WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.120 Welcome back to The Deep Dive, where we take 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:04.599 a stack of sources, strip away the noise, and 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:06.700 extract the most important insights for you, 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.820 our listener. Today, we are immersing ourselves 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.900 in the extraordinary life and work of Isabel 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:14.919 Allender. And this is a big one. We're not just 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:16.899 talking about a globally celebrated novelist. 00:00:16.899 --> 00:00:18.839 We are looking at a life that serves as this 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:22.859 visceral connection to the 20th century's most 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:25.839 tumultuous political dramas in Latin America. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.420 Absolutely. Allende is a figure whose personal 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:31.960 narrative, I mean, we're talking exile, family 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:35.859 upheaval, profound loss. It's completely inextricable 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:37.820 from her fiction. You can't separate them. Okay, 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:39.979 so let's unpack this for you. Our sources present 00:00:39.979 --> 00:00:44.399 this deeply layered character, a Chilean -American 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:47.240 writer, a seminal practitioner of magical realism, 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:49.899 and the recipient of both the Chilean National 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:52.880 Literature Prize and the U .S. Presidential Medal 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.619 of Freedom. Huge accolades. Huge. But here's 00:00:55.619 --> 00:00:57.820 the hook. that I think defines her early spirit. 00:00:58.039 --> 00:00:59.899 Long before she became, you know, the world's 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:02.439 most widely read Spanish language author, she 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:05.200 was fired from a translation job. And the reason 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:09.900 is just. It's perfect. It reveals everything, 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:11.920 doesn't it? It really does. She was translating 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:14.760 English romance novels into Spanish. Yeah. And, 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:17.060 well, she just couldn't resist altering the material. 00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:19.040 She started making these unauthorized changes 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.079 to the dialogue and the endings. Why, though? 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:24.939 What was she changing? She felt compelled to 00:01:24.939 --> 00:01:27.060 make the heroine sound, and this is a quote, 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:31.120 more intelligent. And she wanted to grant them 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:34.379 greater independence than the original Cinderella 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:37.379 -style conclusions allowed. That seemingly small, 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:40.959 almost humorous act of defiance. It feels like 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:43.159 the core theme of her entire career. Exactly. 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.780 It's the writer as a subversive force, right? 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:47.920 Yeah. Challenging the patriarchal assumptions 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.060 baked into popular culture, even in the most 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.540 formulaic genre imaginable. Precisely. And that 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:55.859 spirit of defiance, that impulse toward liberation, 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.159 that informs our entire mission for you today. 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:01.319 We're going to trace the full arc from her highly 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:04.319 privileged yet intensely nomadic diplomatic childhood 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:07.760 to her extensive pre -novel career in journalism 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:10.740 and television. And crucially, we will dissect 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.439 the definitive traumatic circumstances of the 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.960 1973 coup that forced her into exile. An exile 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.919 that paradoxically catalyzed her entire career 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.199 as a novelist. The very thing that made her. 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:24.159 We also have to give serious attention to her 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:27.280 writing rituals. I mean, the strict, almost ritualistic. 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:30.620 discipline that underpins these fantastical narratives. 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:32.740 And that all culminates in the birth of the House 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:35.719 of the Spirits. Yes, and we absolutely must tackle 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.219 the most fascinating paradox of her legacy. The 00:02:38.219 --> 00:02:40.960 disconnect. The massive disconnect between her 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.460 phenomenal commercial success, we're talking 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:47.520 77 million copies sold globally, and the remarkably 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.840 harsh, almost venomous criticism she has faced 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:53.120 from certain intellectual and literary circles, 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:55.939 particularly in her home country of Chile. That's 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:57.740 the question, isn't it? What does that division 00:02:57.740 --> 00:02:59.960 tell us about the relationship between high art 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.860 and popular appeal? It's central to understanding 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:04.840 modern literature, and we will drill down on 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.840 it. But first, let's just firmly establish her 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:11.039 achievements. She holds dual Chilean and U .S. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:13.680 citizenship, and beyond the sales figures, her 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.199 recognition is just undeniable, culminating in 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:20.319 the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, recognizing 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.979 her profound impact on literature and global 00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:26.150 culture. A true global figure. So to understand 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:28.389 the scope of her imagination, you really have 00:03:28.389 --> 00:03:31.810 to understand the sheer mobility and the intensity 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:35.229 of her roots. Isabel Angelica Allende Yona was 00:03:35.229 --> 00:03:38.550 born in Lima, Peru in 1942. But she was born 00:03:38.550 --> 00:03:41.590 into this specific family nexus that, well, it 00:03:41.590 --> 00:03:43.669 pretty much ensures you never have a quiet life. 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:46.110 And it all comes down to that last name, Allende. 00:03:46.189 --> 00:03:48.909 That family name, Allende, is arguably the most 00:03:48.909 --> 00:03:51.430 politically charged name in modern Chilean history. 