When Freedom Truly Reigns

A Critique on the works of The People’s Poet – Pablo Neruda

You are our captives. You are our colony. Your land is ours. Your people are ours.

Your country is ours.

Either you beg for your boon or you work hard for it. We cannot grant all your wishes

for you. You have to earn them.

But we are also here to help you become a better nation. We have brought religion to

save your souls. We have brought education to enlighten your minds. We have brought

government to systemize your nation. We have brought you the future.

We are now part of the same kingdom. You will now be identified as a part of us.

You are our allies. And we are here with you, through thick and thin.

These are the usual chants of colonizers. Whether they are truths or lies, it is

up to the colonized to decide. They assume that they have the power which is why

they perceive that their colonies are always inferior. They assume that they are more

advanced, more modern which is why they make it a responsibility to be the ones to

educate the natives. More than that, colonizers always incorporate their own way of

doing things to their colonies which almost always causes the colonies to become

confused with their identities because of the very strong and forceful influence of

the colonizers.
 With the effects of colonization, many people, especially those who have

experienced being colonized, turn to literature to express their feelings and their

experiences under the control of the colonizers. In their own way, they can freely

exhibit what they have undergone through the rule of a foreign colonizer. Literature

helps the colonized people to wake up and be aware of the instances wherein their

country had been controlled, used, abused, and changed.

From these pieces of literature, new persons become known and admired for

having the guts to speak up against the past colonizers, especially with their

infamous treatment of their colonies. These writers become artists in their own right

because of the upliftment of self-value that they bring especially to those who have

suffered under colonial rule.

Considered as the “people’s poet”, Pablo Neruda had contributed numerous

postcolonial writings because his country had experienced colonization as well.

According to http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/279, Pablo Neruda

“continued a career that integrated private and public concerns” which made him

very identifiable to the people through his literature. Also, as stated in

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/chilelit/p/ChiNeruda.htm, his writing’s

“central theme is the struggle for social justice”. For Neruda: “Poetry became a mode

of social action and communication, achieving his desire to 'write with your life and

my own.'” (http://www.politicalaffairs.net/pablo-neruda-a-people-s-poet/).

Neruda had always considered the people in writing his works. He included the
impact of colonization to his country and his countrymen. As stated in

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/pablo-neruda-a-people-s-poet/, Neruda wrote

regarding his role as a writer: “'I reserve, as an experienced mechanic, my

experimental office: I must be, from time to time, a poet of public use, that is to say, I

must give the brakeman, steward, foreman, farmer, gasfitter, or the simple

regimental fool the capability of cutting loose with a clean punch or shooting flames

out of his ears'”. Neruda had truly been the people’s favourite because of his

literature and his goal of giving regard to those who have been once colonized.

But apart from these, Neruda had critics also expressed how they found his

writings. Costa, one of Neruda’s critics, stated in

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/pablo-neruda-a-people-s-poet/, that Neruda is “the

flamboyant trickster, the verbal magician, whose performance eludes discursive

critique.” Another critic also expressed that: “although many readers in the United

States have found it difficult to disassociate Neruda's poetry from his fervent

commitment to communism. An added difficulty lies in the fact that Neruda's

poetry is very hard to translate; his works available in English represent only a small

portion of his total output.” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/pablo-neruda)

Neruda may have achieved a lot of awards and distinctions for his writings,

but in a way his critics have expressed that his works are hard to translate because of

his deep first language usage which may not be accurately translated to the English
language. But because of this, it shows that Neruda shows his appreciation and that

he is knowledgeable in using his native language.

The first poem that was assigned in our class is entitled “Homeland, They

Want to Parcel You Out” taken from Neruda’s Canto General. This poem mainly

expresses how colonizers can easily and effortlessly gain the lands of the natives.

They simply claim these lands to call their own without giving any care to the native

people who have tilled the land and worked hard to sustain their lands. Since the

colonizers always believe that they are the ones who hold the power, they see the

colonized as inferiors who do not deserve to be treated equally and with justice.

And the colonizers always bear in their mind that the people in their colonies are

their captives and that they do not have the right to freedom.

Neruda also expresses in this poem his want for free will so that the people of

the land can enjoy the land where they were born and dream for their future. And

because of the colonizers’ disturbance of the familiar way of life of the natives, the

natives then have to adjust to the colonizers’ wants for them to be spared their lives.

The second poem by Neruda from Canto General is entitled “There’s No

Forgiving”. This poem expresses the wants and needs of the colonized people. They

express the injustice that has been done to them especially with the use of the

resources of their country. The colonizers in turn do not give mush regard to the

needs of the natives since their greed and wants of the country’s resources should be

put first. And since the colonizers themselves have brought their own government
to the colony, the possibility of having a fair trial will be difficult to achieve

especially if the parties consist of the colonizer and the other, the colonized.

The next poem form Neruda’s Canto General entitled “They Steal Their Land”

is somehow related to the poem “Homeland” which concerns the natives’ land and

the land-grabbing power of the colonizers. The natives express their demise over the

“landrobber” who takes away not only their land, but even the “fruits” of their land.

In the second stanza, it is clearly depicted that the mention of the color “purple”

suggests that the royalties have a role in this land-grabbing activities. And that the

high-ranking colonizers have the power to just claim the lands that belong to the

colonized without showing concern to what may happen to the colonized.

The fourth poem from Canto General by Neruda is entitled “Hunger and

Rage”. This poem expresses the desire of the colonized to seek revenge for their

countrymen who had suffered and even died in the hands of the colonizers. The

natives have gone through a lot of negativity which has been instilled in their minds

and hearts that all the colonizers did was to cause them suffering and sorrow. And

with the colonizers’ power and influence, even some natives have turned their back

on their country and have opted to take the side of the colonizers especially because

people have the innate capacity to be greedy. And because of this, many natives

have been disheartened and have become hopeless that they might never regain

independence and freedom from the colonizers.

 The last poem by Neruda is entitled “The United Fruit Co.”. This poem states

a number of foreign companies that have had their share of strong influence to the

colonized country of Neruda. These companies have been fed to the minds of the

natives that they are dependable and since they are “imported”, they are of better

quality than that of local brands. Although these companies may use the natives’

manpower, they also leave a negative impression that these imported brands are

better and should be preferred than those that are locally grown. The impact of

colonial mentality greatly affects the colonized which is not only retained in one

generation but also passed down to countless generations. Even if the colonial rule

of the colonizers has already passed, their influences are the ones that die hard.

Which then leads us to see through the eyes of Pablo Neruda.

We will always carry the influences of our colonizers. We will always have

our biases even against our own people, traditions, and culture. The colonizers’

power doesn’t just end when their galleons and planes have fled. There will always

be remnants of how our country had been when we were under a colony.

So, when will freedom truly, genuinely reign?

Prepared by Marya J. Inocencio for ENGL 330 class SY 16-17