Kennedy is an English teacher in a United States public high school. For her poetry unit, she wants to introduce her students to some influential poets, including Pablo Neruda – an influential and well-regarded poet from Chile. She believes that his work is an essential part of poetry’s history and that it could engage her students by demonstrating emotional, personal, and political power poetry can have. While looking into Neruda’s background, she finds out that Neruda admitted in his memoir to sexually assaulting a maid.
Neruda is known not only for his artistic influence, but also for his contributions to Chilean and broader Latine culture and his opposition to colonialism and facism. For many, Neruda is a symbol of liberation and an important part of Chilean culture and heritage.
Chilean feminists have brought the issue of his treatment of women to light and called for a more critical understanding of Neruda’s fame and his work overall. They have, however, stopped short of calling for his work to be condemned or removed from curricula.
Kennedy isn’t sure if or how she should discuss Neruda with her students. Kennedy isn’t from Chile and the U.S.A. has past colonial relationships with Latin America, so she wants to make sure she’s not projecting internalized biases or colonial attitudes onto Neruda’s work, but she doesn’t want to ignore his sexual assault, either. She worries that promoting his work in her class could contribute to attitudes that allow powerful and esteemed men to get away with harming women.
Kennedy has two students in her class whose families came from Chile. She wants input from people who have experience with Chilean culture and Neruda’s legacy, but she doesn’t want to put her students or their families in an uncomfortable position by singling them out.
The articles she’s found from Chilean women don’t address how Neruda should be taught in other countries. Should Kennedy use Neruda’s work in her class or pick a different author? If she does use his work, how should she address the topic with her students? Can she open the discussion to her Chilean students without making it their responsibility to educate their classmates?