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.659 Her father, Tomas Allende, was a diplomat, the 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:57.060 second secretary at the Chilean embassy in Lima. 00:03:57.219 --> 00:03:59.759 OK, so that explains the Peru birth. Exactly. 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:02.479 But the link that truly matters, the one that 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:04.879 defines her life, is that Tomas was a first cousin 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:07.699 of Salvador Allende. The future and historically 00:04:07.699 --> 00:04:10.439 crucial democratically elected socialist president 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.500 of Chile? The very same. He served from 1970 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:18.050 to 1973. And that connection. is the key to unlocking 00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:20.990 her fate. It placed her directly adjacent to 00:04:20.990 --> 00:04:24.110 the highest corridors of power, which, you know, 00:04:24.110 --> 00:04:26.829 would later expose her to catastrophic danger. 00:04:27.189 --> 00:04:30.089 Absolutely. But even before the politics intervened 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:32.490 in such a violent way, her immediate family structure 00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:35.389 was already fracturing. Right. The sources mention 00:04:35.389 --> 00:04:38.410 her father left quite early on. Yes. In 1945, 00:04:38.629 --> 00:04:41.009 when Isabel was just three years old, her father 00:04:41.009 --> 00:04:44.290 left the family. So her mother, Francisca Yonabarros, 00:04:44.449 --> 00:04:47.529 who was universally known as Doña Panchita, she 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:50.529 relocated Isabel and her two siblings back to 00:04:50.529 --> 00:04:53.329 Santiago, Chile. So right there at age three, 00:04:53.389 --> 00:04:55.790 you have this sense of instability, this split, 00:04:55.910 --> 00:04:58.250 even within a privileged background. It's the 00:04:58.250 --> 00:05:00.209 first displacement, but certainly not the last. 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:02.709 And the source material details how quickly her 00:05:02.709 --> 00:05:05.529 life shifted again into this demanding, fluid 00:05:05.529 --> 00:05:07.810 existence of a diplomatic family. That's when 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:09.750 her mother remarried. That's right. Her mother 00:05:09.750 --> 00:05:11.930 remarried another diplomat, a man named Ramon 00:05:11.930 --> 00:05:15.129 Hudobro. And this marriage, it just kicked off 00:05:15.129 --> 00:05:18.029 what the sources rightly refer to as the Nomad 00:05:18.029 --> 00:05:23.430 Years. From 1953 to 1958, her stepfather's postings 00:05:23.430 --> 00:05:26.399 required constant movement. It forced Isabel 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:29.500 to adapt to entirely new cultures, new languages, 00:05:29.660 --> 00:05:32.699 new education systems again and again. And these 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:34.439 aren't just similar environments. We're talking 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:36.800 about attending an American private school in 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:39.699 La Paz, Bolivia. A hugely different cultural 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:42.399 context. And then a move to Beirut, Lebanon, 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:44.420 where she attended an English private school. 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.220 Just think about the sensory immersion that constant 00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:50.680 movement required of a young person. To thrive, 00:05:50.819 --> 00:05:53.839 she had to become an expert observer of human 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:57.379 behavior. of dialect, of social norms. It's the 00:05:57.379 --> 00:06:00.540 perfect, if unintentional, training for a novelist. 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.740 It's exactly that. She was absorbing the rhythms 00:06:02.740 --> 00:06:05.860 of Latin American society and the rigidity of... 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 British colonial education, you know, at the 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.519 same time. This constant displacement likely 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:13.500 helped forge her unique literary voice, which 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.199 so often juxtaposes the intensely local with 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.759 the grandly international. And the magical with 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:21.980 the painfully pragmatic. That's the one. So when 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:25.220 she finally returned to Chile in 1958, there 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:27.899 was a period of homeschooling. And this is when 00:06:27.899 --> 00:06:30.629 she really gets to dive into literature. The 00:06:30.629 --> 00:06:33.689 sources specifically cite William Shakespeare 00:06:33.689 --> 00:06:36.389 as a foundational influence. Shakespeare is so 00:06:36.389 --> 00:06:38.329 fascinating in this context. I mean, his work 00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:41.649 is characterized by these sprawling family sagas, 00:06:41.649 --> 00:06:45.170 political intrigue, grand universal emotional 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:47.410 themes. All the elements that define the House 00:06:47.410 --> 00:06:49.709 of the Spirits. Exactly. She wasn't reading simple 00:06:49.709 --> 00:06:51.970 narratives. She was reading stories about kings 00:06:51.970 --> 00:06:55.029 and coups and the intimate tragedies that result 00:06:55.029 --> 00:06:57.449 from public power struggles. It's all there. 00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:00.060 But before that literary genius fully emerged, 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.839 she took a, well, an unexpected turn into international 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:06.319 bureaucracy of all things. Right. She spent several 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:10.060 years from 1959 to 1965 working with the UN Food 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:12.819 and Agriculture Organization. In Santiago, Brussels, 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.399 all over Europe. That's six years in this highly 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:17.240 structured, objective world of international 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:19.759 policy and development. It's such a striking 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:22.279 contrast to the emotional, fantastical world 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:24.339 she would eventually create. But it must have 00:07:24.339 --> 00:07:26.399 given her an understanding of global systems 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:30.100 and maybe, more importantly, the rigorous structured 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.740 work ethic she would later apply to writing novels. 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:36.199 No doubt. And then we arrive at the pivotal moment. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.339 The humorous but incredibly revealing anecdote. 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:43.720 The romance novel scandal. I love this story. 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:45.899 It's so crucial because it shows us the nascent 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.939 rebel before any political necessity arose. It's 00:07:48.939 --> 00:07:52.019 biographical gold. So back in Chile, she takes 00:07:52.019 --> 00:07:55.120 on this job. translating English romance novels 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.680 into Spanish. This was essentially factory line 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.339 work. You know, it demanded fidelity to the source 00:08:00.339 --> 00:08:02.660 text. And these were your typical Cinderella 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:05.339 style narratives, right? Built on the premise 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:07.720 of female passivity and the pursuit of a dominant 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:10.410 male figure. The absolute formula. But she just 00:08:10.410 --> 00:08:12.089 couldn't do it. She couldn't abide by the formula. 