During the conversation, she talked about strong women, inequality in Latin American countries, the recent victory of leftist Gabriel Boric in Chile, and her craft as a writer.
How was this novel born?
Isabel Allende: I had the idea after my mother died. She died shortly before the pandemic [de covid-19] and was born when the Spanish influenza arrived in Chile, in 1920. He lived 98 years, but I imagined that if he had lived a little longer, he would have been born in one pandemic and died in another.
“Violeta” takes place in the time my mother lived, a period of the 20th century with wars, depressions, dictatorships in Latin America, revolutions. I created a protagonist who resembles my mother in many ways, but who is not her and has a much more interesting life.
How was her mother like Violeta?
IA: My mother was beautiful, intelligent, talented, independent and strong. However, she was never able to support herself, and that was decisive in her life. The difference between Violeta and my mother is that Violeta can support herself, and that gives her great freedom. My mother depended on two husbands and then on me.
He also had, like Violeta, a financial vision. She could have made money if she had something to invest, but no one paid any attention to her.
Chile is a country of many class prejudices, more than other countries
Q: Violeta and her family leave the capital to settle in the south of the country, where they live with people more humble than themselves. Was it important to show that difference between classes?
AI: Yes, because anyone who has lived in a Latin American country knows that there is a caste system, which in some parts is very impermeable. And Chile is a country with many class prejudices, more so than other countries, perhaps because it had little immigration at the beginning. So, Violeta, if she had stayed in her social class, leading the life that corresponded to her, she would never have had a broader vision of the country and her life.