Winnipeg (ship)
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The Winnipeg is the name of the ship which arrived on the coasts of Valparaíso, Chile, on 3 September 1939, with 2,200 Spanish immigrants fleeing Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda had named the poet Pablo Neruda Special Consul in Paris for Immigration, and he was charged of what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": shipping the Spanish refugees, who had been housed by the French in internment camps, to Chile [1]
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[edit] History
After the outbreaks of the Spanish Civil War, Pablo Neruda noticed that the Spanish Republicans who had fled in exile to France where they were detained in squalid camps in miserable conditions [2]. The poet, who was then living in Chile, decided to organize their travel to Chile. He first worked as Chilean consul in Spain, before being named in Paris.
The ship was an old French cargo which ordinarily could not take more than 20 persons, but it was adapted so it could carry the 2,200 refugees. Neruda actively worked in this endeavour, getting together families separated by the war. Beside the assistance of his friends artists and writers, he was helped by his wife Delia del Carril.
In the night when the Winnipeg took off, on August 4, 1939, in the port of Trompeloup - Pauillac, Pablo Neruda wrote:
| “ | Que la crítica borre toda mi poesía, si le parece.
Pero este poema, que hoy recuerdo, no podrá borrarlo nadie. |
” |
| “ | The critics may erase all of my poetry, if they want.
But this poem, that today I remember, nobody will be able to erase it. |
” |
The Winnipeg landed in the port of Valparaíso on September 2, 1939. On the following day, the Spanish Republicans were received by the Chilean authorities — although some of them had already landed, a few days before, in the port of Arica, in the North of Chile. In a gesture of thanks, the refugees suspended to the ship's mast a large canvas with, on it, the face of the President painted.
Most of the immigrants who then landed to Chile stayed there. Between those one, there was the historian Leopoldo Castedo, the typograph Mauricio Amster and the painters Roser Bru and José Balmes [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Winnipeg, el poema que cruzó el Atlántico (Spanish)
- ^ [1] Noticias Fundación Pablo Neruda.
- ^ Spanish: "Nunca jamás, ni siquiera al final de mi vida voy a hacer lo suficiente por agradecer el hecho de estar en este país y de ser ciudadano chileno, gracias justamente a Pablo Neruda. Como alguien dijo alguna vez ‘las deudas de amor no se terminan de pagar nunca’ y esta es una gran deuda que yo tengo con él todavía". See [http://www.uchile.cl/acerca/rectoria/noticias/14julio2004neruda.html Noticias de la rectoría de la Universidad de Chile]
[edit] See also
- Demographics of Chile
- Presidential Republic Era (1924-1973)
