Isabel Allende, a Chilean author, became internationally famous for her novels set in modern Chile, for her historical fiction, and for her autobiographical writings.
© Tiziana Fabi, AFP/Getty Images

People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, many Latin American countries celebrate their independence. These countries include Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Isabel Allende is one of the leading novelists and journalists in Chile. Her novels and short stories, which were first published in the 1980′s, have won her international fame and several literary awards.

Allende was a journalist and television reporter in Chile in the 1960′s before joining the staff of the women’s magazine Paula in 1967. In 1970, her cousin and godfather, Salvador Allende Gossens, a socialist politician, was democratically elected president of Chile. In September 1973, Salvador Allende was overthrown and died during a right-wing military coup led by army general Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. The Allende family fled Chile, and Isabel moved to Venezuela, where she worked as a journalist. In 1983, she moved to the United States, where she held various university teaching posts while still pursuing her literary career.

Allende’s first novel, The House of Spirits (1982), is a direct reflection of her experiences in Chile during the time of the Pinochet coup and her later separation from her family. The novel arose out of a letter she wrote during 1981 to her dying grandfather, who had stayed in Chile. The letter recounted all the memories she had that would keep the old man alive for her. The House of Spirits became a best seller, and Allende won great critical acclaim. Her work was compared with that of the eminent Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez.

Latin American writers have composed many classics of modern world literature. They include the novels One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, The House of the Spirits by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende, and the short story collection Ficciones by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Translated by Gregory Rabassa. English translation © 1970 by Harper & Row. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins); The House of the Spirits (Penguin Random House); Ficciones (Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial)

Allende’s other works, also steeped in Chile’s turbulent history, include two more novels, Of Love and Shadows (1984) and Eva Luna (1989); and the short story collections Tales of Eva Luna (1990) and The Infinite Plan (1992). Daughter of Fortune (2000) is a historical romance about a Chilean-born woman searching for her lover in California during the 1849 gold rush. Portrait in Sepia (2001) is a family chronicle set in Chile and California from 1862 to 1910. It draws on characters from The House of Spirits and Daughter of Fortune.

Allende’s historical novel Zorro (2005) portrays a dashing hero in California during the early 1800′s. Another historical novel, Inés of My Soul (2006), is set during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in South America during the 1530′s. Her novel Island Beneath the Sea (2010) portrays a revolt of enslaved people in Haiti. In the novel Maya’s Notebook (2013), a young woman flees to a remote island off the coast of Chile to escape from pursuing assassins and law enforcement agents. Ripper (2014) is a mystery novel that features a child detective. The Japanese Lover (2015) is a love story about a Polish-born woman and her one-time Japanese gardener over a period of 70 years of modern history. In the Midst of Winter (2017) deals with three troubled characters with roots in Latin America whose lives intermingle starting with their unexpected meeting in Brooklyn, New York, in the United States. Long Petal of the Sea (2020) tells a story about refugees who flee to Chile to escape the Spanish civil war during the 1930’s.

Allende wrote Paula (1995) in the form of a letter to her daughter, Paula, who was dying of an inherited blood disease. She also wrote a children’s story, La Gorda de Porcelana (The Porcelain Fat Lady) (1984). For young adults, she wrote the trilogy of novels City of the Beasts (2002), Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004), and Forest of the Pygmies (2005). In 1997, Allende completed Afrodita: cuentos, recetas y otros afrodisíacos (translated as Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses), a nonfiction collection of writing about the history of love potions, which also included recipes. Allende wrote a memoir called My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Trip Through Chile (2003), as well as the related memoir The Sum of Our Days (2008). She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States, in 2014.

Isabel Allende was born on Aug. 2, 1942, in Lima, Peru, where her father was a diplomat. Following the divorce of her parents, her mother took her back to live in Chile, where she lived from the age of 3 until their exile to Venezuela in 1973.

