De Rokha returned to
Talca in 1914 feeling that he had failed in his goals. There, he read the collection of poems "Lo que me dijo el silencio" (What the silence told me) by Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first pseudonym of Luisa Anabalón Sanderson. Despite criticizing the poetry harshly, he fell in love with their writer and returned to Santiago in search of her. In 1916, Luisa Anabalón became his wife, changing her pseudonym to Winétt de Rokha. The poet went to the house of his future in-laws with a determined attitude, introducing himself as "a poet, and a very proud one". He was not welcomed by the family and became an enemy of his future father-in-law, Don Indalecio, to the point where they challenged each other to a duel. Before the agreed date of the duel, the young poet kidnapped Luisa and married her immediately. Years later the poet remembered the incident with his in-laws: "¡Qué se había creído! El coronel Anabalón enseñándole urbanidad a mi heroísmo, como un elefante que le tirase la barba al mundo y más encima la suegra peluda y metafórica como el patíbulo." "Who did he think he was! The colonel Anabalón teaching manners to my heroism, like an elephant pulling his beard at the world, and, on top of that, the mother in law hairy and metaphoric as the gallows." That year (1916) the poet published a collection of poems, "Versos de infancia" (Verses from childhood), in the anthology "Selva lírica" (Lyric Jungle). Between 1922 and 1924, de Rokha lived in
San Felipe and
Concepcion, where he founded the magazine Dynamo. Times were turbulent both in Chile and abroad, with the old
oligarchic order declining in Chile and the powers of
Fascism,
Nazism and
Stalinism in the ascendency in Europe, leading gradually to the
Second World War. It was also a time when working-class people began to be able to participate in political life, empowered by the advance of industrialization and democracy in Latin America. By 1930, Pablo de Rokha was already a strong supporter of Marxism–Leninism and Soviet Stalinism, which he linked to
Christian ethics. This led him to join the
Communist Party of Chile in 1936 and adhere to the
Popular Front of Chile that brought to power President
Pedro Aguirre Cerda in 1938. The Communist Party made him a congressional candidate but was then expelled from the party in 1940, after his disinterest in following party discipline and his attacks on older comrades made him unpopular with the party leaders. De Rokha edited, published and sold his own books, never accepting the support of publishing companies, and bought, sold and bartered a variety of goods to support his family. In 1944, de Rokha was named Cultural Ambassador of Chile in the Americas by President
Juan Antonio Ríos and began a long trip through the 19 countries of the continent. While he was in Argentina, he heard that a new president had been elected, President
Gabriel González Videla, who, soon after his election, created the "Law in Defence of Democracy", which began a period of persecution of the Communist party. In 1949, de Rokha returned to Chile, accompanied by his wife
Winétt de Rokha, who was suffering from cancer. She died in 1951, and in 1953, de Rokha published "Fuego Negro", a love elegy dedicated to his late wife. The death of Winétt was first of a series of tragic events for the family. In 1962, his son
Carlos de Rokha (part of the literary generation of 1938 and one of the youngest members of
La Mandragora group) died at the age of 42 from a drug overdose. It is not known if his death was an accident or suicide. The death of Carlos affected de Rokha deeply, and he wrote "Carta perdida a Carlos de Rokha" (Lost Letter to Carlos de Rokha): "The mark of genius of Winétt de Rokha pursued you, like a great eagle of fire, from the cradle to the grave, but did not influence you, because no one on earth influenced you. Forgive me for having given you life." ==Work==