Isabel Allende

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Isabel Allende
Allende in Germany, 2015
Allende in Germany, 2015
BornIsabel Angélica Allende Llona
(1942-08-02) 2 August 1942 (age 81)
Lima, Peru[1]
Occupation
Author
LanguageSpanish
NationalityChilean
Citizenship
  • Chile
  • United States
Notable awards
Spouse
Miguel Frías
(m. 1962; div. 1987)
[3]
William C. Gordon
(m. 1988; div. 2015)
[4]
Roger Cukras
(m. 2019)
[5]
ChildrenPaula Frías Allende
Nicolás Frías Allende
RelativesAllende family
Website
www.isabelallende.com

Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (Latin American Spanish: [isaˈβel aˈʝende] ; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American[6][7] writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus, 1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias, 2002), which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author."[8] In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters,[9] and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize.[10] President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.[2]

Allende's novels are often based upon her personal experience and historical events and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured U.S. colleges to teach literature. Fluent in English, Allende was granted United States citizenship in 1993, having lived in California since 1989.

Personal life

Allende was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros called "Doña Panchita" (the daughter of Agustín Llona Cuevas and Isabel Barros Moreira, of Portuguese descent) and Tomás Allende, who was at the time a second secretary at the Chilean embassy. Her father Tomás was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973.[11][12][13]

In 1945, after Tomás left them,

Beirut, Lebanon, she attended an English private school. The family returned to Chile in 1958, where Allende was also briefly home-schooled. In her youth, she read widely, particularly the works of William Shakespeare.[15]

In 1970, Salvador Allende appointed Huidobro as ambassador to Argentina.[3]

While living in Chile, Allende finished her secondary studies and met engineering student Miguel Frías whom she married in 1962.[3] They had two children, a son and a daughter.

Reportedly, "Allende married early, into an Anglophile family and a kind of double life: at home she was the obedient wife and mother of two; in public she became, after a spell translating Barbara Cartland, a moderately well-known TV personality, a dramatist and a journalist on a feminist magazine."[11]

From 1959 to 1965, Allende worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Santiago, then in Brussels, and elsewhere in Europe. For a short time in Chile, she also had a job translating romance novels from English to Spanish.[16] However, she was fired for making unauthorized changes to the dialogue of the heroines to make them sound more intelligent, as well as altering the Cinderella ending to allow the heroines to find more independence and do good in the world.[17]

Allende's and Frías's daughter Paula was born in 1963; she died in 1992. In 1966, Allende again returned to Chile, where her son Nicolás was born that year.[18]

Exile in Venezuela

In 1973,

El Nacional, a major national newspaper.[22] In 1978, she began a temporary separation from Miguel Frías. She lived in Spain for two months, then returned to her marriage.[23]

Later life

Allende speaks to the City Club of Cleveland, 8 September 2017.

She divorced her first husband, Miguel Frías, in 1987. During a visit to California on a book tour in 1988, Allende met her second husband, California attorney and novelist William C. "Willie" Gordon. They married in July 1988.[24] In 1994, she was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit, the first woman to receive this honor. Allende resides in San Rafael, California. Most of her family lives nearby, with her son, his second wife, and her grandchildren just down the hill, in the house she and her second husband vacated.[11] She separated from Gordon in April 2015.[4]

In 2006, she was one of the eight flag bearers at the

Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.[25] She presented the talk Tales of Passion at TED 2007.[25] In 2008, Allende received the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University for her "distinguished contributions as a literary artist and humanitarian."[26] In 2014, Allende received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Harvard University
for her contributions to literature.

In 2019 she married Roger Cukras, a lawyer from New York.[5][27]

Although not as openly political as some of her contemporary writers, she expressed contempt for Donald Trump and his policies following his election in 2016,[28] and she later endorsed Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.[29] She has also regularly defended the record of her father's cousin, Salvador Allende.

Foundation

Allende started the Isabel Allende Foundation on 9 December 1996, in honor of her daughter, Paula Frías Allende, who fell into a coma after complications of the disease porphyria led to her hospitalization.[30] Paula was 29 years old when she died in 1992.[31] The foundation is "dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected."[32]

Career

Allende (in red, 3rd L to R), 2007, at TED in California, flanked (L to R) by June Cohen, Lakshmi Pratury and Tracy Chapman

Beginning in 1967, Allende was on the editorial staff of Paula magazine and the children's magazine Mampato from 1969 to 1974, where she later became the editor.[33] She published two children's stories, "La Abuela Panchita" and "Lauchas y Lauchones", as well as a collection of articles, Civilice a Su Troglodita. She also worked in Chilean television production for channels 7 and 13 from 1970 to 1974.[33] As a journalist, she once sought an interview with poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda agreed to the interview, and he told her that she had too much imagination to be a journalist and should be a novelist instead.[16] He also advised her to compile her satirical columns in book form.[17]: W4 She did so, and this became her first published book. In 1973, Allende's play El Embajador played in Santiago a few months before she was forced to flee the country due to the coup.

