Isabel Allende Educational Posters, Books, Links for Learning

• ISABEL ALLENDE EDUCATIONAL POSTERS
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Isabel Allende

Poster Text: “I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.” Eva Luna

Isabel Allende was a prominent 28-year-old journalist and humorist in Chile when her uncle, Salvador Allende, was elected the first socialist president in that nation's history. When his government was overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet, Allende and her family found that they were not welcome in Chile anymore, and thy moved to Venezuela. There she felt that she wanted to say something more about her homeland, but she didn't know how to do it. When she heard that her 99 year-old grandfather was dying back in Chile, she started to write him a letter. That letter grew and grew until it bacame the manuscript for her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which was published in Spanish in 1982.

Readers fell in love with The House of the Spirits and its mix of politics, romance, and magic – Clara, on of the main characters, can read minds and speak with ghosts. The novel became a bestseller and was translated into many languages. In the years since then, Allende has moved to America and written novels (such as The Infinite Plan and Daughter of Fortune), a short-story collection (The Stories of Eva Luna), a cookbook, and children's books. Her most personal book is Paula, a beautiful and haunting account of the illness and death of her daughter.

Isabel Allende has said that her life has been shaped by two things: love and violence. She continues to write about both in her California home.

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Isabel Allende, Voices of Diversity Poster

Isabel Allende

Poster Text: “Clara's childhood came to an end and she entered her youth...in a world of terrifying stories and calm silences. It was a world in which time was not marked by calendars or watches and objects had a life of the own.”- The House of the Spirits

"I've always told stories," says Isabel Allende. "They used to call me a liar. Now that I write books, they call me a narrator." That gift for storytelling has made Ms. Allende one of the most celebrated writers to come out of Latin America. Her books have sold more than ten million copies and have geen translated into 27 languages.

Isabel Allende was born in Peru, but when she was young, her family went to live with her grandparents in Chile. Her grandfather was very strict – he wouldn't even allow a radio in the house. Instead, Isabel spent her time in the basement, where she devoured hundreds of books, "Reading . . . was my time, my space, my universe," she says.

Ms. Allende became a well-known journalist. But her life changed forever in 1973 when her uncle, Salvador Allende Gossens, the president of Chile, was killed in a military coup. Ms. Allende fled to Venezuela in 1975.

Her first novel, the House of the Spiritis, was published when she was 40. It started out as a letter to her dying grandfatehr. "He believed that people only really died when they were forgotten." she says. "I began writing him the memories that would keep him alive for me." Many of the characters are based on her own family, including her grandmother, who, Ms. Allende says, was clairvoyant, and could move objects without touching them. The House of the Spirits, like much of Ms. Allende's fiction, incorporates magic realism, a literary style where seemingly impossible things occur in everyday life.

In 1987, Ms. Allende moved to California. As an exile from Chile, and as a non-white woman living in an adopted country, she sees herself as an outsider. But she believes this helps her writing. "As an outsider, I'm in a privileged position. While everyone else takes everything for granted, I'm always asking questions. I get unusual answers."

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Salvador Allende, TIME Magazine, October 19, 1970

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Salvador Allende, TIME Magazine, September 24, 1973

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Satellite Map of South America Poster

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Farm house w/ mountain in background, Chile Giclee Print

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