Isabel Allende: "I've gained respect after writing many books and selling millions of copies."

The writer Isabel Allende (Lima, 1942) wasn't entirely convinced. Her agent recommended titling her new novel My Name is Emilia del Valle (Plaza & Janés), but she thought it seemed too long. "I preferred something short, but luckily he didn't listen to me," she laughs now, one autumn afternoon in Buenos Aires, springtime in her California home, when she recalls that tug-of-war. The title captures the most important keys to this coming-of-age story , starring an unforgettable young journalist who links her biography to the Del Valle family, a title that those familiar with the Chilean author 's work will remember.

The author of The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune , and Portrait in Sepia , recovers characters from those novels and allows them to reappear here , linking their journeys with those of the intrepid and brave Emilia del Valle, daughter of an Irish ex-nun and a Chilean aristocrat who abandoned them . At 19, the girl, encouraged by her stepfather, begins to earn herself—through her talent—a space in the (male) media of the late 19th century and decides to travel to Chile to cover the civil war as a correspondent (also a male challenge at the time). There are other reasons for this journey, more personal, even intimate.

Biographies say Allende is 82, but you could say she's much younger and nothing would change. She's funny, frank, even approachable during the interview , and she answers with enthusiasm, as if she had all the time in the world, as if the questions were surprising, as if she weren't a celebrated author , who knows every inch of her professional universe and this exchange with Clarín , part of her job.

–The title has a meaning at first, but upon reading it, it takes on a completely different meaning. How did you arrive at that statement of self-affirmation?

–I was a bit opposed to the name because it seemed too long. I thought it was enough to say, for example, My name is Emilia . I talked it over with my agent, and he told me the last name was very important because, on the one hand, it connects with the other characters in Del Valle, but also because, at the beginning of her work as a journalist, she has to sign with a man's name because she isn't respected for being a woman, and her name isn't worth anything. It's only later, as the novel progresses, that she manages to affirm her name and also her personality.

–Her family roots in Chile also appear there, because Del Valle is her father's surname, which her mother insists on leaving her, even though in reality her father abandoned them.

–It's a bit like what happened to me with my father, who disappeared very early in my life. However, the surname Allende was always the same as my siblings' and mine. And I never changed it: not when I got married, not when I worked as a journalist, or at any other time. It was always Allende. There's a scene I thought about a lot, and it's when she meets her father. I remembered my own experience. I never met my father: my mother destroyed all the photos of him, I had no idea what he looked like, and no one ever spoke of him. One day, when I was working at Paula magazine, I must have been about 28, a man died on the street of a heart attack, and it was my father. And they called me to identify the body. But I couldn't identify him because I didn't know him! So I wondered what it would be like for Emilia to meet this man who fathered her and who gave her nothing, and didn't want to know anything about her, like my father, who never wanted to know anything about me. And Emilia arrives there, thanks to her stepfather's influence and generosity, and finds a father who is very ill, almost dying. And that's why her heart opens, and compassion, understanding, and sorrow emerge because this man lost his life doing stupid things and left nothing behind.

–In Emilia's case, that surname links her to characters well known to your readers. Why did you decide to revive them now?

–These characters are intruders. They come and barge in without permission. And suddenly, around page 60, I realize I've seen this person before. And she's intruded on me again! In this novel, it's true that there's a character from other novels, Paulina del Valle, who was already in Daughter of Fortune . Paulina del Valle is inspired by my agent, Carmen Balcells. She must be so similar that she recognized herself and said to me: 'That's me.' And it was! Carmen, like Paulina, is good at business, a great person, generous, daring, all those things.

–But it's another moment in Paulina's life.

–Of course, here she's a matriarch back in Chile, and then there's Portrait in Sepia , where she's already old. Also, I loved the idea of ​​her marrying the butler because it challenges Chile's social climbing.

–What exactly do you mean by the idea of ​​careerism?

Chile was a society, especially at that time, of social strata. And they functioned almost like castes in India: it was very difficult to rise from one caste to another. Money wasn't enough, for example, but rather it happened through what was supposed to be the legitimacy of belonging to a family, having a certain last name. Then there were immigrants, for example, Arabs, who made fortunes in Chile, and it took three generations for them to be accepted. Or Jews or immigrants from anywhere else. So, there was a kind of class pride. Of course, now society is much more permeable and has changed a lot, but there is still a class structure.

–That structure is present in the novel, and Emilia has a noble paternal surname, although she has no father. How does she relate to that surname?

President José Manuel Balmaceda Fernández, who appears in the story, was a distinguished man of the aristocracy, owner of vast lands, and belonged to that social class. At one point, Emilia asks in the novel if someone from the middle class could be president of Chile. And she's told yes, it could be in the future, but for now it's very difficult. Emilia never thinks her last name will be of any use to her, until she realizes it's the gateway to different spheres of power. It gives her access to the president she needs as a journalist, and also to those families.

–Emilia clearly sees all the inequalities that surround her, and readers discover that these inequalities continue to exist today. What are you trying to tell us, Isabel, when you show us this?