During her time in Venezuela, Allende was a freelance journalist for El Nacional in Caracas from 1976 to 1983 and an administrator of the Marrocco School in Caracas from 1979 to 1983.[33]

In 1981, while in Caracas, Allende received a phone call informing her that her 99-year-old grandfather was near death, and she sat down to write him a letter, hoping to thereby "keep him alive, at least in spirit." The letter evolved into a book,

magical realism.[11][34]

Although Allende is often cited as a practitioner of magical realism, her works also display elements of post-Boom literature. Allende also holds to a very strict writing routine.[35] She writes on a computer, working Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 19:00 "I always start on 8 January", Allende stated, "a tradition she began in 1981 with the letter she wrote to her dying grandfather that would become The House of the Spirits."[36]

Allende's book Paula (1995) is a memoir of her childhood in Santiago and the years she spent in exile. It is written as an anguished letter to her daughter. In 1991 an error in Paula's medication resulted in severe brain damage, leaving her in a persistent vegetative state.[37] Allende spent months at Paula's bedside before learning that a hospital mishap had caused the brain damage. Allende had Paula moved to a hospital in California where she died on 6 December 1992.

Allende's novels have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold more than 77 million copies.

El cuaderno de Maya (Maya's Notebook), in which the setting alternates between Berkeley, California, and Chiloé in Chile, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada
.

Reception

Latino Leaders Magazine called her a "literary legend" in a 2007 article naming her the third most influential Latino leader in the world.[32]

Her work has drawn some negative criticism. In an article published in Entre paréntesis, Roberto Bolaño called Allende's literature anemic, comparing it to "a person on his deathbed", and later called her "a writing machine, not a writer".[39][40][41] Literary critic Harold Bloom said that Allende only "reflects a determinate period, and that afterwards everybody will have forgotten her".[41][42] Novelist Gonzalo Contreras said that "she commits a grave error, to confuse commercial success with literary quality".[43]

Allende told El Clarín that she recognizes she has not always received good reviews in Chile, stating that Chilean intellectuals "detest" her. However, she disagrees with these assessments:

The fact people think that when you sell a lot of books you are not a serious writer is a great insult to the readership. I get a little angry when people try to say such a thing. There was a review of my last book in one American paper by a professor of Latin American studies and he attacked me personally for the sole reason that I sold a lot of books. That is unforgivable.[44]

It has been said that "Allende's impact on Latin American and world literature cannot be overestimated."[32] The Los Angeles Times called Allende "a genius",[32] and she has received many international awards, including the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize,[32] granted to writers "who have contributed to the beauty of the world".[32]

Awards

External videos
National Geographic
(2013)