00:08:12.110 --> 00:08:14.370 She began making unauthorized changes to the 00:08:14.370 --> 00:08:17.410 dialogue and significantly to the entire direction 00:08:17.410 --> 00:08:19.449 of the plot. And the sources say she was fired 00:08:19.449 --> 00:08:22.110 specifically for two reasons. Yes. First, she 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:24.569 was altering the text to make the heroines sound 00:08:24.569 --> 00:08:27.209 more intelligent than the original authors intended. 00:08:27.509 --> 00:08:30.370 And second, she was changing the endings. Instead 00:08:30.370 --> 00:08:32.529 of the conventional marriage conclusion, she 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:35.679 was giving them independence, allowing them to 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.879 find more independence and do good in the world. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.840 Wait, wait. So she was fired for making her female 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.460 characters smart and functional. Pretty much. 00:08:44.580 --> 00:08:47.580 That's a massive statement about the genre and, 00:08:47.620 --> 00:08:49.539 you know, the prevailing social expectations 00:08:49.539 --> 00:08:52.279 of women at the time. Did the source material 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.840 suggest she saw this as some kind of revolutionary 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:57.759 act? It seems less like a calculated revolutionary 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.360 act and more like an instinctive moral necessity. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:03.059 She just couldn't bring herself to perpetuate 00:09:03.059 --> 00:09:05.679 the stereotype, even in work for higher translation. 00:09:06.220 --> 00:09:09.159 So this instinctual resistance to female subjugation, 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:11.240 it's the thread that runs from this low stakes 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:13.419 translation job right up to the philanthropic 00:09:13.419 --> 00:09:15.659 mission of her foundation decades later. She 00:09:15.659 --> 00:09:17.899 was fighting the patriarchy one cheap paperback 00:09:17.899 --> 00:09:20.879 at a time. I love that framing. And this instinctive 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:23.279 intelligence, having been rejected by the romance 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:26.039 novel industry, it immediately found its proper 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.519 home in the vibrant world of Chilean journalism. 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:31.700 Her journalistic career before the coup was extensive 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:35.320 and multifaceted. Starting in 1967, she was part 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:37.779 of the editorial staff of Paula Magazine. But 00:09:37.779 --> 00:09:40.480 she truly dove into the work from 1969 to 1974, 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:43.840 working for and eventually editing the popular 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.440 children's magazine, Mampato. So she was writing 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:48.860 for multiple audiences across different genres 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:51.320 all at the same time, including children's stories 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:54.120 like La Willa Panchita and Lauches y Lachones. 00:09:54.779 --> 00:09:56.679 shows her ability to capture diverse voices. 00:09:56.899 --> 00:09:59.059 And she also channeled her satirical energy into 00:09:59.059 --> 00:10:01.559 a regular column, which she later collected into 00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:04.720 her first published book, Civilize a Su Troglodita. 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:07.620 Which literally translates to Civilize Your Caveman. 00:10:07.820 --> 00:10:09.600 The title alone tells you everything, doesn't 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.100 it? Her focus was on dissecting and often mocking 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:14.919 traditional male behavior and patriarchal norms. 00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:17.080 And she wasn't just writing. She was a visible 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:19.440 figure, deeply embedded in the Chilean media 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.700 landscape. She worked in television production 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:24.980 for channels 7 and 13 between 19... 70 and 1974. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.960 She was a working, known public intellectual 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.600 in Santiago. This extensive media background 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.100 is so crucial. It gave her the discipline of 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:35.559 meeting deadlines, the ability to write clearly 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:38.440 and engagingly for a mass audience, and the confidence 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:41.840 to express strong, often contrary opinions publicly. 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:44.259 It's all groundwork. It prepared her for the 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:46.399 rigor required to write a novel, even if she 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.600 didn't know it yet. Right. And this path leads 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:52.070 us directly to the moment of the prophecy. While 00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:54.350 working as a journalist, she sought an interview 00:10:54.350 --> 00:10:57.330 with Chile's revered poet, the Nobel laureate 00:10:57.330 --> 00:11:00.929 Pablo Neruda. A towering figure in Chilean letters. 00:11:01.190 --> 00:11:04.389 The towering figure. And Neruda didn't just dismiss 00:11:04.389 --> 00:11:07.250 her. He recognized this latent creative energy 00:11:07.250 --> 00:11:09.669 that lay just beneath her journalistic facade. 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:13.210 When she met him, he explicitly advised her that 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:15.570 she had too much imagination to be a journalist 00:11:15.570 --> 00:11:18.700 and that her destiny lay in fiction. That's incredible 00:11:18.700 --> 00:11:21.539 validation, but it's also a profound redirection. 00:11:21.659 --> 00:11:23.700 It's not just a compliment, it's a firm push 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:26.220 away from facts and toward fantasy. He encouraged 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.600 her to take her existing work, her satirical 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.000 columns, and compile them into a book. So he 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.700 essentially validated her impulse to tell stories 00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:37.899 that transcended mere reporting. And Sivlis Asutragladita 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:40.740 became the tangible result of that advice. It 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:44.120 did. But what's so chilling is the timing. This 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:47.059 prophetic advice. to turn away from the brutal 00:11:47.059 --> 00:11:50.100 facts of the world. It came just months before 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:52.620 the political reality of Chile became too dangerous 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:55.600 for any journalist or any citizen to ignore. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:57.879 The storm was gathering. And her entire life 00:11:57.879 --> 00:12:00.519 was about to be forcibly reset. The stage is 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.940 set for the definitive rupture. Everything she 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:04.620 had learned about the world, about stability, 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:07.000 about literature, was about to be tested by political 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.419 violence. The transition from successful journalist 00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:12.240 to exiled novelist begins violently in September 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:15.909 1973. The military coup d 'etat, led by General 00:12:15.909 --> 00:12:18.769 Augusto Pinochet, overthrew and lead to the death 00:12:18.769 --> 00:12:22.110 of her cousin, President Salvador Allende. This 00:12:22.110 --> 00:12:24.669 was a moment of profound national trauma, and 00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:26.950 for Isabel, a total annihilation of her life 00:12:26.950 --> 00:12:28.850 as she knew it. This isn't just news from afar. 00:12:29.029 --> 00:12:30.929 This is a direct, intimate, life -threatening 00:12:30.929 --> 00:12:33.549 crisis, all because of her familial and political 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:36.370 connections. The sources make it clear she was 00:12:36.370 --> 00:12:38.850 in immediate danger. Her connection to the deposed 00:12:38.850 --> 00:12:41.690 president was personal. She was close to him. 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.360 and her socialist sympathies were well known 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:47.879 through her public journalism. The Pinochet regime 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:51.019 immediately began widespread purges of perceived 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.059 political opponents. And those with connections 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.600 to the Ellen government were prime targets. Prime 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.919 targets. And the sources detail her involvement 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:01.639 in actively resisting the junta, or at least 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.440 in humanitarian rescue efforts. She risked her 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:07.299 life arranging safe passage for people on the 00:13:07.299 --> 00:13:10.750 junta's... Wanted lists. That phrase, arranging 00:13:10.750 --> 00:13:13.470 safe passage, I mean, it really minimizes the 00:13:13.470 --> 00:13:15.370 danger, doesn't it? It does. She was dealing 00:13:15.370 --> 00:13:18.149 with clandestine networks, risking execution 00:13:18.149 --> 00:13:20.590 or disappearance by helping dissidents flee the 00:13:20.590 --> 00:13:23.029 country. She was deeply committed to the resistance 00:13:23.029 --> 00:13:26.009 until the threat moved too close to home. And 00:13:26.009 --> 00:13:28.470 that line was crossed when her own family was 00:13:28.470 --> 00:13:31.090 targeted. Yes. Her mother and stepfather narrowly 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:33.990 escaped assassination. Once that happened, and 00:13:33.990 --> 00:13:35.789 the knowledge spread that Isabel herself had 00:13:35.789 --> 00:13:37.889 been added to the wanted list and was receiving 00:13:37.889 --> 00:13:41.049 direct death threats, well, her position in Chile 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.590 became completely untenable. The time for resistance 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:47.090 had ended. The time for survival had begun. Exactly. 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:51.009 So in 1975, she fled Chile. Her destination was 00:13:51.009 --> 00:13:53.929 Venezuela. where she would remain for 13 formative 00:13:53.929 --> 00:13:56.929 years. 13 years? That's more than a decade. That's 00:13:56.929 --> 00:13:59.250 enough time to shed one identity and build another 00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:01.830 completely from scratch. And that's exactly what 00:14:01.830 --> 00:14:04.950 she believes happened. Alinde has reflected that 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:07.409 this involuntary departure was, paradoxically, 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:10.009 the very catalyst that made her a serious writer. 00:14:10.289 --> 00:14:13.129 How so? She stated that staying in Chile would 00:14:13.129 --> 00:14:14.990 have meant being trapped in the chores, in the 00:14:14.990 --> 00:14:16.970 family, in the person that people expected me 00:14:16.970 --> 00:14:19.370 to be. So the dictatorship, by forcing her out, 00:14:19.690 --> 00:14:21.710 inadvertently liberated her from the societal 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:24.730 constraints of the Chilean patriarchy. That is 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:27.750 a profound irony. It is. She felt that the domestic 00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:30.149 expectations, the need to conform to the role 00:14:30.149 --> 00:14:32.110 of a wife and mother in a traditional society, 00:14:32.429 --> 00:14:35.629 would have just crushed her creative voice. Exile 00:14:35.629 --> 00:14:37.450 gave her the necessary distance, geographical 00:14:37.450 --> 00:14:40.889 and emotional, to look back at the chaos, the 00:14:40.889 --> 00:14:43.710 history, and the gender depression, and synthesize 00:14:43.710 --> 00:14:45.870 it all into fiction. The trauma provided the 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:48.970 material. The distance provided the lens. Perfectly 00:14:48.970 --> 00:14:51.669 put. Though while in Caracas, she still had to 00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:54.330 make a living. She had to maintain that journalistic 00:14:54.330 --> 00:14:56.509 discipline she'd honed back home. Right. This 00:14:56.509 --> 00:14:58.929 wasn't some kind of bohemian retreat. Not at 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:01.649 all. She continued freelance journalism, working 00:15:01.649 --> 00:15:06.029 for El Nacional from 1976 to 1983. And showing 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:08.549 the pragmatic side of her personality, she took 00:15:08.549 --> 00:15:11.330 on administrative work, serving as an administrator 00:15:11.330 --> 00:15:16.200 of the Morocco school from 1979 to 1983. It was 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.740 a practical life dictated by financial necessity, 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.220 far from the artistic circles of Santiago. Which 00:15:22.220 --> 00:15:25.639 brings us to 1981, the moment of Genesis. The 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:28.139 moment the journalist became the novelist, this 00:15:28.139 --> 00:15:30.399 is the story of the letter that became a legend. 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.879 And this anecdote, it just highlights the deeply 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:35.639 personal nature of her breakthrough. In 1981, 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:38.220 she received the devastating news that her beloved 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:41.519 99 -year -old grandfather was dying. 99, wow. 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:44.279 Yeah. She was in Caracas, unable to travel to 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.519 him in time, so she sat down to write. An anguished 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:49.000 attempt to connect one last time, to use the 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.179 power of the written word to transcend reality. 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:54.799 She intended the letter to keep him alive, at 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.980 least in spirit. And this immense emotional charge 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:00.519 transformed a simple letter into the foundation 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:02.759 of her debut novel, The House of the Spirits. 00:16:02.940 --> 00:16:04.980 So the act of writing became an act of preservation. 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:08.100 Both of her grandfather's memory and, by extension, 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.029 the memory of the Chile she had lost. She later 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:14.190 described the novel's intention explicitly to 00:16:14.190 --> 00:16:17.070 exercise the ghosts of the Pinochet dictatorship. 