Matilde Urrutia was the third wife of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....

, from 1966 until his death in 1973. They met in Santiago in 1946. Urrutia was the inspiration behind Neruda's work 100 Love Sonnets which includes a beautiful dedication to her. Neruda withheld the publication for some years to spare the feelings of his previous wife.

After Neruda's death, Urrutia edited for publication his memoir, Confieso que he vivido ("I confess to have lived"). This and other activities brought her into conflict with the government of Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

which tried to suppress the memory of Neruda, an outspoken communist, from the collective consciousness.

Her own memoir, My Life with Pablo Neruda, ISBN 0-8047-5009-2, was published posthumously in 1986.