The University of Chile opens to the public a collection of thousands of Neruda objects

Santiago. A shell given to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda by Mao Zedong, leader of the first generation of the central collective leadership of the Communist Party of China, during one of the author’s trips to the Asian country, stands out among the thousands of objects kept by the University of Chile from the 1971 Nobel Prize winner in Literature.

70 years ago, on June 20, 1954, the author of Twenty love poems and a desperate song He donated part of his personal assets to the University of Chile, so that the university could safeguard them and make them available to the public and researchers.

This Chilean and international cultural heritage is kept in the Sala Neruda, which the poet himself designed, located in the main building of the University of Chile, in the historic center of the city and steps away from the presidential palace of the southern nation.

The poet gives a gift, donates it to the university, asks it to keep it and, on the other hand, to open it to the public, to study these books that had great value for him and, therefore, are of great value to the rest of the citizens.explained the Vice-Rector for Outreach and Communications at the University of Chile, Pilar Barba.

The collection totals 5,107 books, 8,400 shells, 155 records and 263 magazines from his personal collection and was declared a National Historic Monument in 2009.

An important commitment to the study, appreciation and dissemination of Neruda’s words, his intellectual legacy and also his intellectual, poetic and literary referencesBarba added.

Among the objects kept, the pagoda-shaped shell stands out. Thatcheria mirabilis angas, that Mao Zedong gave him on one of the three trips the Chilean made to the Asian nation.

The book also highlights Triumphs and songsfrom 1484, the oldest in the collection, manufactured at the dawn of printing, written in old Italian, in Gothic script and iron gall ink, by the Italian author Petrarch, poet and philosopher considered one of the fathers of humanism.

Knowing this library, seeing these books, many of which are first editions, many of which are dedicated by their authors, one can establish the network of relationships that are behind Neruda’s poetry.Barba added.

Neruda studied French pedagogy at the University of Chile, so his collection included hundreds of texts in this language, such as the first edition of Sea workers, by Victor Hugo, 1866, with notes by the same French author.

It is important that, through the objects, the shells, the visits to their homes, one somehow immerses oneself in an imaginary that allows one to see what are those images, those memories, those flavors that make a person think about the world and describe it in a certain way.Barba pointed out.

The academic stressed that That makes it universal, those objects are universal; I think that his library also shows us that there are very diverse things in Neruda’s own culture..

The poet, a universe

This week, the University of Chile organized guided tours so that, as the poet requested 70 years ago, the public can access his heritage in its own room, part of the Andrés Bello Central Archive of the University of Chile.

There is no doubt that his collections and donations reflect his role as a collector, a social and political actor, and also his relationships in cultural terms. That is why everything that these books and the different species that he donated contain is important; they are an important part of national history.said specialist and mediator Daniela Leto, who officiated the visit.

One of the participants in this activity, journalist Osvaldo Aravena, said that Neruda’s work is more than just Chilean, it is universal. “One never stops knowing and recognizing it.

What Neruda was, was a universe in itself, beyond his poetry, which in itself was already very outstanding. Neruda was someone who looked at the details of things, of objects, of the particularities of the universe, of the world in a very special way and that made him pay attention to these safeguards.he stressed.