September 12, 2018

High in the Atacama Desert of Chile, a system of stone pillars and rock piles called saywas was recently found to be an ancient Inca calendar. Once thought only to mark a local Inca trail, a team of archaeologists, astronomers, historians, and researchers recently showed how the saywas work as a complicated and connected calendar to identify and predict equinoxes, solstices, and other astronomical events. The Inca trail in the Atacama Desert is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, an extensive Inca road network that stretches from southern Colombia to central Chile.

The sun peeks over the Andes Mountains at dawn, illuminating a line of ancient Inca saywas in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Credit: A. Silber, ALMA/ESO/NAOJ/NRAO

Working at 13,800 feet (4,200 meters) above sea level in the desert mountains near Taltal, a small city in northern Chile, the scientific team began visiting the saywas and taking measurements in 2017. The team included local indigenous people as well as experts from the Chilean Museum of Pre-Colombian Art, the nearby Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory, and the European Southern Observatory. The research was funded by BHP/Minera Escondida, a mining company with more material interests in the desert.

The scientific team began the study by documenting alignments between certain saywas and the sunrises on the March equinox and June solstice. They then began connecting saywa points with other important dates on the ancient Inca calendar. Operating much in the same way as Stonehenge in England, the saywas align with sunrises on certain dates, while also projecting shadows on the ground that lead to other stone points. The researchers also found that certain saywas align with constellations at night, further strengthening the researchers’ conclusion, published in 2018, that the network of stones served as a large calendar for Inca astronomers.

The first written accounts of the saywas were recorded during the Spanish conquest of Andean  South America in the 1500′s and 1600′s. The saywas’ remote locations in the empty desert, far from Inca cities, led the Spanish to believe that the stone piles were little more than pathway markers to help guide people through the vast, barren desert. The saywas did in fact aid in navigation, but the larger purpose of the stone markers remained unknown for centuries. In recent years, however, knowledge of the Inca has greatly expanded, and the study of ancient Quechua and Aymara (Inca languages) dictionaries led to the examination of the relationship between the saywas and the Inca astronomical system.

The ancient Inca capital of Cusco (in modern-day Peru) was surrounded by columns used to measure time, create calendars, and predict equinoxes and solstices as well as the planting and harvesting seasons. The remote saywas, however, were tucked away in the Atacama Desert. Perhaps that was merely the best view of the heavens, allowing Inca astronomers to get the most accurate measurements while Cusco was obscured by clouds and mist. Modern astronomers use the high desert for the same purpose. The sprawling ALMA observatory is only a (figurative) stone’s throw away.

April 10, 2018

Last month, in March, scientists published results of a DNA study on an ancient, mysterious, and rather alien-looking skeleton found in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Some people claimed the well-preserved skeleton, only about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long with an an elongated skull and other unusual features, was proof that aliens exist and have visited Earth. The study, however, published in the journal Genome Research, showed that the skeleton (known as Ata for Atacama) was in fact that of an infant human. The unusual skeleton is quite real, however, and the study explained the skeleton’s extraterrestrial appearance.

This mummified skeleton from the Atacama Desert in Chile had been described as “alien.” Genetic analysis showed that the skeleton was human and may have had a previously unknown bone disorder. Credit: © Emery Smith

Ata’s remains were discovered in 2003 at La Noria, an abandoned saltpeter-mining town in northern Chile. Ata eventually passed to a private collector. The tiny skeleton is remarkable in many ways. Ata has an unusual elongated, cone-shaped head and possesses only 10 pairs of ribs instead of the 12 pairs normally found in humans. The skeleton looked to be about the size of a human infant, yet the bones were remarkably well developed, more like those of a child perhaps 6 years old.

Ata’s shocking features fueled wild speculation about the skeleton’s origins. Some considered it an obvious fraud, perhaps the skeleton of a monkey that had been altered for a side show attraction. Historically, such hoaxes were created by circuses or side-shows to fool gullible patrons. Other people thought the skeleton belonged to a human child suffering from an unknown, perhaps genetic, malady. However, a few people pointed out physical similarities to reported alien visitors and suggested that the skeleton was evidence alien astronauts had visited that region of South America centuries ago.

