Pablo Neruda: A poet's crucial literary journey through Spain

Within the variety of themes revealed in the writing of Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973), Spain is perceived as a crucial experience in the Chilean poet's personal and literary journey. Neruda's Spain of the 1930s was viewed both with his happy and stimulating stay in Madrid during the years of the Republic and with the devastation of the civil war. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1971, the poet and diplomat arrived in Madrid in June 1934 on route to Barcelona, where he had been assigned a diplomatic post at the Chilean embassy. After a short period in Barcelona, Neruda was transferred to the embassy of Madrid. His years of residence in the Spanish capital were marked by friendships facilitated by Spanish poets like Rafael Alberti and Federico García Lorca, both members of the avant-garde movement known as the 'generation of '27', to whom he felt connected by personal and artistic affinities.

Years later, the poet would recall these experiences, declaring that "among the happiest years of my life are those I spent in Spain".

Neruda's home, known as the 'house of flowers', became a regular meeting place for friends and fellow artistes, including Lorca, who claimed Neruda was one of the "greatest Latin American poets of his day". The two poets forged a strong bond and a friendship that would last until Lorca's death in 1936.

Neruda was outraged at Lorca's senseless death, protesting that. "We will never be able to forget this crime, nor forgive it; we will never put it out of our minds and never will we excuse it, never".

Neruda's love of Spain and his staunch support of the Spanish Republic has been honoured with numerous streets, including those in Granada, Malaga, Seville, and Madrid, where there is also a commemorative plaque on his home where he lived in Calle de Hilarión Eslava.