"Es tan corto al amor, y es tan largo el olvido"
"love is so short, forgetting is so long"

"Mi amor se nutre de tu amor, amada."
"my love feeds on your love, beloved."

excerpt from editorial by carolyn curiel in the Ny times:

<Neruda's timeless musings on lost love and the truths of the human heart — "Es tan corto al amor, y es tan largo el olvido" (Love is so short, forgetting is so long) — might alone prompt worldwide remembrance. But there is as much politics as prose driving this party. Chile's government wants to heal some old wounds. Many Chileans believe Neruda's death was hastened by the shock of the bloody coup that overthrew his friend, President Salvador Allende, a Socialist, and installed Augusto Pinochet as dictator on Sept. 11, 1973. Days before he died, Neruda lay bedridden as soldiers ransacked his home. "The only weapons here," he is said to have told them, "are words.">

that is the saddest damn thing ever! henry kissiger, and the CIA had a hand in killing pablo neruda by helping overthrow the DEMOCRATICALLY elected president, allende, and replacing him with pinochet.

that was on september 11th, 1973. when the democratically elected president of chile, who was trying to help his people and economy was overthrown with help from the CIA. and in his place, pinochet a horrible military dictator took over. why is it that we, as americans, dismiss this, and pay very little attention to things like this?

things we as a country over stepped our boundaries, and went into another country without warrant. we killed people, and for what? our fear of communism? was communism a real threat to us? no. most definitely not. so why not let the president of chile be, hes who the people wanted, and let him continue on his merry way.

you know *why* we did this? because in the 70's we were still all freaky about communism and allende was a marxist, and had founded the chilean socialist party before presidency.

"When he was elected as president in 1970 he became the first Marxist to gain power in a free democratic election. The new government faced serious economic problems. Inflation was running at 30 per cent and over 20 per cent of the male adult population were unemployed. It was estimated that half of the children under 15 suffered from malnutrition."

after that he decided to re-distribute the land, increased wages, and dis-allowed companies from increasing prices... for anything!

yeah. the american govt. really needed to step in right there. a struggling economy, and a man just trying to genuinely help his people. if anything we should have offered our assistance, since he was DEMOCRATICALLY elected, not killed him.

and you want to know what was put in his place? horrible military dictator.

"Pinochet immediately closed down the Chilean Parliament, suspended the constitution, banned all political and trade union activity and imposed strict controls over the media. Pinochet, who had appointed himself president, ordered a purge of the left in Chile. Over the next few years more than 3,000 supporters of the Allende regime were killed." "Pinochet was also responsible for thousands of people being tortured and large numbers were forced into exile."

goddamn. and neruda is a beautiful writer. like. i adore it with a passion. he wrote sonnet 17, as im sure i mentioned a thousand times prior to this.

so anyway. that is just a bit about pablo neruda. he was a socialist chilean who was a beautiful writer.

sarah