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:20.210 What's fascinating is that the book uses magical 00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:23.629 realism to achieve that exorcism. For those who 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:25.490 might be unfamiliar with the style, can you boil 00:16:25.490 --> 00:16:27.870 it down for us? Why was it the perfect vehicle 00:16:27.870 --> 00:16:30.470 for this political grief? Well, magical realism 00:16:30.470 --> 00:16:32.490 isn't fantasy in the way we usually think of 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:34.769 it. It's the seamless integration of extraordinary 00:16:34.769 --> 00:16:38.129 or fantastical elements into an otherwise realistic 00:16:38.129 --> 00:16:40.980 narrative setting. So it's treating the miraculous 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:44.299 as mundane. Exactly. In the context of the House 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.419 of the Spirits, it allows Allende to speak about 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:49.639 the unspeakable historical trauma of the dictatorship 00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:52.620 through metaphor. For example, a character's 00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:54.840 hair might turn green or objects might move on 00:16:54.840 --> 00:16:56.659 their own. And these things are just accepted 00:16:56.659 --> 00:16:58.980 facts within the narrative. So it heightens the 00:16:58.980 --> 00:17:01.460 emotional and political reality rather than escaping 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:04.099 it? Precisely. It gave her the necessary distance 00:17:04.099 --> 00:17:07.299 and metaphorical language to critique a dictatorship 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:09.980 that suppressed factual reporting. But despite 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:13.059 this powerful, immediate narrative, the book 00:17:13.059 --> 00:17:15.599 initially faced a tough reception from publishers. 00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:19.039 It did, yes. It was rejected by numerous Latin 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:21.180 American publishers. Maybe they didn't understand 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:23.039 this new voice or felt she was too much of a 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:25.880 journalist to write serious fiction. But it finally 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:28.140 found a home. It finally found a home and was 00:17:28.140 --> 00:17:30.990 published in Barcelona, Spain. And the success 00:17:30.990 --> 00:17:34.849 was just explosive and immediate. It quickly 00:17:34.849 --> 00:17:37.609 ran to over two dozen Spanish editions and was 00:17:37.609 --> 00:17:40.269 translated into a score of languages. And instantly 00:17:40.269 --> 00:17:43.029 she was compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the 00:17:43.029 --> 00:17:45.109 literary heavyweight of the Latin American boom 00:17:45.109 --> 00:17:47.789 that put her on the world stage right away. She 00:17:47.789 --> 00:17:50.170 was a sensation. But as we transition to discussing 00:17:50.170 --> 00:17:52.549 her routine, we have to look past the magical 00:17:52.549 --> 00:17:55.569 elements and acknowledge the strict, almost brutal 00:17:55.569 --> 00:17:57.930 work discipline that made that sensation possible. 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:00.559 We've seen this mentioned repeatedly as her strict 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.359 writing discipline. If the creation was emotional, 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.220 the process sounds like pure industrial rigor. 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:09.500 It absolutely is. Yeah. This is the journalist 00:18:09.500 --> 00:18:12.180 discipline applied to the novelist's task. The 00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:15.599 sources detail her ritualistic routine. She writes 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:18.660 on a computer, Monday to Saturday, from 9 .00 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:22.079 a .m. to 7 .0 p .m. Wait, a 10 -hour workday, 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:25.309 six days a week? That... schedule, that relentless 00:18:25.309 --> 00:18:28.269 output, it sounds less like a magical realist 00:18:28.269 --> 00:18:30.750 communing with the spirits and more like an industrial 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:33.190 writer. I see your point. Doesn't that routine, 00:18:33.329 --> 00:18:35.769 the sheer volume it implies, doesn't it lend 00:18:35.769 --> 00:18:37.829 some credence to the later critique from people 00:18:37.829 --> 00:18:39.890 like Roberto Bolaño who called her a writing 00:18:39.890 --> 00:18:42.289 machine? That's a sharp observation. And the 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:44.589 sheer structure of her output is exactly what 00:18:44.589 --> 00:18:47.190 her critics would later seize upon. They argue 00:18:47.190 --> 00:18:49.269 that true artistic creation can't be dictated 00:18:49.269 --> 00:18:51.509 by the clock. But what's her take on it? Alendi 00:18:51.509 --> 00:18:53.650 argues that this discipline is precisely what 00:18:53.650 --> 00:18:56.490 enables her imagination. It removes the stress 00:18:56.490 --> 00:18:59.069 of waiting for inspiration. It turns writing 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:02.170 into a habit, ensuring the story gets told, regardless 00:19:02.170 --> 00:19:05.809 of the muse. It's the absolute antithesis of 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.869 the tortured romantic novelist stereotype. And 00:19:08.869 --> 00:19:10.930 there is one detail, an almost superstitious 00:19:10.930 --> 00:19:13.569 tradition, that anchors her entire career back 00:19:13.569 --> 00:19:17.269 to that first moment of necessity in 1981. The 00:19:17.269 --> 00:19:19.990 famous January 8th rule. She always starts a 00:19:19.990 --> 00:19:21.869 new book on January 8th. This is not arbitrary. 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:24.069 It's the tradition she began in 1981 when she 00:19:24.069 --> 00:19:25.490 started writing that letter to her grandfather. 00:19:25.730 --> 00:19:28.009 So it binds every single work she has ever written 00:19:28.009 --> 00:19:30.690 back to that foundational traumatic act of separation 00:19:30.690 --> 00:19:33.250 and creation. It's the anniversary of her self 00:19:33.250 --> 00:19:35.730 -actualization as a novelist. It suggests that 00:19:35.730 --> 00:19:38.789 every story she tells is, on some level, an attempt 00:19:38.789 --> 00:19:41.430 to recreate the emotional intensity and necessity 00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:44.009 of that first letter. It's a remarkable fusion 00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:47.819 of trauma, ritual and success. So as we dive 00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:50.880 deeper into her massive literary success, we 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:53.000 need to clarify her position in the literary 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.279 world. Her style is a composite, drawing heavily 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.960 from magical realism, as we discussed, but also 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.339 incorporating elements of post -boom literature. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.539 Right. And since you mentioned the comparison 00:20:03.539 --> 00:20:07.220 to Garcia Marquez, who is the icon of the Latin 00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:10.240 American boom, let's delineate what post -boom 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:13.799 literature means and why Allende is often categorized 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:16.500 there. Okay. Good idea. The boom era, which was 00:20:16.500 --> 00:20:19.319 roughly the 1960s, was characterized by literary 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:22.019 experimentation, complex narrative structures, 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.700 and high intellectual rigor. You know, writers 00:20:24.700 --> 00:20:27.180 like Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortázar. Right. 