|
The
Sound of Thunder Visits Neruda’s Land
by
José Ignacio Silva A. / From
poetry.about.com
The
word “Rattapallax” is now resounding in Chile. This
American magazine was officially inaugurated in Latin
America during the celebrations of Pablo Neruda’s 100th
birthday. Rattapallax’s founder, Ram Devineni, led the
delegation of American poets, which included Martín
Espada, Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa and Nathalie
Handal, to the Centenary of Neruda.
Talking
with Casagrande |
Rattapallax
already had a presence in Brazil, and Chile was the
natural next step to reach Latin America. “Chile is
the gateway to Latin American literature,” commented
Ram Devineni. “The country has two important Nobel Laureates
(Neruda and Gabriela Mistral) and poets are revered
here.” The magazine was launched at the Universidad
Diego Portales on July 9, 2004 with readings by several
emerging Chilean poets published in Issue 11, Martín
Espada, Yusef Komunyakaa and the great Chilean poet
Raúl Zurita, who was tortured by General Augusto Pinochet
during his dictatorship. The reading was hosted by Rodrigo
Rojas and the magazine’s South American partner, LOM,
a publishing house that has already put the magazine
in virtually every major bookstore in Santiago.
Nicaraguan
poet Ernesto Cardenal |
The
visit of Martín Espada to Chile had another purpose:
the shooting of the documentary,
Alabanza (Rattapallax Films). The main subject
is the parallel tragic date of September 11 and its
effect on both countries. Everyone knows what occurred
on that date in 2001 with the attack on the World Trade
Centers, but not everyone remembers that on that date
in 1973, Augusto Pinochet bombed the Presidential Palace,
where the democratically elected President Salvador
Allende was holding out during the coup in which Pinochet
took control of Chile. The bombing ushered in Pinochet’s
20-year dictatorship and the brutal repression of dissidents
and ordinary people.
|
Joan
Jara with Yusef Komunyakaa & Martín
Espada |
The
film crew interviewed Joan Jara, widow of the famed
folk singer Victor Jara, who was tortured and killed
in a boxing stadium a few days after the coup. Last
year, the government of Chile renamed the stadium after
Victor Jara. Throughout the trip, there was a lot of
discussion about Neruda and his funeral, which occurred
a few weeks after the coup and was the first public
outpouring of resistance. Neruda’s wife, Matilde, attributes
his death directly to the bombing; she felt it broke
his heart and his spirit to live. She wrote, “When we
arrived at the cemetery, people came from everywhere,
all workers with hard, serious faces. Half of them kept
shouting, ‘Pablo Neruda,’ and the other half replied,
‘Present.’ The crowd entered the cemetery singing the
Internationale in spite of the repression.”
The
poets’ visit to Neruda’s home in Isla Negra was something
very significant for Espada, who teaches a class on
Neruda at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Espada said, “For years, I have thought about Neruda
without visiting Chile and its people. Now I understand
Neruda better; I’ve seen the sea in Isla Negra.” Neruda’s
house and the surrounding beach were full of thousands
of people paying homage to him. Many of the attendees
were Communist and families of the “missing.” Everyone
had memorized a few lines of his work and openly recited
them for the film.
Antonio Skármeta & Martín
Espada on the
Poetry Train to Parral -- birthplace of Neruda |
The
Neruda centennial celebrations closed on his birthday
(July 12), with a train ride carrying honored guests
to Pablo Neruda’s birthplace in the town of Parral.
Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, Chilean writer Antonio
Skarmeta, and the Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, among
others, joined the delegates on the poetry train. Later
in the evening, there was a massive performance in the
Mapocho Station, a colorful mixture of theatre, poetry,
circus and music that gathered together hundreds of
people in a fitting culmination to the series of events
celebrating Neruda’s life and work.
|