Beginning in 2012, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California conducted studies in an attempt to solve the mystery of Ata. They initially identified the skeleton as unquestionably human. The skeleton appeared ancient, although scientists could not determine exactly how old it was. Explaining the skeleton’s size and many unusual features proved more difficult. The scientists simply had never seen a skeleton quite like this before. Only after colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco examined Ata’s genetic material was the mystery solved.

The scientists were able to extract Ata’s complete genome from the bones. A genome is the entire set of genes that control heredity in a human being. The genetic material confirmed that Ata was a female and closely related to the native peoples of Chile—thus not an alien. The scientists also found that Ata suffered from a variety of genetic mutations that created her highly unusual features. The researchers identified at least seven mutated genes that are known to cause significant skeletal malformation in humans. Some of the genes are known to cause dwarfism and scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, as well as other, less common deformities.

The severity of the genetic mutations unfortunately meant that Ata most likely died soon after birth. Some of her mutated genes are involved in skeletal maturation, making her bones appear older than her actual age. When discovered, her remains were reportedly wrapped in a white cloth tied with a purple ribbon. Although her life was tragically short, Ata was cared for by her family and given a loving funeral.

After the genetic study was published, officials in Chile protested that the researchers had violated ethical guidelines concerning the treatment of human remains. The National Monuments Council of Chile began an investigation to determine if Ata’s remains were illegally exhumed (dug up) and exported from the country. In Chile, the government has passed laws intended to protect graves and human remains as well as other cultural items of importance to Native Americans. These laws are similar to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in the United States. NAGPRA makes it illegal to buy, sell, or transport for sale any Native American human remains or other cultural items. Chilean officials claim that American researchers violated the law by conducting the study on Ata’s remains without proper permission.

January 23, 2018

On Sunday, January 21, Pope Francis (Papa Francisco in Spanish) departed Lima, Peru, concluding an apostolic journey that began in Santiago, Chile, on January 15. Apostolic is another word for papal or having to do with the pope. Throughout the journey, enthusiastic crowds turned out to welcome the pope, who is particularly popular in the traditionally Roman Catholic nations of Latin America. Francis is from Argentina and has been leader of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013.

Pope Francis smiles and waves from the popemobile as he leaves the Señor de los Milagros Sanctuary in Lima, Peru, on Jan. 21, 2018. Credit: © Luka Gonzales, Getty Images

The Chile portion of the trip was themed “Mi paz les doy” (“I give you my peace”); the Peru theme was “Unidos por la esperanza” (“United by hope”). In both countries, the Pope addressed recent sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. Francis also stressed the importance of protecting the environment, and discouraged the increasing tide of secularization (the removal of religion from people’s everyday lives). In Chile, the number of people calling themselves Catholics fell to 45 percent in 2017, a drop from 74 percent in 1995. In Peru, only about 5 percent of Catholics regularly attend weekly church services.

On Tuesday, January 16, Francis met with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet at La Moneda, the presidential palace in Santiago, the capital, and held an outdoor Mass at the city’s O’Higgins Park. The next day, the pope flew to the southern city of Temuco, where he celebrated Mass and lunched with indigenous Mapuche leaders before returning to Santiago. On January 18, Francis held a Mass at Lobito beach in the northern port city of Iquique before flying north to Lima, the Peruvian capital. On Friday, the pope met with indigenous leaders in the the southeastern Amazon city of Puerto Maldonado before returning to Lima, where he met with Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

On Saturday, January 20, Francis flew to the northwestern coastal city of Trujillo for a Mass at Huanchaco beach and a city tour in the popemobile. In Trujillo’s Plaza de Armas, he hosted a celebration of Our Lady of La Puerta and delivered a speech before returning to Lima. On Sunday, January 21, the pope met with local dignitaries at Lima Cathedral and the Archbishop’s Palace. After a Mass before more than 1 million people at Las Palmas Air Base, Francis boarded a plane and returned to the Vatican in Rome.

Francis is the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit pope. Jesuits are members of a religious order called the Society of Jesus. Francis is known for his commitment to social justice, especially for the poor; his humble lifestyle; and his conservative religious beliefs. This was his sixth visit to Latin America since becoming pope. His previous stops were in Brazil; Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay; Cuba; Mexico; and Colombia. The last pope to visit Chile and Peru was St. John Paul II, who made trips to Peru in 1985 and 1988 and to Chile in 1987.