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:30.059 Often very challenging reads. Very. Post -boom 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:32.700 literature, which emerged in the 70s and 80s, 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.099 maintained that political commitment but often 00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:37.579 prioritized narrative accessibility, a faster 00:20:37.579 --> 00:20:40.519 pace, and a focus on historical and geopolitical 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:43.359 realities. Allende fits this because while she 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:45.900 uses fantastical elements, her core narratives 00:20:45.900 --> 00:20:48.400 are very linear, highly readable, and driven 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.680 by explicit historical context. Which made her 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.460 instantly accessible to a global audience. Instantly. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.759 And the size of that audience is what fundamentally 00:20:56.759 --> 00:20:59.839 defines her legacy and, ironically, fuel the 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.559 criticism against her. Let's restate the scale 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:05.119 of her success because the numbers are genuinely 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:07.420 staggering. They really are. Her novels have 00:21:07.420 --> 00:21:10.000 been translated into more than 42 languages and 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.400 have sold over 77 million copies worldwide. 77 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:17.200 million. This makes her, indisputably, the world's 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:20.059 most widely read Spanish language author. She 00:21:20.059 --> 00:21:22.900 is not just popular. She is a cultural phenomenon 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:25.980 that rivals any literary figure of the last half 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:28.329 century. And this success is sustained. We're 00:21:28.329 --> 00:21:30.289 talking about massive work spanning decades, 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:32.829 from the early successes like Of Love and Shadows 00:21:32.829 --> 00:21:35.730 and Eva Luna, to explorations of historical figures 00:21:35.730 --> 00:21:38.630 like Zorro, and major recent novels like Violetta 00:21:38.630 --> 00:21:41.150 and The Forthcoming. My name is Emilia Del Valle. 00:21:41.329 --> 00:21:44.009 Her global recognition mirrors this scale. She's 00:21:44.009 --> 00:21:46.230 been named a literary legend, was named the third 00:21:46.230 --> 00:21:48.210 most influential Latino leader in the world in 00:21:48.210 --> 00:21:51.029 2007, and was lauded by outlets like the Los 00:21:51.029 --> 00:21:55.559 Angeles Times as a genius. And she's received 00:21:55.559 --> 00:21:58.420 major cultural accolades, including the prestigious 00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:00.740 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for contributing 00:22:00.740 --> 00:22:02.940 to the beauty of the world. The professional 00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:06.519 world recognizes her as a giant. Unquestionably. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:09.680 That is the high praise. But we must now pivot 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:12.640 to the fierce counter -narrative, the intellectual 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.119 disdain that really haunts her career. This is 00:22:16.119 --> 00:22:18.140 where the world of commerce clashes violently 00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:21.220 with the world of academic rigor. And this internal 00:22:21.220 --> 00:22:24.180 literary debate is intense. The critique, if 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:26.740 you boil it down, is essentially this. Her writing 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:29.880 is too accessible, too emotional, and too popular 00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:33.140 to be truly rigorous or complex art. And the 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:35.539 primary voice of this condemnation was, ironically, 00:22:35.740 --> 00:22:38.200 another Chilean master novelist, Roberto Bolaño. 00:22:38.380 --> 00:22:40.480 His comments are legendary for their brutality 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:42.859 and their precision. He didn't just dislike her 00:22:42.859 --> 00:22:45.359 work. He sought to disqualify it entirely. He 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.160 was vicious. He was. Bolaño famously called her 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:50.410 literature anemic. suggesting it lacked vital 00:22:50.410 --> 00:22:53.410 strength, comparing it to a person on his deathbed. 00:22:53.650 --> 00:22:55.650 He went straight for the heart of her methodology, 00:22:56.049 --> 00:22:58.009 calling her a writing machine, not a writer, 00:22:58.109 --> 00:23:01.049 and dismissively referred to her as a hack. Wow. 00:23:01.170 --> 00:23:04.549 Anemic. A writing machine. Hack. That's not just 00:23:04.549 --> 00:23:07.009 criticism. That's a total dismissal of her artistic 00:23:07.009 --> 00:23:09.950 legitimacy. It suggests that her 10 -hour, 6 00:23:09.950 --> 00:23:12.230 -day -a -week schedule is evidence of a failure 00:23:12.230 --> 00:23:15.200 of art, not... A dedication to craft. Exactly. 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:18.440 Bolaño valued literature that was dangerous, 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.940 challenging, difficult. For him, mass appeal 00:23:21.940 --> 00:23:25.640 diluted the necessary artistic tension. Her commercial 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:28.940 success was, for him, the evidence of her failure. 00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:31.539 And a similar, though maybe less vicious, critique 00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:33.640 came from the influential American critic Harold 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:36.319 Bloom. Yes. Bloom asserted that Alandi... only 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:38.519 reflects a determinate period and that afterwards 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:40.460 everybody will have forgotten her. So that's 00:23:40.460 --> 00:23:42.400 a critique of temporal relevance. He's arguing 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:44.700 she's just a popular figure of the moment, lacking 00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:47.380 the timeless structural complexity required to 00:23:47.380 --> 00:23:50.079 enter the permanent Western literary canon. Right. 00:23:50.180 --> 00:23:52.380 She offers pleasure and reflection, but not the 00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:55.160 enduring, challenging artistic truth that Bloom 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:57.559 champions. And the novelist Gonzalo Contreras, 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:00.400 he really crystallized the entire debate in one 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:03.039 quote. He stated that Allende committed a grave 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:06.089 error. to confuse commercial success with literary 00:24:06.089 --> 00:24:09.269 quality. And this is the core philosophical battle. 00:24:09.509 --> 00:24:12.390 Can something be both high quality and immensely 00:24:12.390 --> 00:24:15.490 popular? These critics argue no. They believe 00:24:15.490 --> 00:24:18.349 that true literary value requires effort, demands 00:24:18.349 --> 00:24:21.089 ambiguity, and should resist easy consumption. 00:24:21.369 --> 00:24:23.630 So they see her success, her ability to reach 00:24:23.630 --> 00:24:27.599 77 million readers. as proof that she has pandered 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:30.200 to the lowest common denominator, prioritizing 00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:33.000 melodrama over rigorous craft. That's the argument. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.259 This must be incredibly difficult to deal with, 00:24:35.339 --> 00:24:37.519 especially when so much of the criticism comes 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:39.960 from intellectual figures in her own homeland. 