Although I lived and spent the majority of my time in Santiago de Chile, I did travel throughout the country, and one of my favorite trips was to Valparaíso, a port city about an hour west of the capital. The oldest European city in Chile, Valparaíso is now a World Heritage Site and still holds part of the national government. It is a small and dirty city built on a steep hill, filled with a colorful mosaic of houses all smashed together.
Because there are so many steeps hills (los cerros) that make travelling in the city difficult, Valparaíso developed a system of elevators (los ascensores), which are basically cable cars that take you up or down the hills for anywhere between $.50 and $1.00 (US). In 1996, the World Monuments Fund declared los ascensores one of the world most endangered historical treasures. Currently, only three of more than 20 ascensores are functioning.
Valparaíso is known for its artistic character, from the colors evident in the houses to the abundant street art. One of the most famous artists to live in the city was Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), a famous Chilean poet and diplomat who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971. He has three houses in Chile, the largest of which is located in Valparaíso and is called La Sebastiana. It is a five-story house at the very top of the hills reachable with los ascensores, with a beautiful view overlooking the entire city and the Pacific Ocean.
Touring the house, I learned much about Neruda and the type of poet and person he was. He had very strict daily rituals, some of which included writing every morning for three hours before having lunch and washing his hands before and after each time he would go to write. In addition to being a poet, he could have also been an interior designer, as he had eccentric and intricate taste. Among the many items he collected and displayed in his house, some of the most interesting were carousel horses, insects, and figureheads of women (that had originally been tied to the front of ships).
Neruda’s artistic talent clearly extended beyond his poetry, but his passion and what he spent the majority of his time on was definitely his writing. He wrote over 700 poems published in many volumes over the years. He generally wrote in free verse, allowing the poem’s subject and content to dictate the form. My friends and I sat on the balcony of Neruda’s house and read his Oda a Valparaíso (Ode to Valparaíso) aloud, which so accurately describes the beautiful city we saw before us:
“Valparaíso, what nonsense
you are,
what a crazy,
insane port,
your mounded head,
disheveled,
you never finish combing your hair, you never had time to get dressed,
life has always surprised you…”
“Valparaíso,
qué disparate
eres,
qué loco,
puerto loco,
qué cabeza
con cerros,
desgreñada,
no acabas
de peinarte,
nunca
tuviste
tiempo de vestirte,
siempre
te sorprendió
la vida…”
