whimsical decoration was missing (the hanging eyes) and the stunning mural of Neruda on the street just outside the home had been torn down in favor of a mundane retail center.
These days, photography is prohibited inside the house, although it's allowed in the various courtyards. So I had to go back through my files to find some shots I made on those visits 15 years ago. (OK, I admit I snuck a couple shots this time around.)
The bar, in a separate part of the house, is my favorite of the rooms. I wish I'd been around to attend one of the storied parties Neruda and Matilde threw there. You used to be able to actually enter the room. Now you can only look in through the picture window.
The portrait of Neruda hangs around the corner from the one of Matilde in the living room. It's at the bottom of a stairway that's now blocked from entry, so you can't see it these days. Maybe it's no longer there?
I really liked this table, and took a shot this time around from the hip, if that's not obvious.
This mosaic facade of a fountain is in slighly worse shape that it was 15 years ago. I'm guessing the tremors common in Santiago have had some effect. Also, the fountain itself was damaged when the house was allowed to be ransacked after Neruda's death by the fascist forces of Augusto Pinochet.
Neruda had been a member of the leftist party, and a critic of the Chilean military. Indeed, he'd spent many years in exile from Chile before returning during the restoration of democracy and the election of the socialist Salvador Allende. Allende was overthrown in a coup by Agosto Pinochet in 1973, and Neruda died only 12 days later. Although his family said his death was due to cancer, many think he was murdered by Pinochet.
If these images spur any interest in his poetry, I suggest starting with his first published work, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which he wrote when only 19 years old. Extraordinary.
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