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:43.299 How has Allende confronted this duality? Oh, 00:24:43.299 --> 00:24:46.039 she is completely aware of the disdain. She has 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:48.240 publicly noted that she rarely receives good 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:50.940 reviews in Chile and that Chilean intellectuals 00:24:50.940 --> 00:24:53.299 specifically detest her. But her rebuttal is 00:24:53.299 --> 00:24:55.509 powerful. She seems to champion the... reader 00:24:55.509 --> 00:24:58.069 and reframe the meaning of quality. She does. 00:24:58.230 --> 00:25:00.750 She directly contests the notion that high sales 00:25:00.750 --> 00:25:03.230 automatically means superficial writing, calling 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:05.950 that assumption a great insult to the readership. 00:25:06.349 --> 00:25:09.150 She argues that readers are intelligent and demanding 00:25:09.150 --> 00:25:12.089 and her global connection stems from the universality 00:25:12.089 --> 00:25:14.710 and emotional truth of her themes, themes that 00:25:14.710 --> 00:25:17.369 directly address political oppression and female 00:25:17.369 --> 00:25:20.329 liberation. So she's basically saying, who are 00:25:20.329 --> 00:25:23.150 you to tell 77 million people their taste is 00:25:23.150 --> 00:25:26.779 bad? In essence, yes. She highlights the absurdity 00:25:26.779 --> 00:25:29.599 of the literary snobbery she faces, recalling 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.740 how one professor attacked her simply for selling 00:25:31.740 --> 00:25:34.119 a lot of books, and she called that reaction 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:37.900 unforgivable. So the deep dive here is that Allende's 00:25:37.900 --> 00:25:40.019 career forces us to question the gatekeepers 00:25:40.019 --> 00:25:43.099 of literature. Is the measure of quality, intricacy 00:25:43.099 --> 00:25:45.980 and obscurity or emotional resonance and global 00:25:45.980 --> 00:25:48.839 impact? She sits firmly in the camp that believes 00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:51.000 reaching and moving millions with stories of 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:53.660 political trauma and empowerment is a profound 00:25:53.660 --> 00:25:55.920 artistic achievement, regardless of what the 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.160 critics think. For all the external battles, 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.240 the political escape, the critics war, the greatest 00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:03.799 challenge defining tragedy of Isabel Allende's 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:07.369 life was intensely. personal. It was a devastating 00:26:07.369 --> 00:26:10.349 loss that led her to step away from fiction and 00:26:10.349 --> 00:26:13.049 embrace memoir. This tragic turn occurred in 00:26:13.049 --> 00:26:16.750 1991. Her daughter, Paula Frias Allende, who 00:26:16.750 --> 00:26:20.009 was born in 1963, suffered severe brain damage 00:26:20.009 --> 00:26:22.710 due to a horrific medication error. The result 00:26:22.710 --> 00:26:25.880 was a persistent vegetative state. Alain spent 00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:28.500 months engaged in this agonizing bedside vigil, 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:31.099 a period of profound helplessness and grief. 00:26:31.619 --> 00:26:33.839 After learning the extent of the medical mishap 00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:35.759 that caused the damage, she arranged to move 00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:38.420 Paula to her home in California. And tragically, 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:40.799 Paula died in December in 1992 at the age of 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:43.960 just 29. Just 29. And that period of grief and 00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:46.339 the subsequent loss directly informed her most 00:26:46.339 --> 00:26:49.200 intimate and raw piece of work, the memoir Paula, 00:26:49.500 --> 00:26:52.079 which was published in 1995. The structure of 00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:53.680 that book is unique, isn't it? It was written 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:56.099 as an anguished, therapeutic letter to her deceased 00:26:56.099 --> 00:26:58.109 daughter. That's right, it's a dual narrative. 00:26:58.309 --> 00:27:00.950 The immediate painful description of the hospital 00:27:00.950 --> 00:27:03.849 vigil is intertwined with an extensive recounting 00:27:03.849 --> 00:27:06.049 of Ella Day's own life, including her childhood 00:27:06.049 --> 00:27:08.529 in Santiago and the formative years in exile. 00:27:09.589 --> 00:27:12.089 Writing it was clearly her mechanism for processing 00:27:12.089 --> 00:27:15.049 unimaginable trauma, weaving it into her own 00:27:15.049 --> 00:27:17.859 foundational history. This memoir marked a shift. 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:20.460 It suggests a deeper comfort with integrating 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:23.440 her biographical truth directly into her published 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:26.000 work. She later returned to the memoir format 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.440 with The Sum of Our Days in 2008. And that later 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:31.779 memoir focused on the stability she had found 00:27:31.779 --> 00:27:34.519 in California. By this time, she had settled 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:36.660 into her life with her second husband, William 00:27:36.660 --> 00:27:39.380 C. Gordon, and she focused on the proximity of 00:27:39.380 --> 00:27:41.660 her grown son, Nicholas, and her grandchildren. 00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:45.039 It was a conscious effort to document the domestic 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:47.579 contentment she had earned after decades of upheaval. 00:27:47.740 --> 00:27:49.920 This stability reflects such a change in environment 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:52.220 from the diplomatic movement of her youth. She 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:54.940 has resided in California since 1989 and gained 00:27:54.940 --> 00:27:58.319 U .S. citizenship in 1993, yet she fiercely maintains 00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:01.839 her cultural identity. Oh, fiercely. She may 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:04.299 live in San Rafael, California, with the core 00:28:04.299 --> 00:28:07.279 of her extended family close by, but she insists 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:10.339 she feels deeply Chilean in the way of living, 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:13.440 of being. And she embraces the cultural characteristics 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:15.579 she sees in herself. I remember that quote. It's 00:28:15.579 --> 00:28:18.180 wonderfully self -aware. She humorously defined 00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:22.220 that Chilean way as being bossy, messy, dominant, 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:25.440 intrusive, hospitable, tribal. It's an embrace 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:28.240 of complexity and passion, far from the polished 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:31.960 image of a global literary icon. It speaks volumes 00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:34.740 about her ability to hold two identities simultaneously, 00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:37.460 the disciplined American writer who operates 00:28:37.460 --> 00:28:40.140 on a strict schedule and the passionate Chilean 00:28:40.140 --> 00:28:42.799 matriarch who defines herself by her family and 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:45.420 her culture. And this successful rootedness allowed 00:28:45.420 --> 00:28:47.400 her to create perhaps her most powerful legacy 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:50.000 outside of literature, the Isabel Allende Foundation. 