Allende: Chilean-American author stresses 'value the feminine'

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Few South American writers know the region as well as Isabel Allende, who was born in Peru and witnessed the Chilean political turmoil in the 1970s firsthand before later working as a journalist in Venezuela. Now a United States citizen, Allende is noted as one of the best-known contemporary practitioners of "magical realism," often associated with Gabriel García Márquez and other Latin American writers.

Allende launched her writing career in 1982 with her book House of Spirits, inspired by a letter she wrote to her dying grandfather. While patriarchy's ghosts, personal and political, helped inspire her early novels, today her focus rests largely on the untapped talent of half the world's population. Between writing and other work from her home in California, Allende helps run a foundation in her name dedicated to promoting the rights of women and children.

Literary critics often cite you as the prime example of a Spanish-speaking writer equally at home in Anglo-American and Latin American culture. What do you believe are the most interesting or notable differences between North American and Latin American writers, authors and novelists?

"I don't like generalization. It is always misleading, and in this case it casts people as stereotypes. There are more similarities between Americans and Latin Americans that bring them together than differences that separate them, but there are nuances that maybe are worth mentioning: Americans are practical, direct, fast, greedy, ambitious and individualistic. They fend for themselves, yet they can work in a team, respect authority and follow orders. Latin Americans are dreamers, baroque, generous. They often lack self-esteem and self-confidence. They thrive in extended families, groups, villages, communities; when they prosper, they take care of everybody around them, and when they are in trouble, they expect friends and family to help them. They have difficulty working in a team and they can't even follow the orders of a manual; they prefer to improvise."

Esteban Trueba, the central male character of your novel The House of Spirits , is often noted for his statement that "those who have always won will win again." Do you feel that statement has been misinterpreted? How do you think the meaning of Trueba's words have changed over the years, given events in Latin America?

"Trueba's idea of politics were a reality in Latin America until the late '60s and the '70s, when there were guerrilla movements in several countries and the parties of the left started to win elections, to the amazement of "those who always won," the conservatives. Today no one knows what to expect in matters of politics. In some countries, there's no hope for an election without fraud; in others, there's always the threat of a military coup. But as a whole, Latin America has more stable democracies than ever before. However, democracy is at risk where there is rampant corruption, economic disparity between social classes, drugs and violence, plus the abuse of the indigenous population. We have a long way to go."

North America and Latin America seem hypersensitive to labels of "capitalism" and "socialism." Do you see any of the recent political developments in this country following President Barack Obama's election as mirroring those you saw and have witnessed in Latin America?

"Not at all! Americans are paranoid regarding socialism. It's ludicrous how something as reasonable as a health-care bill can scare the hell out of millions of Americans. Socialism can be interpreted in different ways. A coalition of parties of the center and the left (Concertación) has governed Chile for 20 years with extraordinary success. Chile has economic, political and social stability; it is the most prosperous country in Latin America. At this point we have a socialist president, Michelle Bachelet, whose approval rate is 75 percent after almost four years in office. However, according to our constitution, she can't run in the December elections. Venezuela is a very different case. President Hugo Chávez has modeled his style of socialism after the Cuban Revolution in the '60s and has changed the constitution to extend his term in the style of traditional caudillismo . He has almost absolute political and military power, the opposition has been silenced. Oil keeps the country running, but there is a serious political and social crisis."

Your foundation promotes the rights of women and children. Your scheduled lecture in Utah is said to concern human values. What human values do you think are most lacking in today's world? And what do you think is the best way to create, revive and preserve these values?

"We need to value the feminine. Women are half the population. They constitute the largest untapped natural renewable resource in the world. They are the only hope for healing our desecrated planet, [achieving] peace and [finding] solutions for the current crisis of civilization. We have to end the patriarchy. Women and men have to share the management of the world in equal numbers. There's need for parity and balance of the feminine and the masculine in the society and every human being. We have to start by educating people and creating awareness. We have the resources."

Do you feel writers, authors and novelists have inherent moral or ethical obligations to their readership? If so, what are those obligations?

"Artists, in general, have the moral obligation to be and to do the best they can, with passion and originality. The rest is up to each individual. Personally, I feel responsible for the damaging effect that certain themes may have, like torture. In my books, sometimes there is violence and torture, but it's not explicit. I don't want to plant crazy ideas in a potential psychopath's mind. I write about the people and the themes I care for -- and I try to do it as honestly as possible."