February 10, 2017

On Sunday, February 12, celebrations in Chile will mark the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco, a key event in the history of the South American country. The battle took place on Feb. 12, 1817, near Santiago, the capital, during Chile’s struggle for independence from Spain. The Army of the Andes (made up of Chilean and Argentine rebels) defeated a Spanish-led army at Chacabuco—a rebel victory that led to Chilean independence in 1818. The battle is famous for the actions of Argentine General José de San Martín and Chilean patriot Bernardo O’Higgins, who became Chile’s first head of state.

Chilean and Argentine soldiers attend a ceremony at the Monument to the Victory of Chacabuco on Feb. 12, 2007. The monument, built in 1971, stands on the site of the former battlefield. Credit: Kiko Benítez S. (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

In the mid-1500’s, Spain established a colony that became known as the Viceroyalty of Peru. By the late 1700′s, the colony included modern-day Chile, Peru, and western Bolivia. Santiago was the colony’s administrative center in Chile. In 1808, France forced Spain’s king from the throne during the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815). With Spanish attention turned toward Europe, revolts erupted in many of Spain’s colonies, including the Viceroyalty of Peru. In 1814, Spain and its officials in America increased their efforts to reestablish authority, beginning a bloody period known as la Reconquista (the Reconquest) of Spanish America. At first, Spanish-led royalist armies put down several colonial revolts. However, rebel armies eventually got the upper hand, leading to independence for several Latin American countries.

The 1817 Battle of Chacabuco was fought in this scenic valley near Santiago, Chile. The valley is now home to far more guanacos than soldiers. Carretera Austral. Credit: © Shutterstock

In 1810, revolutionary factions calling for self-rule gained political control of Chile. Disagreements between O’Higgins and other Chilean leaders weakened the new government, however, and the Spanish royalist faction (with support from Peru) regained control of Chile in 1814. O’Higgins fled with a rebel army to neighboring Argentina, where he joined forces with San Martín. San Martín helped secure Argentine independence in 1816. He then led O’Higgins and their combined Army of the Andes into Chile in January 1817, a journey that included a dangerous and costly crossing of the Andes Mountains. More than 1,000 soldiers died from cold, disease, and hunger during the 300-mile (480-kilometer) crossing, but roughly 3,600 surviving rebels neared Santiago in early February.

Argentine General and South American liberator José de San Martín. Credit: © Thinkstock

The Spanish royalist army had expected the rebels to take a different route through the Andes, and most of its forces were far from Santiago. Some 1,500 troops still in the area began fortifying positions north of Santiago at Chacabuco, a ridge at the head of a wide valley. Before they could secure the high ground, however, San Martín and the Army of the Andes attacked the royalists on the morning of February 12. O’Higgins led a furious assault on the main royalist forces as a second rebel force under Argentine General Miguel Soler moved to attack from the side and the rear. Fierce fighting took place until an afternoon attack led by San Martín reinforced O’Higgins and overran the battered royalist forces as Soler blocked their retreat.

Chilean patriot and leader Bernardo O’Higgins. Credit: © Kean Collection/Getty Images

About 500 royalist troops were killed at Chacabuco, and more than 600 were captured. The Army of the Andes lost some 130 killed and wounded. The remaining Spanish and royalist troops withdrew to strongholds in southern Chile or escaped to Peru. O’Higgins took control of Chile, which declared its independence in February 1818. The royalists tried once more to retake Chile, but they were eventually defeated at the Maipo River (also spelled Maipú) near Santiago on April 5, 1818—the final major battle in Chile’s war of independence. The Army of the Andes then joined with rebels in Peru, helping win independence for that nation in 1826.

