''Inés of My Soul'' (, 2006) is a

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...

by the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an author,

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the magical realism genre, is known for novels such as '' The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

. The novel consists of an elderly

Inés Suárez Inés Suárez, (; c. 1507 – 1580) was a Spanish conquistadora who participated in the Conquest of Chile with Pedro de Valdivia, successfully defending the newly conquered Santiago against an attack in 1541 by the indigenous Mapuche. Early li ...

writing a memoir of her own life. She narrates about her relationship with

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and the first royal governor of Chile. After having served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in ...

and the obstacles they had to overcome to conquer Chile and found the City of Santiago.

Plot

This historical novel is about the main facts of the life of Inés (an important figure in Chile), written in older Ines' first-person voice, with its intended audience to be Ines' adoptive daughter, Isabel. In the first chapter, "Europe, 1500-1537", she describes her life in

Plasencia Plasencia () is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cáceres, Extremadura. , it has a population of 41,047. Plasencia is located in the Western-Central Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Sistema Central. Housing primarily ...

, Spain, mainly her married life and affair with Juan of Málaga, in addition to her hard trip to America, motivated not only to find her husband, but also to find freedom. In "America, 1537-1540", she relates to us her life in The Cuzco, the decadence of the Incan empire under

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...

and the political problems that they faced. Also, she begins her relationship with Pedro de Valdivia, who develops an obsession to conquer Chile, promoted by what was told to him by the old Diego of Almagro. In the chapters of "Trip to Chile, 1540-1541" and "Santiago of the New Extremadura, 1541-1543" she talks about the hard conquest of Chile, the life with Pedro of Valdivia and how the two founded the capital of the country together. "The Tragic Years, 1543-1549" deal with the poverty of the first years of Santiago as a city and her marriage with Rodrigo of Quiroga when Pedro of Valdivia goes back in an expedition to Peru, in search of more soldiers and settlers. Finally, in the last chapter she describes the beginning of the War of Chile between Spaniards and

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

s under the orders of

Lautaro Lautaro (Anglicized as 'Levtaru') ( " swift hawk") (; 1534 – April 29, 1557) was a young Mapuche toqui known for leading the indigenous resistance against Spanish conquest in Chile and developing the tactics that would continue to be empl ...

and

Caupolicán Caupolicán (meaning ‘polished flint’ (queupu) or ‘blue quartz stone’ (Kallfulikan) in Mapudungun) was a ''toqui'' or war leader of the Mapuche people, who led the resistance of his people against the Spanish Conquistadors who invaded the ...

Dramatic structure

This work is based on documented, historical facts. But the author takes many liberties in depicting several historical facts, allowing her to add fictional twists. Allende lures the reader into the story with her rich and romantic language describing the book's universe.

Characters

Allende shows Mrs. Inés as a woman with extreme courage, doing everything for the man she loves, but without shelving her purposes of honor and the anxieties to conquer new lands. In the book, Isabel Allende gives the reader a glimpse of the hardships of the first conquistadores of the Realm of Chile and their constant mistreatment of the Mapuche people. She also describes the battles between the Mapuche and the Spaniards. Other characters of the novel are Pedro of Valdivia, Rodrigo of Quiroga, Francisco of Aguirre, Juan of Málaga, Marina Ortiz of Gaete, Juan Gómez and his wife Cecilia, Catalina (a native servant and the best friend of the leading character) and Felipe (Lautaro), who at the beginning is a servant of Pedro of Valdivia but afterwards escapes with the Mapuche.

Television series

On Friday, July 31, 2020, Amazon Prime Video premiered the television series Inés del alma mía, an adaptation of Isabel Allende's novel starring Elena Rivera and Eduardo Noriega.

References

External links

Review of''Inés of the mine soul''
i
''The Shrew''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ines of My Soul 2006 Chilean novels Novels set in the 16th century Novels by Isabel Allende