THE WAY SPAIN WAS

“The Way Spain Was” is in the poetic collection Third Residence, which Neruda had written when he
was a member of the Communist Party of the Chile. He is very much concerned about the common
people of the land. Although his mind is burdened with seething social issues, he spoke as simply as
possible to communicate his sentiments to the public. He recounts with passion the repeated
suffering recorded in the history of Spain.
How unto crying out, unto the very soul
I live your barren soil and your rough bread, your stricken people!
How in the depths of me
grows the lost flowers of your villages, timeless, impossible to budge,
your tracts of minerals
bulging like oldsters under the moon, devoured by an imbecile god.
The poet brings out the harsh realities of life through various images. Fresh bloom of life that cannot
be found, “the lost flower of your villages” continues to clamour in his mind. He is enraged that an
idiot like god is punishing the land that he loves. Through the deep love for Chile he begins to
consider Spain as his motherland. When he witnessed the ruins of Machuchu Pichchu, his love for
the land became more intense. His mourning for the Spain’s glorious past is evident in the words “our
stricken people”. Silence and isolation are repeated and cries of “Taut and dry Spain”, this phrase
shows the core of his sensibility and the memories of war reminds him of the dull and loud sound of
drums.
In spite of the fertility of Spain the poet is more concerned about the inhabited of the land affected by
the civil war and dictatorship. He is very much conscious of the Spanish soil aged by years of sunlight
and of regions invades by various races.
your harsh wine and your sweet wine. Your violent and delicate vineyards.
Stone of the sun, pure among territories,
Neruda also mourns for his best friend Garcia Lorca and Miguel Herna’ndez, who died in the Spanish
civil war. “Spain veined with bloods and metals, blue and victorious”, this clearly shows the history of
“king discoverers” and the tragedy of civil war which made him Republican and he uses his poetry as
a weapon to fight against the violence.
The ordinary people of the society i.e, the common people are suppressed and their life’s plight is
showcased clearly in the line “proletariat of petals and bullets/ alone alive, somnolent, resounding.”
The people of rich fertile land are depended on their daily labours; their life is beautiful with the horror
of war in it.
Opposition of ideas can be seen in the words “sweet” and “harsh”, in “violent” and “delicate” in “petals
and bullets” these words confirms that Neruda is fighting against the suppression of “proletariat” He
writes about a poor, but beautiful Spain, historically rich and glorious in the past, crushed and
destroyed in the present. It is a fact that Pablo Neruda openly reacted to the contemporary political
events in Spain and his own country that made him summaries his own life as follows:
I have had to fight and struggle, love and sign. I have had to see the breaking world, the triumph and
the defeat. I tasted the bread and the blood. What more can a poet want? And all the alternatives,
from the songs to the kisses, from the solitude to the people, exist in my poetry, participate in it,
because I have lives for my poetry, and my poetry has sustained me.
Intense feeling for the colonised people is very much seen along with the reaction to the social and
political events in his mother country.
Spanish colonization over Chile can be characterized as pilgrim colonization, wherein the colonizers
blend with the colonized and the division between the two societies is obscured. The conquistadors
took it on themselves to be a piece of the foundation and not disparage the status of the colonized.
They shared culture, dialect and wound up noticeably one with the occupants of their settlement. This
is one reason why Neruda’s verse does not contain any contempt towards Spain. This is especially
apparent in the words like “a goodly majesty”, “we have the day’s / wedding”. There is no threatening
vibe towards the colonizers of any sort. Neruda considers himself to be an epitome of the Spanish
culture, as “the writer of damaged human nobility who brings alive a landmass’ fate and dreams”
According to Jaime Alazraki, “Neruda is not simply chronicling verifiable occasions but rather re-
translating them with an unmistakable standpoint of history. He’s glancing back at American pre-
history and analyzing the land’s rich, normal legacy”.
Postcolonial literature often focuses on the suppression, oppression, identity crisis, alienation, and
cultural identity etc, faced by the natives of the colonised land. But the poems of Neruda present the
theme of post colonialism in a different way, here though the atrocities of colonisers are portrayed he
never hates them, instead celebrates the mingling of culture.
“The Way Spain Was” records the sufferings of people recorded in the history of Spain as a colony
through many harsh images. The land blessed with nature’s bounty was destroyed in the civil war. He
traces the history of Spain the present invaders were once invaded by many. Through many opposing
images the horror of war and the plight of the affected people are portrayed effectively.

