Mya’s notebook is I don’t know how much
of the plot you want to give away but I
think I can summarize that the main
character is a very troubled young woman
with a very difficult past who flees the
United States to go live on a remote
island off the coast of mainland Chile
called chill away and I’m wondering
where did this story and the characters
come from at the time all my
grandchildren my four grandchildren and
their friends really have six because uh
two more that that are like mine they
all were teenagers and we I saw the
parents trying to protect them from all
the dangers that they were exposed and
all the horrible things that could
happen to them how can you protect them
from all that and as a grandmother I was
always very close to my grandchildren
saw them practically every day so I I
was scared especially with my youngest
granddaughter Nicole who are 15 look
like Jennifer Lopez but had the brain of
an 8-year old boyfriend from hell
so this is what happens to Maya Maya
this gorgeous girl who is athletic and a
good student when the grandfather dies
she loses it the grandmother goes into a
depression and she starts a spiral of
petty theft but alcohol and then it gets
worse and worse eventually she runs away
from home
and ends up recruited by gangsters in
Las Vegas where they are drug dealers
and criminals and I the grandmother
since Maya to chiloe the southern part
of Chile when there’s an archipelago
with many many islands a big island and
many small islands where I researched
and I found the perfect Island it’s not
paradise at all but it’s the island that
she needs a place where there’s a small
community of a few people who live off
the land or of the sea and they embrace
her but they teach her them in the first
week she learns the first law of nature
the law of reciprocity that you have to
give as much as you take which he had
never it never had never occurred to her
and I say this because I see my
grandchildren
they are totally entitled to everything
they have they don’t think they have to
give anything back and so she learns
that and she gets involved with the
community
she’s disconnected from all the
technology because if she gets in the
internet they will find her and so she’s
disconnected and for the first time in
her life she has no ear phones no phone
she has time to be bored to write a
notebook this is the notebook so the
story goes from what happened to her
before that she’s telling in the book in
a notebook and what’s happening in the
island at that time so how did you first
stumble upon kill away I knew the place
and I knew that it would be the perfect
contrast with Vegas a safe place to take
her and I also wanted to get back in
touch with the Chilean roots because
there is a mystery in her family the
book has the structure of a crime novel
with suspense and is she going to be
found by the end her enemies or not
what’s going to happen to her and there
is a mystery in her family and there is
a mystery in the country she goes to a
country where which is very different
from what she was used to where people
don’t talk about certain things the
scars and the wounds of the dictatorship
are still there for many many people but
people don’t talk about it and for young
people it’s old history it has nothing
to do with them it doesn’t concern them
at all but I believe that as a people we
need to look at our past in order not to
make the same mistakes and this is what
the Jewish people has has done so well
by keeping alive the Holocaust and they
have kept it alive and I think that it
is very important that we remember what
we’ve done reading the book I thought
that part of your mission was to be an
educator no I’m pleased no no
responsibility I’m not accountable for
anything here and I don’t try to deliver
a message as you teach anything I just
yeah tell what I know
where I have been the experiences I have
had interesting because there’s a lot of
history that as you were saying people
aren’t really aware of and you do go
into that in some depth and I think it’s
very very important as you say for
people to be aware of that especially
young people and I also felt that Maya
is a very important character she
descends into kind of depravity of
there’s almost unimaginable to people
and it’s important that we are aware
that there are people out there who are
so leave that kinds of knives and it
could be your kids my kids I mean it we
are not talking about homeless people
only way it can happen to any kid and
all the part about addiction in in in
the book that Maya suffers I did not
have to research it
I have lived it in my family my my three
stepchildren
are addicted two of them have already
died
of drug-related causes one of them died
four weeks ago he was 35 years old and
we thought he wasn’t recovering but the
demon of addiction is lurking you know
and when you think that everything is
fine it hits you again I was wondering
as I read the book if it was very very
painful to you to write some it was it
was painful to write about my in some
places I don’t go into specifics for
example if I write about torture
I don’t describe the torture I I create
the atmosphere of fear but I don’t
describe it because it’s too painful on
the other hand if there’s an erotic
scene I describe it to the detail