–In all my books, the strongest characters, the main ones, except for The Infinite Plan, are women, strong women who manage to challenge the patriarchy. And they receive a lot of aggression for that, but in the end they survive, they stand up and survive. That has been my journey. And I've been a feminist and a defender of women's rights for as long as I can remember. I have been and am like that, I live like that, I have created a foundation dedicated to women—how could there not be characters like that in my books? So, Emilia is an exception for her time, but she's not the only one. And others who also achieve this are mentioned. But they are very few, because if we know their names it's only because they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. So, the struggle of women has been brutal; much has been achieved and much remains to be achieved, and, in addition, there are blows that take everything away from us in 24 hours, as happened with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In other words, we must always be alert, we must be aware that this exists. I was just commenting with another journalist that here in the United States now, and I don't know if it's also there and in other parts of the world, there's a kind of frontal attack against women, which is beginning to reach children as young as 10 or 12, who have ideas planted in their heads thanks to the internet. How can parents detect that their child is involved in this? Because the way they speak changes. Because they start referring to women in different ways: for example, in English, they no longer say "woman" or "girls" but instead use "female." And they also repeat that they're all ambitious, that all they want is to humiliate you, disrespect you, etc. This war against women exists and takes different forms: from femicide to other, much more subtle forms of disrespect and assault. So, how could I not be interested in this topic?

–Do you think this is a particularly difficult time for women and the struggle to achieve more rights?

–I don't think there's a setback, but there have been before. The women's liberation movement advances like any revolution, making mistakes and without a roadmap—in other words, one advances as best one can. And then comes a setback, but progress is made, and in my years of life, much has been achieved. Look, I was born into a patriarchal, authoritarian, Catholic, conservative family in 1942 in Santiago, Chile, which was the pit of the world. Imagine if the word feminism didn't exist. When I started working at Paula magazine, it was the first time in Chile in 1967 or 1968 that topics of interest to women were published. Up until that point, the only magazine that existed was Eva, which featured recipes and social events, and articles on how to be a good wife and a good mother. We, starting with Paula, came out with articles on abortion, divorce, menopause, infidelity, drugs, prostitution—topics that hadn't been touched upon in our lives. Since then, a lot has changed.

–What is the role of literature in this process?

I never try to convey a message in a novel. When I write, I completely stop my activism. That activism is at the heart of my foundation and in the nonfiction I write. But I think the novel can die, it can truly be ruined by a political, ideological, religious, or any other kind of message. What interests me in a novel is telling a story. Now, obviously, the story I choose to tell matters to me. Because I'm going to dedicate years of research and work to it. Why does it matter to me? Because these are the things that matter to me in life. So, I couldn't write an interior psychological novel about a couple in therapy in New York. Because it has nothing to do with my world. It's not because I'm against therapy or New York, but because I can't connect with it. But I can write a novel about a grandmother in a market in Nepal. Because that's where I connect. Now, I'm not trying to convey a message. Not at all.

–How much of your own experience as a journalist did you bring to the character of Emilia?

When I started in journalism in Chile, there were already very brave, daring female journalists. There was no journalism school at that time, so anyone who knew how to write, was bold, and could navigate the streets could—through practicing their profession—consider themselves a journalist and have a license. In any case, female journalists in Chile have always been much bolder and more notable than men. During the dictatorship, it was women who took the written exams. I have great respect for them. And of course, as in every profession, you start however you can. In Emilia's case, at that time, female journalists were very few and they were dedicated to what was called social work because anything that concerned women was considered inferior. And this continues to this day. When we talk about literature, it's always books written by white men. And when you give literature an adjective, you diminish it. Women's literature, children's literature, literature...

–Did you experience this prejudice in your own career, despite your impressive global success?

–But of course. I've gained respect as a writer after many books and after selling many millions of books. Any young man who writes a novel at 19 already has respect. But it's much harder for women. It's easier for us now than when I started because more than 30 years have passed, and now we have a boom in women's literature. No one would dare say that because a woman writes it, that book is lesser. However, I've encountered, at least four times, men who, when I told them I was a writer, responded that they were going to suggest my novels to their wives because they didn't read books written by women.

–Your brother is specifically mentioned in the acknowledgments for his help with your historical research, which is extensive and in-depth. What is your personal and professional connection with him like?

Juan is a retired social sciences professor. When he retired, he went home with his cats and had nothing to do. So, I asked him to help me. For example, I asked him: "Look, were there trains between Santiago and Valparaíso at such and such a time?" And the next day he sent me four volumes about the railroads in Chile. "No, Juan, answer the question, yes or no?" I asked. Because I don't need to know that much about the railroads in Chile. So, Juan is the one who provides me with almost all the basic information, which I read, study, and extract what I need. On other occasions, I find a piece of information that interests me and I always check it with him. Juan is constantly helping me and is the only person, really the only one, with whom I talk now about what I'm doing. I never tell my agent or anyone else what I'm doing. Because I want to have complete freedom to do it, how to do it, and even not to do it. But I discuss it with my brother Juan, and he helps me find things that enrich the text. Because all of this requires a lot of research and hard work. Maybe now with artificial intelligence this will be better.

–Are you interested in artificial intelligence?

–When this whole artificial intelligence boom started, my son Nicolás told me: "Mom, you won't have to write because we ask the internet for the topic and it writes it." So, we tried it: we asked him for the story of a rather shy boy who has a dog and that dog saves him from bullying. And in 10 seconds, he spit out the book I had already written. It was almost the same as Pearl, the Super Dog . That gives you an idea of ​​the potential.

–And does that excite you or scare you?

–I'm excited, of course I am. All those challenges excite me.

My name is Emilia del Valle , by Isabel Allende (Plaza & Janés)