Latino Empowerment: Isabel Allende

by | Aug 22, 2024 | Blog

One of the most prolific Latina writers of our time, Isabel Allende is role model to women around the world. Her mark on the world is unquestionable, from her impressive slate of literature to her incredible work with the Isabel Allende foundation.

She was born in Peru on August 2nd, 1942, to Chilean parents who would raise her in Chile as well. As a young adult, she found work as a journalist in Chile, beginning her writing career in nonfiction, despite her future success in predominantly fiction writing. Her time as a journalist was in 1960s-70s Chile, the tail end of which saw the country’s first socialist president in her father’s cousin, Salvador Allende.

President Allende’s political legacy is a stark comparison to Isabel’s legacy as a storyteller, and yet it would become a profound catalyst for her future. His administration led the country through a tumultuous three years, wherein he attempted to bring the country closer to a more socialist vision. However, these efforts only led to civil unrest across the country, mounting to a climax, when Augusto Pinochet led a military coup against President Allende, on September 11th, 1973.

Still a young journalist, Isabel Allende was forced out of the country in 1975, finding refuge in Venezuela. While in exile, she would learn of her grandfather’s poor health on January 8th, 1981. He was dying, and she was unable to come home to see him before he passed, so she immediately began to write a letter. Allende wanted her grandfather to know that she remembered all of his stories, but the letter would never make it to him. Despite this, she continued to write the letter, longer and longer, until it morphed into her first book, The House of Spirits, a story of magical realism that offers a love story blended with political commentary.

Her first book was met with immense success and acclaim around the world, launching her career as an author with twenty-seven books across almost forty years. Among her most formative titles, like The House of Spirits, is her first nonfiction book, Paula, a memoir named after her daughter. Paula Frías Allende was 29 years old when she fell into a porphyria-induced coma, in 1991. She was suffering from a hereditary blood disease, and would pass in 1992. Isabel Allende describes this period as being the darkest time in her life, and she remembers her daughter as a beacon of generosity, whose short life was spent as a volunteer and activist for communities in Venezuela and Spain. Paula is a tribute to her, as well as a narrative embodiment of Allende’s grief. However, it was Paula’s generous legacy that would survive the test of the time, as the profits gained from Allende’s memoir would provide the seed money for something greater.

The Isabel Allende Foundation began on December 9th, 1996. It is a nonprofit organization, formed to gather funding for other philanthropic nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations whose work relates to the protection of women’s rights. The foundation’s mission statement is to “invest in the power of women and girls to secure reproductive rights, economic independence and freedom from violence.” The Foundation’s grants have gone to organizations all around the world, including countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and have contributed to combatting human trafficking, enabling contraception and reproductive health, education, immigration, and much more. To this day, Isabel Allende herself continues to contribute to the foundation’s funds with the income from her many books. It is in this way that she too continues to embody Paula’s generous spirit. From her love for her grandfather, his ideology and stories, to her love for her daughter, her generosity and activism, Isabel Allende displays admirable and inspiring spirit. She is not only an excellent example of the power of Hispanic literature, but of the power of Hispanic community.

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