because in that sense I really want
people to learn right I took notes on
that see I reread that scene many times
because I wanted this you know there’s a
new book that came out in Spanish called
Ahmad and it’s there all the all the sex
and love scenes of my books put together
it’s like an ecology of whatever and my
mother was horrified absolutely out of
context it sounds pretty bad and and
it’s very successful people want to hear
about that
imagine that
I’m thinking New York Times bestseller
this problem so I wanted to ask you kind
of broke more broadly speaking what’s
the purpose of fiction for you why do
you why do you keep writing fiction well
because I like to tell stories that I
like to hear stories I think that
stories connect us in a story we find
that another person has experienced who
what we have experienced or we connect I
think that the the first form of
communication was probably music rhythm
and then as soon as we learned to speak
it was storytelling we were in ancient
times you couldn’t write but we could
tell stories and pass knowledge from one
generation to another by repeating the
same stories that become myths and
they’re the same myths everywhere and
and it’s the same idea of how the world
was formed and and how we come to be who
we are so I think that that’s the whole
purpose of stories connect us and create
is this sort of collective unconscious
where we are all the same we are all
brothers or sisters that’s beautiful
that’s great
did you so you began life as a writer I
think writing nonfiction well you were a
journal well it was featuring in my case
I was a lousy journalist okay so if I
didn’t have a story I wouldn’t make it
up excellent it’s a model we all should
follow it
when you began really giving yourself to
writing fiction did a transformation
occur in you as a writer was it
liberating it was a person as a pretty
thing that when when I wrote the house
of the spirits I put down in those pages
everything that mattered to me they
passed the country I had lost my family
my grandfather the stories he had told
me the the wonderful creature that my
grandmother was everything was in that
book it shows the world Who I am
from where I come what is my country
everything everything is contained there
so it it’s entered me it gave me a voice
and it gave me I was 40 years old when I
wrote the book I felt that my life was a
failure that I was going nowhere I was
living in exile my marriage was was a
disaster my my grandma my children were
going to the University and leaving home
so there was you know that feeling that
what am I going to do with the rest of
my life if there is a rest of my life
and then the house of the spirits and
I’m writing just opened a door into
another space and I am another person
that’s great every time you begin a new
book does that door kind of open again
with fear with fear because every book
is a new adventure I write very
different books and I’ve tackled
everything and young adult cookbooks
everything have there has there been a
time when when the fear has actually
sort of paralyzed you when you haven’t
been able to write I don’t think it was
fear I think it was sorrow after my
daughter died I wrote a memoir called
Paola and and then I went into what they
call a writer’s block and then one day I
was in a coffee shop and Annie Lamott
and beloved writer said how are you
doing I know about your daughter and he
said well not good not good I can’t
write I’m in a writer’s block and she
said there is no such a thing as a
writer’s block your reservoirs are empty
fill them up
and I went to India in a trip to India I
I filled them up yeah
everything changed after that right well
yeah
you actually write beautifully about
that trip to India in that in the book
that I added it called better than
fiction you have an amazing stories
about could you tell everyone of that
that story and what what the outcome was
well I didn’t want to go because I
thought I can’t deal with the poverty
and with a mess I just can’t
well you come back from India and what
you bring back is the beauty but I had
an experience there that changed me we
were with a driver
in crossing Rajasthan the Rose who are
impossible and it was a part the car was
too the engine heated up and and the
driver said I have to stop for a while
and there was an acacia tree in the back
somewhere nothing is no village no well
nothing and under the tree like five or
six women and children and my friend
table and I walked toward them we didn’t
have a common language but at the
beginning they were scared and then
curiosity was stronger than fear and
they started touching tables hair she
had her hair tinted purple and we had
bought some bracelets in a market some
silver bracelets a bunch of them and the
women were touching our bracelets and so
we took off the bracelets gave them the
bracelets and we couldn’t communicate
but we sort of touched and then the
driver honked and we started walking to
the car and one of the women came
running and she gave me a little parcel
and I thought she was trying to give me
something back for the bracelets I said
no no it’s not necessary
no no no and she insisted and put this
person in my hands and I sort of opened
it they were just relaxed and I open it
and there was a newborn baby inside
