Transcript Heights of Macchu Picchu

WHAT IS
COMMUNISM?
Pablo Neruda
Interaction Oral #2
Jeffrey Cheng, Eric Ke, Eric Zeng, Imran McGrath, Adithya
Mukund, Josh Chu
Brainstorming
Discuss with your table group to see what you already know about 20th
Century Chile, and write down your ideas.
Brainstorm ideas about the evolution of Chile’s political scene, social classes,
and literary scene.
Hint: Write all this down so you have a “pre-enlightenment mindset” to show
progress in your Reflective Statement
CHILE
General Overview of Chilean History
PARLIAMENTARY ERA (1891-1925):
●
Begins in 1891, at the end of the Chilean Civil War
●
Fun Fact: the war was fought between the Chilean Army and the Navy. The
President lost despite the Army’s Support.
●
With the New Era, A “pseudo parliamentary” system was implemented.
○
The Executive Branch’s power was limited; no checks and balances for
Congress
●
During this period, Chile’s economy was dependent on saltpeter.
●
Rise in GDP allowed the government to build infrastructure.
General Overview of Chilean History
PARLIAMENTARY ERA (1891-1925):
As a result, three main social classes emerged
Upper Class: Landlords, Political Figures, Clergy Members
Middle Class: Bankers, Saltpeter Owners, Intellectuals
Working Class: Industrial workers and landless peasants.
Vast majority fell into the working class
Elections were often fraudulent; no universal direct suffrage.
Lack of representation for the working class
Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems
Rise of Socialism
Congress was dominated by landed elites.
Cabinets came and went frequently; Governors were often useless and
used laissez-faire policies.
“There are only two kinds of problems: those that solve themselves and
those that can’t be solved”-President Ramon Barros Luco
World War I: Saltpeter fell out of world market
Congress collapsed with the fall of saltpeter
Massive economic upheaval: Spiraling inflation
Massive urbanization
General Overview of Chilean History Cont.
Presidential Republic (1925-1973):
Desarrollo Hacia Adentro
The emerging middle class managed to elect a reformist president: Arturo
Arturo Alessandri (Radical, but not Socialist yet…).
Palma focused on pushing new social legislation that empowered the
working class
The military attempted a coup
Empowered Ibanez-The man enjoyed being compared to Mussolini.
Took massive loans from American banks…
General Overview of Chilean History Cont.
Presidential Republic (1925-1973)
Socialist candidate Gabriel Gonzalez takes power
The Socialist Party had split from the Democratic Alliance
Improved economic stability and labor conditions
BUT: His tough stance on social demonstrations: Martial law
Outlawed the Communist Party; Communists like Neruda went into exile
Economic instability
1965: Christian Democrats seize power
Reforms in education, labor and land.
Table Groups…
Please select the tablemate who you feel is
the most “comradey” and select them to be
exiled from your group.
The Exiled, please raise your hands, and
head toward the front of the classroom
Discussion Time Lads (Possible RS Topics…?)
Based on what you just learned about Chile’s Parliamentary Era:
Compare and contrast the different time periods and hypothesize
how Neruda’s writing reflects the political changes through the time periods
How would this affect Neruda’s writing style? What kinds of themes and motifs
would you expect him to write about in each period?
Discuss the important differences between the time periods
Pinochet’s Coup D’etat
In the late 1960s, early 1970s, Salvador Allende ran for president in Chile.
He was promoting socialism as a “concrete and effective project of national and
social liberation, and structural transformation of Chile” (Valdez)
At the time, the United States was fighting against the spread of socialism.
CIA paid $6.8-8 million to right-wing opposition groups to “create pressures,
exploit weaknesses, magnify obstacles and hasten Allende’s ouster” (Valdez).
People who revolted were landowners and businessmen.
Pinochet’s Coup D’etat
The military abandoned the government and established a group to repress
Allende’s effort. Augusto Pinochet, the army’s chief, eventually rose to power
within a year.
After Pinochet took power, all the political activities were in “recess”
He tortured and killed suspected leftists
He cared about political stability more than human lives.
Uses repressive tactics to achieve his goals.
Impact on Neruda’s writing style
During Allende’s regime, Neruda wrote for the people and complimented
the system of socialism.
After Pinochet took power, Neruda was already hospitalized for prostate
cancer. He spent his last year writing his memoir I Confess I Have Lived and
his poem "Right Comrade, It's the Hour of the Garden"
The poem included his hopelessness as it talks about the end of Allende’s
regime.
Modern 20th Century Imperialism
‘Murican Imperialism in Chile
Before 1970, important sectors of Chilean industry was completely
controlled by three U.S. Companies.
Allende (Socialist) nationalized U.S interests in Chile’s copper mines, land
holdings, and banking sectors
Economic Depression begun in 1967
Runaway inflation, 10%
Richard Nixon ordered an economic blockade combined with CIA
operations to “make the economy scream” in Chile
“That son of a b****!”
CIA forces worked with Pinochet; the U.S. provided material to Pinochet and
Relationship with United States - Economic
imperialism
Focus on critique of capitalistic practices that come at the toll of Latin
American workers
United Fruit Company: solely at benefit of Americans because it dominated Guatemala’s
economy, and the bulk majority of the profit went to United States. The indigenous
people were merely outsourced.
In the poem: treat UFC as a source of dictators (we’ll talk more later….)
Felt that US’s capitalist ways did not reach out to the common man
“The United States, with an overwhelmingly literate population, and Europe, with an ancient
tradition, can’t be compared to our multitudes in Latin America without books or means
of expressing themselves. But to pass time throwing stones at one another, to spend
one’s life hoping to surpass this or that continent seems a provincial sentiment to me.” -
Relationship with United States
He hated the United States primarily due to economic imperialism
NERUDA WAS A COMMUNIST!
