Casa Michoacán de Los Guindos

Um genótipo nerudiano para a herança cultural e política do Chile

Abstract

To talk about Pablo Neruda is also to reflect on his spaces of poetic and political expression, especially his houses. One of them, in particular, is little remembered, as it is not on the tourist route of the Chilean capital: the Michoacán de los Guindos house. Neruda lived in this house when he was elected Senator of the Republic by the Communist Party of Chile and when he officially changed his name from Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Basoalto to Pablo Neruda; it was from this house that Neruda began his flight into exile through the Andes. With Isla Negra, Michoacán de los Guindos was the poet’s first house in Chile and home to the political and cultural effervescence of the 1940s and 1950s. Like the poet’s other houses, Michoacán underwent a profound remodeling process. This article seeks to contribute to the analysis of this residence from a different angle than the usual ones, favouring the study of morphology. By rescuing and analysing the process of transformation of the dwelling through additions over the years, the aim is to identify what a Nerudian construction is from the point of view of spatial configuration. The methodological tool used is Space Syntax, and the results indicate a Nerudian genotype.