Works

Fiction

Nonfiction

References

  1. ^ "Isabel Allende – Timeline". Isabel Allende. 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020. 1942: Isabel Allende born August 2 in Lima, where her father, Tomás Allende, a Chilean diplomat and first cousin of Salvador Allende, is stationed. Her mother, Francisca Llona (known as Doña Panchita) is the daughter of Isabel Barros Moreira and Agustín Llona Cuevas.
  2. ^ a b Schulman, Kori (10 November 2014). "President Obama Announces the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 25 March 2020. The following individuals will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony at the White House on 24 November 2014: ... Isabel Allende is a highly acclaimed author of 21 books that have sold 65 million copies in 35 languages. She has been recognized with numerous awards internationally. She received the prestigious National Literary Award in Chile, her country of origin, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  3. ^ a b c d "Isabel Allende". Isabelallende.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2017. 1962 Isabel marries Miguel Frías.
  4. ^ a b Walker, Tim (15 November 2015). "Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover: 'Fiction comes from the womb, not the brain' – book review". The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2016. The Japanese Lover was written before Allende and Gordon separated in April [2015], after 27 years. As she completed the book, she says: "I was ending a marriage that had dragged on too long. It was a time for me to reflect upon love and relationships, romance and passion, ageing, memory, loss. The things that changed the direction of my life have been totally out of my control: my father abandoning me, my mother marrying a diplomat, the military coup, my daughter's death".
  5. ^ a b "Isabel Allende – Timeline". Isabel Allende. 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020. In July [2019,] Isabel marries Roger Cukras in an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C.
  6. ^ George, Priya (3 May 2010). "Isabel Allende: "Big Think Interview with Isabel Allende" June 16, 2010"". Big Think. Archived from the original on 21 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2014. Question: Why did you choose to move to the U.S. and become a citizen?
    Isabel Allende: Yes, I came to the United States because I fell in love and I forced my guy—I forced him into marriage. And so I became a resident. And then I realized that I couldn't bring my children. I couldn't sponsor my children if I wasn't a citizen. So I became a citizen. But by then, I had learned to love this country; I have received a lot from this country. I'm very critical, but at the same time I'm very grateful. And I want to give back. I belong here.
  7. Emol
    , 17 December 2009
    (Isabel Allende)
  8. ^ "Latin American Herald Tribune - Isabel Allende Named to Council of Cervantes Institute". Latin American Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2017. MADRIDSpain's Cabinet announced Friday the appointment of Isabel Allende, the world's most widely read Spanish-language author, to the Council of the Cervantes Institute, whose mission is promoting the language, literature and culture of the Iberian nation.
  9. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Letters – Current Members". Artsandletters.org. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  10. ^ "Isabel Allende gana el Premio Nacional de Literatura tras intenso lobby | Cultura". La Tercera. 1 January 1990. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  11. ^ a b c d e f "Review: The undefeated: A life in writing: Often compared to Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende is more interested in telling stories about her own life, her difficult upbringing, marriage, and her daughter's death.'"Aida Edemariam. The Guardian (London) p. 11. 28 April 2007 Isabel Allende website
  12. ^ Christian, Shirley (5 June 1990), "Santiago Journal; Allende's Widow Meditates Anew on a Day in '73", The New York Times. Section A; p. 4, Column 3; Foreign Atlas.
  13. ^ Ross, Veronica (3 March 2007), Sewing didn't cut it for Inés, Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada). Books; p. C5.
  14. ISSN 0362-4331
    .. The article notes that Allende has been told that her father left them and that due to Chile's anti-divorce laws, Allende's mother could not divorce Tomás. Her mother, 83 when the article was published, and her stepfather, 87 at the time, have lived together for 57 years, but they are still not recognized in Chile as married.
  15. OCLC 793578915.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. ^ a b Cox, Karen Castellucci (2003). Isabel Allende: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press. pp. 2–4.[permanent dead link]
  17. ^
    ISSN 0099-9660
    . Retrieved 23 April 2010. ... she often changed the dialogue and endings to make the heroines seem smarter.
  18. ^ "Isabel Allende Timeline". 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022. Note years 1962, 1966, 1992 in timeline
  19. ^
    OCLC 1019855443.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  20. ^ Ojito, Mirta (28 July 2003). "A Writer's Heartbeats Answer Two Calls". The New York Times. The only relative on her father's side with whom Ms. Allende had remained close was Salvador Allende, the country's democratically elected Socialist president, who died in the military coup of Sept. 11, 1973 led by Augusto Pinochet. Two years later Ms. Allende – by then a wife, the mother of two children and a journalist – fled to Venezuela.
  21. S2CID 145191631
    .
  22. ^ Correa Guatarasma, Andrés (15 April 2014). "Isabel Allende: "mis mejores amigos son venezolanos"" [Isabel Allende: "my best friends are Venezuelans"] (in Spanish). Caracas: Eluniversal.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  23. ^ "Isabel Allende". Isabelallende.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2017. 1978 Temporary separation from Miguel Frías. [Isabel Allende] lives in Spain for two months, then returned to her marriage.
  24. ^ "Isabel Allende Timeline". isabelallende.com. Archived from the original on 10 December 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2019. Isabel marries Willie Gordon on 17 July 1988 in San Francisco. They live in nearby San Rafael.
  25. ^ a b Allende, Isabel (March 2007). TEDtalks: Isabel Allende Tells Tales of Passion. TED Conferences LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design). 1 minutes in. Retrieved 24 November 2014. In the last 20 years I have published a few books, but I have lived in anonymity until February of 2006, when I carried the Olympic flag in the Winter Olympics in Italy. That made me a celebrity. Now people recognize me in Macy's, and my grandchildren think that I'm cool. (Laughter)
  26. ^ "SF State celebrates 107th Commencement: Transcript " SF State News – San Francisco State University – Conferral of the Honorary Degree on Isabel Allende". San Francisco State University. 27 May 2008. Archived from the original on 3 July 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  27. ^ Beatriz Miranda (10 June 2017). "Así es Roger Cukras, el nuevo amor de Isabel Allende al que dedica su última novela" [This is Roger Cukras, the new love of Isabel Allende to whom he dedicates his last novel] (in Spanish). El Mundo. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  28. ^ "Acclaimed Chilean Writer Isabel Allende on Death of Pablo Neruda, the 1973 Chilean Coup & Trump, New Novel, "In the Midst of Winter" Examines Immigrant Lives & Love". Democracy Now!. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  29. ^ "Las elecciones son en una semana el 3 de noviembre, así es que si puedes votar, VOTA!".
  30. ^ Rodden, John (1999). "Texas Papers on Latin America | After Paula: An Interview with Isabel Allende". Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Paper No. 99-01. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  31. ^ "Our Story | Isabel Allende Foundation". The Isabel Allende Foundation. 2014. Archived from the original on 19 November 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014. During her short life, Paula worked as a volunteer in poor communities in Venezuela and Spain, offering her time, her dedication and skills as an educator and psychologist. She cared deeply for others. When in doubt, her motto was: What is the most generous thing to do? My foundation, based on her ideals of service and compassion, was created to continue her work.
  32. ^
    ISSN 1529-3998
    . 1 June 2007.
  33. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2020. Employment: Journalist, Paula Magazine, Santiago, 1967-74; Mampato Magazine 1969-74; Channel 7 humorous programmes 1970–74; freelance, El Nacional
    , Caracas 1976–83. Administrator, Marrocco School, Caracas. 1979–83.
  34. .
  35. ^ LATIN AMERICA'S SCHEHERAZADE; Drawing on dreams, myths, and memories, Chilean novelist Isabel Allende weaves fantastical tales in which reality and the absurd intersect. Fernando González. The Boston Globe Magazine; p. 14. 25 April 1993.
  36. ^ Allende, heroine 'Ines' are kindred spirits. Javier Erik Olvera. Inside Bay Area (California). Bay Area Living; Home and Garden. 25 November 2006.
  37. ^ Hornblower, Margot (10 July 1995). "Grief and Rebirth". Time. Vol. 146, no. 2. p. 65. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  38. ^ a b Berson, Misha (1 June 2007). "This old "House" opened a lot of doors for Isabel Allende". Theater preview. The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. p. H44. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020. 'I wrote that book exactly 25 years ago. It's now the 25th anniversary of the book in Spanish. It opened the door for all my other books'". That is Isabel Allende talking about her breakthrough 1982 novel, "The House of the Spirits". The panoramic work chronicles the historical, mystical and the psychological forces in the life of a South American clan. And a play based on the international best-seller debuts next week [8 June 2007] in Seattle.
  39. OCLC 57244781
    .
  40. ^ Bolaño, Roberto. Entre paréntesis, page 102:
  41. ^ a b Los éxitos y las críticas Clarín. 9 February 2003