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and politician. His poetry depicted the realities of 20 th century. He
began his career as a love poet and ended it as an “outspoken advocate for engaged art and
communist cause” says Erin Becker. Neruda reflected on politics after the outbreak of Spanish civil
war, he was mostly advent of fascism and cold war tension. Spain’s destruction by civil war changed
the whole life of Neruda. Neruda then emerged as a people’s poet where he twisted together lyrical
intensity, epic imagination and political zeal. Neruda’s poetry became a matter of political discourse;
his poem also brought the proletariat class into focus. Neruda identified with Spain as his mother
country but he also had Chilean nationalist hidden inside him. Neruda’s source of passion was the
communist party. He valued the communal over the individual and thus there is decline in sexual
passion in his later poetry. Neruda turned to realism in order to portray the complexities of class
struggle. Some poems which shoe the political state of mind f Pablo Neruda are ‘Ars Poetica (1933)’,
‘the way Spain was (1947)’, ‘discoverers of Chile (1946)’, and ‘Ode to Tomato (1954)’.

In Ars Poetica poet brings together “girls and garrisons” to force us into a realization of youth and
freshness moving towards destruction that all battles cause. He compares his sentiments to a
“widower’s grief” and “humiliated scullion”. Though this poem does not completely relate to war, it still
describes the uncertainty and grief that will come after war. Hints of death are visible in “the wind that
whacks my breast”. Neruda believes art is not created by beauty but it must be discovered through a
perception which appears grim and destroyed and appears destroyed and appears from the hidden
conscious of human. There is emphasis that poetry should come out of suffering. The poem breaks
away from traditional form of surrealism by presenting disjoined images which were an emblem of
20th century. The feel of the poem is not at peace but there is tension. The backdrop of the poem is
war; war as a metaphor of struggle of poet’s mind and the war that would take place later in Spain.
Poet is at the receiving end of war and has to move from objectivity to subjectivity. The poem was
written at the time of uncertainty and it shows in the poem till the end. The time was when decisions
and discourses relating to war were being made. The speaker’s mind is unsteady and the poetic
psyche is in turmoil just like Spain was at the time of civil war
The poet turns nostalgic in the poem ‘The way Spain was’ and expresses his love for Spain as well as
laments for its abjection at the hands of fascist forces. The poem written several years after the civil
war and was a reaction to the war and mass murders in Spain. Spanish civil war was a turning point
for Latin American writers. Neruda shows an image of Spain inflicted with pain and monotony. In
stanza 2 he screams that he loves Spain but Spain has become “barren”. It has lost direction and is in
confusion and chaos. The people along with the country are meant to be without any sense of
direction after the war. The eagle is a symbol for imperial power which has now destroyed Spain. The
drumming sound is of war, of disturbance, unhappiness and symbol of destruction over land. The
barren soil makes Spain stagnant and shows that it has no future. Neruda is influenced by leftist
ideology; he tries to revive Spanish people- “spirit of resilience”. He makes people remember who
they were. Spain is now moving towards a modern age. Last stanza brings serious intention of
Neruda as a people’s poet. He is not just an observer but an active part of struggle. He feels his
poems should be life for people. The aim of the poem is to bring out something new by going out
something new by going beyond politics.

