Inés Of My Soul By Isabel Allende – An Eyeopening Read On Chile Conquest

Cynthia and I share a rather limited reading list.  I could spend hundreds and hundreds of words here talking passionately about the books I read but she’d catch no ball.  She could go on and on about the books she enjoys reading but I’d would go, “huh?”  But since we are both studying Spanish, and some parts of South America were colonized by Spain long time ago, I was intrigued by “Inés of My Soul” – a historical novel based on Inés Suárez strongly recommended by Cynthia.  Who is she?  Wikipedia sums up nicely as follows.

Inés Suárez (c. 1507–1580) was a Spanish conquistadora (female conquistador) who participated in the Conquest of Chile, was mistress to Pedro de Valdivia, successfully defended Santiago against an attack of Mapuche people in 1541, and was eventually married to Rodrigo de Quiroga, Royal Governor of Chile.

Initially, it came across to me as a romance story – a story told by Inés to her step-daughter Isabel (who initially I thought the author ‘visualized’ herself as Inés’s daughter but we will get to that a little bit later).  A Spanish women born into a poor family got married once in Spain.  Then with the excuse of searching for her missing husband, she ventured into Peru, met with Pedro de Valdivia – a Spanish conquistador who has the vision to civilize and evangelize Chile.  Together, with a rather small Spanish army and the natives from Peru, they conquered Chile.  Valdivia and Inés have found and governed Chile’s capital Santiago, and defended the city against numerous attacks from the native Indians.  The wars described in the book are vividly harsh and bloody.  I can see a lot of quality research going into the writing of this historical novel.  Four years of avid reading, as mentioned in the author’s notes.  It is less of the romance bits but more of the history bits that gripped me.  Eventually, being a mistress to Valdivia did not seem to be agreeable by the Spanish Royalty.  So Inés married to Rodrigo – a war hero – in the age of 42.  The story is told by Inés in her dying hours, not long after her husband’s death.  I suppose this is an attempt to relive the incident of them passing away in the same year.

For those of you who have heard little about the history of Chile, “Inés Of My Soul” is an eyeopener.  The author Isabel Allende has done a good job in stitching the historical incidents together, with her imagination.  I am usually not a fan of this genre because I would prefer to read a journalistic writeup on the event to a novel that is part history, part fiction.  But I enjoy reading this one.  Isabel Allende was born in Peru and raised in Chile.  How suiting it is for her to write about a story that starts in Peru and ends in Chile.  I can now see where the passion transcribed in the book comes from.