U.S. anti-Communist paranoia motivated Chilean government to persecute
Communists like Neruda → his exile
Blocked from entering United States due to Communist Views
Neruda supported Salvador Allende, whom the United States did NOT like
(he was also a communist, you should see the pattern now…)
U.S. denied Neruda a visa for a while…
Practice Time Lads
Take two minutes to reflect on what you have
learned for your Reflective Statement based
on the historical information you have
received.
A before and after chart could be helpful for
your Reflective Statement.
Neruda’s Poetry
Relationship with Chile
- Deeply patriotic
- Loved the landscape of Chile so much that he
had three houses located in Santiago,
Valparaiso, and Isla Negra
- Strongly supported Allende and the communist
rule in Chile
Chilean Setting
Neruda uses lots of different settings to convey certain moods to the
readers
Many times, Neruda is very ambiguous and unclear about the setting of the
poem and requires the reader to infer with background context
Some settings that appear:
Macchu Picchu
His personal houses
Pacific Ocean
Madrid
Neruda’s Houses
I Explain Some Things:
“ My house was called the house of
flowers, because everywhere
geraniums were exploding”
“Do you remember my house with
balconies on which the light of June
drowned flowers in your mouth?”
Chascona
LaLa
Sebastiana
Isla Negra
Cordillera Mtn. Range
Heights of Macchu Picchu:
“A thousand years of air,
months, weeks of air, of blue
wind, of iron cordillera, that
were like soft hurricanes of
footsteps polishing the lonely
boundary of the stone”
Pacific Ocean
Twenty Love Poems
“Leaning into the evenings I throw
my sad nets to your ocean eyes”
“I cast red signals over your absent
eyes which lap like the sea at the
lighthouse shore”
Madrid
I Explain Some Things
“I lived in a neighborhood
of Madrid, with church bells,
with clocks, with trees.”
Madrid Bombing
I Explain Some Things
“And one morning everything was
burning and one morning the fires
were shooting out of the earth
devouring beings... Bandits with
airplanes and with the Moors…kept
coming from the sky to kill children
and through the streets the blood of
the children.”
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Co
“The Fruit Company Inc. reserved
the juiciest for itself, the central
coast of my land, the sweet waist of
America.”
Macchu Picchu
Heights of Macchu Picchu: VI
“And then on the ladder of the earth
I climbed through the atrocious
thicket of the lost jungles up to you,
Macchu Picchu. High city of scaled
stones, at last…”
Neruda and Whitman
- Huge pictures of Whitman in each of his houses
- Embraces Whitman’s technique of embracing the WHOLE
world.
- Felt a sense of debt to Whitman for opening the door for
American Poetry
- “Ode to Walt Whitman”
Where do we see echoes of Walt Whitman’s style in this poem?
Changes in Neruda’s style
Early work (1920s): Abstract, Romantic-style
ex. Twenty Love Poems: “Leaning into the Evenings”
Middle work: Alienation, Despair, Existentialist
ex. Residence on Earth: “Ars Poetica”
After the influence of Communism:
Emotions/Feelings -----> societal change/advocacy
ex. “I explain some things”, “The Heights of Macchu Picchu”, “The United Fruit Co.”
Late Life, 1953-1973:
Shift from highly politicized to focus on common, ordinary objects in close detail.
Discuss & Reflect:
- Where do we see possible political allusions in
“Comrade”?
- Knowing Neruda’s background and Chile’s, as well as
Neruda’s impetus for writing poetry (Ars Poetica), what
is the purpose of this poem?
- What differences in style do we see between the two
poems in front of you?
Topics for your Reflective Statement
Impact of the constantly changing political scene in Chile
Plight of the working class/Rise of Socialism
Allende’s attempt to nationalize the economic sectors
Rise of Pinochet and American Imperialism in the 1980s
Changes in Neruda’s writing style/Different themes and motifs
Rise as a political commentator
Rise as an advocator for socialism
Works Cited
Works Cited
Bucheli, Marcelo, and Ian Read. "Chronology." United Fruit Historical Society. United Fruit Historical Society, 2001. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
Chasteen, John Charles, and James A. Wood. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations: Completely Revised and Updated. Wilmington, DE: SR,
2004. Print.
Feinstein, Adam. Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life. New York: Bloomsbury, 2004. Print.
Gilmour, Matthew. "The Pinochet Regime and Chilean Politics." E-International Relations. E-International Relations, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Gray, Jeffrey. "'United Fruit Co.,' Canto General, and Neruda's Critique of Capitalism." Exploration and Colonization. Ed. Harold Bloom and Blake Hobby. New York: Bloom's
Literary Criticism, 2010. 201-03. Print.
Lamrani, Salim. "50 Truths About Gabriel García Márquez." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Neruda, Pablo. "Pablo Neruda, The Art of Poetry No. 14." Interview by Rita Guibert. The Paris Review. The Paris Review, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4091/the-art-of-poetry-no-14-pablo-neruda>.
Rumeau, Delphine. "Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda, American Camerados." Revue Française D'études Américaines No. 108.Celebrating Walt Whitman: "Leaves of Grass," 18552005 (2006): 47-62. JSTOR. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.
Valdez, Maria G. "Chile Remembers 9/11: Why This Date Is Important To The South American Country’s History." Latin Times. IBT Media, 9 Sept. 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Interactive Ideas
Neruda: Chile:: Skyline Students:: Sammamish