Anjana Dutt says that Neruda starts with history of the Spanish settlers in Chile who were very
impressed by talks of richness and wealth. In ‘Discoverers of Chile’, “Gold burns” and “silver
illuminates” are images of wealth. Neruda describes the country in its physical form “my thin country”,
“silence lies in its long time”. Because the natives couldn’t protect themselves against invaders they
were compelled to merge their history and culture with that of invaders. “Neruda’s poetry raises
mundane objects to sublime heights” says Susnigdha Dey. The Spanish conquerors were drawn
towards Chile because of its wealth. The poem reflects Neruda’s political state in 1938 when he was
drawn to Spain calling himself Spanish by race and language. This poem captures the entire history
of the arrival of the discoverers of Chile from “north” from where “Almago brought his crushed ember”.
Neruda explains how people were first oppressed and exploited by conquerors and dictators. The
poem describes the destruction and violence unleashed by colonizers in 1938. Neruda said he
needed to reach and touch “my true soil”. Poem shows a Eurocentric history that is replaced by myth
of creation; Neruda’s description of physical form of country makes him return to his country. For
Neruda there is never a conflict between Spain and Chile, Neruda is re-interpreting events with an
outlook of history, he examines the land’s rich, natural heritage.

‘Ode to the Tomato’ explores the two hemispheres Chile and Spain presented through image of two
tomato halves in the poem. The poem was published in 1954 which was an extremely important time
for Neruda as he was in exile from his homeland for opposing fascist regime. Because of political
unpredictability of Neruda he became people’s poet. He wrote about the problems of everyday life
and by writing about a tomato he inverts the myth that there is nothing celebratory in everyday life.
The tomato becomes an average Chilean who lives every day despite the gravity of civil strife and
political crimes around him. The new abundant harvest of tomatoes becomes a symbol of celebrating
native identity. The halving of tomato can be halving a Chilean into two parts or it can be “reminiscent
of two hemispheres to which Chile and Spain belong” says Anjana Dutt. There was bloodshed in
Chile because of civil strife and thus the lines “light is halved like a tomato”. The juice of tomato can
symbolize bloodshed. Tomato which is personified first came from Latin America. It could mean
“tomato invading the kitchen” is colonizers invading the land. The poet alternates between culinary
delight and violence in the kitchen. Act of cutting tomatoes is equal to an actual murder. There are
images of tomato invading every day aspect of a Chilean life. Tomato go well with onion; is Neruda
talking of sexual union between Red Indian and white Europeans. The salad bowl is a mix of Chilean
and Spanish culture, there is joy and celebration in his meal- “of ardent color, all embracing
freshness”. Through tomato cultures are being joined. It also represents festivity and riotousness on
one hand and majesty on other hand. One question that deals with the laws of that time is- why
tomato is both a fruit and vegetable? According to the 1983 US Supreme Court rule “any plant or part
thereof eaten during the main dish is a vegetable. If it is eaten at any other time it is a fruit”.

The literature of civil war was thus a great subject of mythologizing. Art and politics was fused
together in a no. of works. The struggle between the republican and national forces in Spain became
the source of imagination and conscience of many writers from around the world. Poetry of Pablo
Neruda and other poets and novelists like Ernest Hemingway, Stephen spender and Federico Lorca
explored the clash between political ideologies of socialism and fascism and between civilization and
barbarism. The war was a central theme for Neruda’s poetry.
The poems reflect Neruda’s political state of mind before and after the civil war. In 1938 when Neruda
returned to Chile he became more political in his poems and wrote reactions to civil war, about
mundane things of life and the class struggle. Neruda’s poetic passion is more in politics rather than
sexuality and so Neruda kept in expanding his political views through his poems. He examined the
land’s rich natural heritage and described long defeat of Native Americans by Europe. ‘Ars Poetica’,
‘The way Spain was’, ‘Discoverers of Chile’, and ‘Ode to Tomato’ all describe Neruda’s political stand
and how he reacted to the changes taking place in Spain and Chile.