Love Poems

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was born in the town of Parral in Chile. He received numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the International Peace Prize in 1950 and the Lenin Peace Prize in 1953. In 1971 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Two years later he died in Santiago, Chile, probably a victim of the Pinochet government. Pinochet denied permission for Neruda’s funeral to be made a public event. Thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew, however, and crowded the streets of Santiago.

Armando Durán has appeared in films, television, and regional theaters throughout the West Coast. For the last decade he has been a member of the resident acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2009 he was named by AudioFile as Best Voice in Biography and History for his narration of Che Guevara. A native Californian, he divides his time between Los Angeles and Ashland, Oregon.