  42. OCLC 49991424
    .
  43. ^ Isabel Allende critica duramente a escritores chilenos y desata polémica, La Tercera. 9 February 2003
  44. ^ Donegan, Lawrence (12 July 2008). "This much I know: Isabel Allende, writer, 65, San Francisco". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  45. ^ "Hispanic Heritage Awards for Literature". Hispanic Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2011. HHA Honorees: 1996 ; Isabel Allende ; Literature ; Isabel Allende is the 1996 Hispanic Heritage Award Honoree in Literature. Ms. Allende is the author of several best-selling novels and short stories. She is able to blend her female perspective with the beautiful magic realism of Latin creativity.
  46. ISBN 978-0-7864-7127-0. Summer 1996:... More honors from the U.S. Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature and the American Library Association
    Books to Remember boosted her name recognition.
  47. ^ "2006 Great Immigrants: Isabel Allende".
  48. ^ "Isabel Allende Wins the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award". Hispanically Speaking News. 28 June 2011. Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  49. ^ Fisker, Trine (28 June 2011). "Allende får H.C. Andersen-pris" [Allende gets H.C. Andersen Prize]. Nyhederne (in Danish). Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  50. ^ "Obama awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18". San Francisco Chronicle. 24 November 2014. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2014. [President] Obama praised the accomplishments of winners who overcame hardship to achieve success, including novelist Isabel Allende, who was exiled from her home country of Chile by a military government.
  51. ^ "Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - The 82nd Annual". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - The 82nd Annual. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  52. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  53. ^ "NBF to honor Isabel Allende with lifetime achievement award". National Book Foundation. 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019. Author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Luís Alberto Urrea to present Medal to Allende ... The National Book Foundation announced it will award Isabel Allende with its 2018 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL).
  54. ^ "Honorary Degrees | Whittier College". Whittier College. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020. Year: 2007; Honored: Isabel Allende, Writer; Degree Granted: Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.)
  55. ^ "In the Midst of Winter". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2020. [A] mesmerizing story that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil.
  56. ^ "Violeta". Penguin Libros ES. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  57. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  58. ^ Avilés, Marcela Davison (10 June 2023). "'The Wind Knows My Name' is a reference and a refrain in the search for home". NPR.
  59. ^ Beauregard, Luis Pablo (9 July 2023). "Isabel Allende: 'In Chile, people are longing for a Bukele. I say to them: be careful, that's how we got Pinochet'". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  60. ISSN 1091-2339
    . Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  61. subsequent dictatorship
    and her family's years of exile.

Sources

External links