According to its rules, the Pablo Neruda Foundation holds as its general purpose, “the practice and divulgation of arts and letters”. It acquires legal existence with the publication of the Justice Department’s Supreme Decree 368 in the “Diario Oficial”, on June 4th, 1986. Its legal precedent was the will of Matilde Urrutia, the poet’s widow, which constitutes the Foundation, outlines its rules and appoints its directors and counsellors.

The disposition to create this Foundation, essentially with the same structure adopted later, came from the fifties decade, when Neruda gives his library and sea shells collection to the Universidad de Chile. Later, coming back to the country after his diplomatic work in France, with help of his lawyer, Sergio Insunza Barrios, the poet writes a preliminary will where he expresses his foundational purpose. Sadly, his intentions were frustrated by the tragic events of September 1973 and his own death. The drafts were preserved, though, and were used as a foundation for the current legal structure.

The Pablo Neruda Foundation wouldn’t have been possible without the determination and efforts of Matilde Urrutia, who organized and expanded the poet’s legacy before and after his death.

Though her work was enormous, when she died in February 1985, the Foundation’s condition was extremely worrying. The legal actions after the poet’s death were not concluded yet. He had died without a legal will, and his two siblings from his father’s side, Laura and Rodolfo, were his legal heirs together with his surviving wife. By the time Matilde died, his brother and sister were dead too, leaving their own heirs behind them.

The Library and Archives needed reorganization, the houses were in a critical state of deterioration or still destroyed after being attacked. The Isla Negra house was still confiscated by the military government. The ownership of the Valparaíso house was shared with the marriage of Dr. Francisco Velasco and the visual artist Marie Martner, both of them great friends of the poet.

To get legal existence was a complicated and long labour. Only after a protection appeal the approval was possible. The Isla Negra house was legally recovered on August 19th, 1991, thanks to the Law N° 19.072 of August 19th 1991. Another property by the side of the house had been bought by the government of Patricio Aylwin to be given as concession to the Foundation.

The Foundation wishes to acknowledge the disinterested and dedicated support from many people, directly on indirectly attached to its structure, and also acknowledges the donations and cooperation by which it has been favoured, as well as the help of many friend countries as Sweden and Germany, of private institutions as Telefónica de España, Interlubke, Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, Fundación Andes, among many others.

Special acknowledgments also must go to the Chilean State, for donning the nearby house to the poet’s residence in Isla Negra and the land neighbour to La Sebastiana house in Valparaíso, and to the Providencia City Council, for building the Poet Square close to La Chascona house.Restoring countless objects in the picture collection, furniture and other collections, organizing the library and archives have been an intense, delicate an yet unfinished effort.

Only after years of constant work and thanks to the constant support of many specialized persons, the Foundation has converted the three houses into museums: La Chascona, La Sebastiana and Isla Negra, with over 100.000 visitors who come each year from different parts of the planet to rejoice with their histories and the activities in the cultural centres attached to Isla Negra and La Sebastiana.Thanks to the appropriate decisions made by Matilde Urrutia, the Pablo Neruda Foundation has made great efforts to preserve a patrimony of national and international cultural transcendence.

All the legal and patrimonial actions have been accomplished. To fulfil its purpose of developing and promoting the knowledge of Neruda and his work, the Foundation works in contact with the most relevant Nerudian scholars around the world, as the Chilean professor based in Italy Hernán Loyola, the British academic Robert Pring-Mill, the French scholar Alain Sicard, the Chilean professor based in California Jaime Concha, the American professor René de Costa and the Argentinean essays writer Saúl Yurkievich, among others.