Human rights activists argue that the honour is inappropriate for a man who described raping a maid in his memoir

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Pablo Neruda was a Nobel laureate whose poetry chronicled the lives and struggles of ordinary Latin Americans, and whose life was upheld as a symbol of resistance to dictatorship.

But a decision to rename Chile’s busiest international airport after him has been met with outrage from human rights activists who argue that the honour is inappropriate for a man who admitted to rape in his own memoirs.

The cultural committee of Chile’s lower house voted this month to rename Santiago airport after Neruda, best known for his encyclopedic work Canto General, or General Song, a sweeping verse history of the Americas.

Carolina Marzán, a deputy who voted in favour of the move, told reporters that the name of the poet “who made all Chileans proud” should be the first thing visitors see when they arrive in the country.

Chile's #MeToo moment: students protest against sexual harassment Read more

But any pride Chileans may have previously felt for Neruda is souring amid a reassessment prompted by a string of student-led feminist protests across the country.

The movement was rooted in the campaign for abortion rights, and has been bolstered by Latin America’s #NiUnaMenos protests against femicide and the global #MeToo movement against sexual violence.

“There is no clear reason to rename the airport, and it is happening at a time when women are only beginning to dare denounce their abusers,” said Karen Vergara Sánchez, a student and activist who protested sexual harassment during a national wave of university strikes earlier this year.

The current controversy springs from a page in Neruda’s memoir, in which he describes raping a maid in Ceylon, where he occupied a diplomatic post in 1929.

Sign up for the new US morning briefing

After the woman ignored his advances, Neruda says he took “a strong grip on her wrist” and led her to his bedroom. “The encounter was like that of a man and a statue. She kept her eyes wide open all the while, completely unresponsive,” he recalled. “She was right to despise me.”

Although the memoir was published more than 40 years ago, the passage has only become the subject of debate in recent years, said Vergara Sánchez.

“We have started to demystify Neruda now, because we have only recently begun to question rape culture.”

Isabel Allende, the author and women’s rights campaigner, argued that Neruda’s work still had value. “Like many young feminists in Chile I am disgusted by some aspects of Neruda’s life and personality,” she told the Guardian. “However, we cannot dismiss his writing.”

“Very few people – especially powerful or influential men – behave admirably. Unfortunately, Neruda was a flawed person, as we all are in one way or another, and Canto General is still a masterpiece,” she said.

The Pablo Neruda Foundation, which promotes the poet’s legacy in Chile, did not respond to interview requests.

Chile admits Pablo Neruda might have been murdered by Pinochet regime Read more

Neruda was a prolific writer but also a political activist who helped thousands of Republican refugees escape to Chile after the Spanish civil war, and became ambassador to France during the leftwing government of Salvador Allende. He died under suspicious circumstances, days after Augusto Pinochet’s military coup.

Gabriel García Márquez lauded him as “the greatest poet of the 20th century”, but the current debate has also prompted a reassessment of Neruda’s literary merit.

Patricio Alvarado Barría, who won Chile’s prestigious National Book Council Award for his novel Triage, argued that Neruda is more esteemed for his commercial and political value than for his poetry.

“Neruda has been reduced to a commercial brand that still pays political capital. The influence of his literary work has been displaced by authors that have taken more risks,” he said.

The decision to rename the airport – currently named after Arturo Merino Benítez, the founder of Chile’s air force and national airline – now heads to the chamber of deputies for a final vote.

“It is time to stop idolizing Neruda and talk about the fact that he was abusive,” said Vergara Sánchez. “Just because he is a famous artist does not exempt him from being a rapist.”