11:35 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books|Chile|history|literature|Women · Comments Off
9 May 2008
I know, this is the second Isabel Allende book I picked this week, but as I was scanning my bookshelves this morning, I was searching for a book on motherhood and mother daughter relationships. Since my book isn’t done yet, I turned to Isabel Allende and Paula. This non-fiction book is a love letter to Allende’s daughter who passed away at a tragically young age. It is a telling of Chilean history and one Latin American woman’s struggle before, during, and after the Pinochet dictatorship in that country. It is an autobiography but also a confessional in a way that asks, “What would you tell your daughter if she were on her deathbed?”
Isabel Allende answers this question be connecting generations through stories and history.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I first read this book the summer before I moved to Chile, in 1996. And the book still makes me cry today.
11:44 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books|Chile|literature|Women · 2 Comments
7 May 2008
I fell in love with Isabel Allende the summer before I went to Chile and I still lover her (although I enjoy her earlier works more than her later books). In Eva Luna, Allende weaved her story magic through the character of Eve, who is a storyteller herself. The storytelling is an act of escape, self-protection, and even revolution against the struggles Eva finds herself in, in an unnamed South American nation.
Just a beautiful book.
8:08 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books|Chile|literature|Polls2006|VivirLatino · Comments Off
27 Jul 2006
Name: Isabel Allende Llona
Age: 63
Occupation: Writer
Place of Residence: San Rafael, California
Bio: From Wikipedia : “Allende was born in Lima to diplomat Tomás Allende who was a Chilean ambassador there. She is the niece of Salvador Allende, the President of Chile from 1970 to 73. In 1945, her parents separated, and her mother relocated with their three children to Chile, where they lived until 1953. The family later moved to Bolivia and then to Lebanon. She returned to Chile in 1958 to complete her secondary education, and there she met her first husband, Miguel FrÃas, whom she married in 1962. On September 11, 1973 , her uncle, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in the wake of a violent coup and during the capture of La Moneda (the seat of the presidency of Chile). In 1975, Isabel Allende went into exile in Venezuela. In 1981, Allende learned that her grandfather, age 99, was on his deathbed. She started writing him a letter that later evolved into a book manuscript, The House of Spirits (1982). The book was a great success and was later made into a film (The House of the Spirits, 1993) by Danish director Bille August. The movie starred Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, Glenn Close and Antonio Banderas. During a visit to California in 1988, Allende met her current husband, Willie Gordon, a lawyer, and has lived in San Rafael since then. In 2003 she obtained U.S. citizenship.”
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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