00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:53.039 This was established directly in response to 00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.190 Paula's life and death. The foundation was created 00:28:55.190 --> 00:28:58.049 on December 9th, 1996, and it essentially translates 00:28:58.049 --> 00:29:00.609 the themes of her fiction liberation, resistance 00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:03.869 to oppression, into real world action. Specifically, 00:29:03.910 --> 00:29:06.029 what is the foundation's mission and how does 00:29:06.029 --> 00:29:08.609 it connect to her daughter? its mission is and 00:29:08.609 --> 00:29:11.289 this is from them dedicated to supporting programs 00:29:11.289 --> 00:29:13.990 that promote and preserve the fundamental rights 00:29:13.990 --> 00:29:16.630 of women and children to be empowered and protected 00:29:16.630 --> 00:29:19.289 so it's a direct philosophical line from the 00:29:19.289 --> 00:29:22.210 girl who got fired for making romance novel heroines 00:29:22.210 --> 00:29:25.210 independent to the global author using her platform 00:29:25.210 --> 00:29:27.990 to fight for the independence and safety of women 00:29:27.990 --> 00:29:31.130 worldwide and the foundation's ethos is distilled 00:29:31.130 --> 00:29:34.589 into paula's own personal motto which was what 00:29:34.589 --> 00:29:37.690 is the most generous thing to do That beautiful, 00:29:37.910 --> 00:29:41.369 simple, powerful question guides the foundation's 00:29:41.369 --> 00:29:44.730 decisions, ensuring that Paula's brief life continues 00:29:44.730 --> 00:29:47.390 to resonate as a powerful force for global good 00:29:47.390 --> 00:29:50.089 and empowerment. It transforms personal tragedy 00:29:50.089 --> 00:29:52.769 into enduring philanthropy. Before we wrap up, 00:29:52.809 --> 00:29:54.710 let's quickly trace her personal life changes, 00:29:54.789 --> 00:29:56.950 which reflect her evolution and movements across 00:29:56.950 --> 00:30:00.109 continents. She married Miguel Frias in 1962. 00:30:00.829 --> 00:30:02.789 This was a foundational marriage that produced 00:30:02.789 --> 00:30:05.450 her two children, Paula and Nicholas, and it 00:30:05.450 --> 00:30:08.349 lasted until 1987, spanning her life in Chile 00:30:08.349 --> 00:30:11.009 and the early years of exile in Venezuela. And 00:30:11.009 --> 00:30:12.849 her move to the U .S. brought a new relationship. 00:30:13.289 --> 00:30:16.529 Yes. While on a book tour in California, she 00:30:16.529 --> 00:30:18.750 met William C. Gordon, who was a California attorney 00:30:18.750 --> 00:30:21.829 and novelist. She married him in 1988, and that 00:30:21.829 --> 00:30:24.309 marriage lasted until 2015. And more recently. 00:30:24.529 --> 00:30:27.789 In 2019, she married Roger Kukris, a New York 00:30:27.789 --> 00:30:30.089 lawyer with whom she currently resides in California. 00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:33.210 Finally, as required by our sources, we must 00:30:33.210 --> 00:30:35.650 report on her stated political views, maintaining 00:30:35.650 --> 00:30:38.769 our impartial stance. I mean, her political background 00:30:38.769 --> 00:30:40.849 makes it impossible for her to remain silent 00:30:40.849 --> 00:30:43.170 on these matters. That's absolutely true. Her 00:30:43.170 --> 00:30:46.210 life was forged in political fire and she remains 00:30:46.210 --> 00:30:49.130 politically engaged. She publicly expressed deep 00:30:49.130 --> 00:30:51.589 contempt for Donald Trump and his policies following 00:30:51.589 --> 00:30:54.259 the 2016 election. She also actively endorsed 00:30:54.259 --> 00:30:58.119 Joe Biden in 2020. Yes. And crucially, she uses 00:30:58.119 --> 00:31:00.779 her platform consistently to defend the political 00:31:00.779 --> 00:31:03.400 and social record of her cousin, Salvador Allende, 00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:05.859 ensuring that the legacy of the democratically 00:31:05.859 --> 00:31:08.640 elected socialist leader is not forgotten in 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:11.160 the face of Pinochet's history. Her politics 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:12.980 are not separate from her art. They are the very 00:31:12.980 --> 00:31:15.559 air it breathes. So as we synthesize this deep 00:31:15.559 --> 00:31:17.940 dive for you, what defines the extraordinary 00:31:17.940 --> 00:31:21.480 narrative of Isabel Allende? We've seen a life 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:23.920 of constant upheaval from the global flux of 00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:26.839 a diplomatic childhood to the definitive traumatic 00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:30.420 rupture of political exile. Which she then transformed 00:31:30.420 --> 00:31:33.099 into a moment of necessary personal liberation. 00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:35.400 We've established how she used the discipline 00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:37.400 of her journalism and the trauma of her exile 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:40.759 to create this world straddling massive literary 00:31:40.759 --> 00:31:52.319 empire. Right. Exile didn't just motivate her. 00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:54.740 It provided the social freedom and the critical 00:31:54.740 --> 00:31:57.240 distance she needed to find her serious voice. 00:31:57.380 --> 00:31:59.660 And despite the fierce intellectual condemnation 00:31:59.660 --> 00:32:01.839 critics who confused popularity with artistic 00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:04.880 shallowness, who labeled her a hack, she sustained 00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:07.240 phenomenal commercial success. While establishing 00:32:07.240 --> 00:32:09.779 an even deeper, more meaningful philanthropic 00:32:09.779 --> 00:32:12.359 legacy in her daughter Paula's name, dedicated 00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:14.579 to the empowerment and protection of women and 00:32:14.579 --> 00:32:16.920 children globally. Her career challenges the 00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:18.900 core assumptions of the literary establishment. 00:32:19.259 --> 00:32:21.579 It suggests that a writer can be structurally 00:32:21.579 --> 00:32:25.059 rigorous, politically charged, emotionally accessible, 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:28.079 and financially successful all at once. She is 00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:30.539 the ultimate exemplar of the learner, adapting, 00:32:30.839 --> 00:32:33.759 absorbing, and transforming every challenge into 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:36.079 a chapter of her next story. And that circle 00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:37.680 brings us back to our final thought for you, 00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:40.940 the listener, to mull over. We began by recalling 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:43.480 that Isabella Ande was fired from her first writing 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:46.059 job, translating romance novels, because she 00:32:46.059 --> 00:32:47.980 made the heroines more intelligent and independent. 00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:51.640 Given that her novels, translated into 42 languages 00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:54.859 and selling 77 million copies, are consistently 00:32:54.859 --> 00:32:57.460 centered on women contesting patriarchal ideals, 00:32:57.740 --> 00:33:00.140 and given that her foundation is dedicated to 00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:02.940 female empowerment. What does her sustained, 00:33:03.160 --> 00:33:05.680 phenomenal commercial success tell us about the 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:08.700 global readership's quiet, enduring hunger for 00:33:08.700 --> 00:33:11.359 narratives centered on female liberation? It 00:33:11.359 --> 00:33:13.140 seems the world was waiting for the stories the 00:33:13.140 --> 00:33:15.759 intellectuals dismissed. The universal success 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.160 of the intelligent heroine. A truly provocative 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:21.980 thought to end on. Thank you for joining us on 00:33:21.980 --> 00:33:24.279 this deep dive into the extraordinary life of 00:33:24.279 --> 00:33:26.920 Isabel Allende. Until next time. Stay curious.