Pablo Neruda, (1904-1973), whose real name is Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto,
was born on 12 July, 1904, in the town of Parral in Chile. His father was a railway
employee and his mother, who died shortly after his birth, a teacher. Some years later
his father, who had then moved to the town of Temuco, remarried doña Trinidad Candia Malverde.
The poet spent his childhood and youth in Temuco, where he also got to know
Gabriela
Mistral, head of the girls' secondary school, who took a liking to him. At
the early age of thirteen he began to contribute some articles to the daily
"La Mañana", among them, Entusiasmo y Perseverancia - his
first publication - and his first poem.
