Neruda, Pablo

The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was born as Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basualto in the town of Parral some four hundred kilometres from Santiago. The Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez has called him "the greatest of all the 20th century poets regardless of language". Neruda's father, who worked on the railways, had several children with different women. Neruda's mother, who died only a few months after she gave birth to Neruda, was a teacher.