October 29, 2014

The native inhabitants of Easter Island, one of the most remote and isolated places on Earth, mixed with Native Americans more than 600 years ago, according to surprising genetic evidence from a new study. Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas and her team from the Denmark Natural History Museum Centre for Geogenetics in Copenhagen analyzed the genomes of 27 people from Easter Island. A genome is the entire set of chemical instructions that control heredity in a human being. The scientists found specific genetic patterns that indicated admixture (interbreeding) between the native inhabitant of Easter Island and Native American populations several hundred years before the first Europeans reached the island in 1722.

Huge stone statues called moai stand on Easter Island. Genetic studies have revealed that Native Americans mixed with Easter Islands before the arrival of Europeans in the early 1700′s. ((c) George Holton, Photo Researchers)

The scientists also examined the family histories of eight unrelated individuals on Easter Island. This helped them to determine that European genes entered the islanders’ genomes after about 1850. This was not surprising, as immigrants, mainly from Chile, have mixed with the island’s population since the 1800′s. However, the scientists calculated that the Native American genes entered the population sometime around A.D. 1280 to 1495–hundreds of years before the first European contact.

Easter island lies in the Pacific Ocean about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of Chile. Called Rapanui by the native people, the island was first settled between about A.D. 900 and 1200. The settlers were Polynesians who had sailed from islands to the west on large, double-hulled seagoing canoes. Easter Island is famous as the site of enigmatic giant stone statues called moai that were carved hundreds of years ago. More than 600 moai are scattered across the island. Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch explorer, first sighted the island on Easter Sunday in 1722 and gave the island its name.

Easter island lies in the Pacific Ocean about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of Chile. (World Book map)

The scientists believe that the seafaring Polynesians from Easter Island likely made several short trips to and from South America, perhaps bringing a few Native Americans back with them. They point out that a voyage originating from South America to Easter Island would be much more difficult and unlikely. Without modern navigation technology, any boat sailing from the Americas would likely miss the remote island completely.

Norwegian author and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl won fame in 1947 by sailing a balsa-wood raft named Kon-Tiki from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. He and his crew made the trip to test his theory that the islands of Polynesia could have been settled by Indians from South America. Most archaeologists and scholars have dismissed Heyerdahl’s ideas as fantastic speculation. However, the new study suggests that Heyerdahl may have been at least partially correct in arguing that Native Americans had visited the islands.

Additional World Book articles:

• Pacific Islands
• Ocean (1947) (a Back in Time article)

April 2, 2014

A magnitude-8.2 earthquake slammed northern Chile last night, setting off a tsunami that forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the country’s 2,650-mile- (4,260-kilometer-) long coastline. Waves as high as 6 feet (2.1 meters) were reported in some areas as well as along the Peruvian coast. The coasts of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua were put on alert, and an advisory was issued for Hawaii. However, no major damage was reported. Electric power failed across much of Arica, a port city of about 200,000 people. The death toll across the region remains uncertain.

The quake was felt as far away as Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the earthquake’s epicenter off the coast near the Chilean copper mining city of Iquique, which is also a major port. During an evacuation in that city, some 300 prisoners escaped from a woman’s prison.

An earthquake occurs when Earth’s rock suddenly breaks and shifts, releasing energy in vibrations called seismic waves. The point on Earth where the rock first breaks is called the focus. The point on the surface above is known as the epicenter. (World Book illustration)

A tsunami can occur when an underwater earthquake displaces a large part of the sea floor. In this illustration, a tsunami wave spreads from a fast-rising section of ocean floor. The rising plate lifts the water above it, raising a hump of water that quickly ripples outward. As the ripple enters shallow water, it slows and grows in height. (World Book illustration by Matt Carrington)

Chile lies in one of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones. In 2010, a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off the coast of central Chile left more than 500 people dead. In 1960, a magnitude-9.5 earthquake hit off Chile’s coast near the city of Valdivia. More than 1,600 people were killed, largely from a subsequent tsunami. Seismologists believe the 1960 quake was the largest of the 20th century.

Additional World Book articles:

• Plate tectonics
• Big Waves: Tracking Deadly Tsunamis (a special report)
• When the Earth Moves (a special report)
• Chile 1960 (a Back in Time article)
• Chile 2010 (a Back in Time article)