newborn I mean it’s still had the
umbilical cord and I blessed the baby
kiss the baby
it smelled like nothing that I’ve ever
smelled in a baby like ash earth and
feces and I tried to give the baby back
and she she refused she stepped back and
in that moment that driver came running
and he grabbed the baby from my hands
and gave it back to the mother pushed me
in the car and we drove off and when I
could I realize what had happened we
were already driving away and I said why
would that woman give me her baby and
the driver said it’s a girl who wants a
girl and that was a moment in my life
when when I really liked I I was pulled
out of my my own sorrow I was only
focusing on myself when there is so much
to do in the world there’s so much grief
so much need all the money that I had
earned with Paola the book I have put in
a separate account because I didn’t want
to touch it thinking that one day I
would do something to honor my daughter
and that was the moment when I realized
that I could create a foundation to try
to help little girls like her like that
little girl and she that little girl
haunts me she would be if she’s alive 16
now and 16 or 17 and she haunts me
because I think I could have given her a
life could I maybe I could have taken
her out of India bring her with me
of course what everybody says is I was
trying to replace my daughter I know I
don’t think so I think it just opened my
eyes to the need in the world so I have
a foundation now that works with women
and girls empowering women and girls you
can google my name and you’ll find it
there if you want to know what do we do
you’ve heard about call my invented
country and and for those of us who are
travelers and who would like to go to
Chile where would you recommend that we
go one of them it must see places or
they must see things to get the essence
of the jalisa long and narrow strip of
land so you have all the climates and
all the landscapes and it’s gorgeous and
the people are kind and there are no
ferocious animals or serpents or any of
that so it’s a safe and wonderful
country up in the north we have the
driest desert in the world the driest
climate in the world where all the
astronomical observatories are and some
Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert
is according to my daughter-in-law has
been all over the world the best place
that were where you can go but you can
also go to Patagonia or to all the
region of regions of the lakes and the
volcanoes in the south it’s beautiful
and CEO of course once you read my book
and please read it you will want to go
to Chile
do you think the people chill away know
that you’ve written the book oh yeah I
was there two years ago it was taken so
long for the translation that it is a
historical no no okay so I have a lot of
people going to cheer the way because I
don’t know but but I have been there
after the book and there are many people
from the island and are in the book real
people really we with other names but
they are there and they recognize
themselves now for example there is my
daughter-in-law and I were invited to a
circle of women that gather on full on
the full moon and they gather in the
what they called el rucola Ruka which is
like a Kiva and it’s a sacred place
feminine place where men don’t go make
men ever built it but they have been
ogling and so the women gather there
it’s hot it’s not a sweat lodge but it’s
hot and it’s wonderful it’s it’s during
the Pachamama the mother earth
so we had at night they are with my
daughter-in-law and I wrote it exactly
as it was in the book and they all the
women there sent emails and they
communicate is wonderful Wow so that’s
real they’re all real
that’s an amazing scene in the book I
remember thinking this couldn’t possibly
be of course it’s real I think I could
make that up
well I think we should go to questions
okay we’ll go to questions in the middle
there that gentleman two seats in thank
you do you ever urine our dream of going
back to Chile to live there once more if
I would go back to live in Chile I have
a foot there and a foot here but my son
my grandchildren my husband my dogs
everything is here
and I love this country this country has
given me so much it has given me an
infinite space to create privacy you
know I feel safe here you live in terror
with this paranoia of terrorism this is
a very safe place you don’t know what
the rest of the world looks like so I go
to to Chile because that’s my roots and
my language and the sense of humor and
everything that I love but I want to be
here and I hope that my ashes will end
up here yes could you please tell us a
little bit why did you write a book like
the the island under the sea the island
beneath the sea really I wasn’t planning
to write that book at all the island me
neither see is a story of the slave
revolt in Haiti 200 years ago I have no
connection with that story why would I
write about that now that the book is
has been written I know what the book is
about but I didn’t when I was writing it
it took me four years of research and I
got sick researching about slavery one
of my obsessions is the abuse of power
if if any human being has absolute power
and impunity is not accountable we tend
to commit commit atrocities
that’s what the torture does to the
victim that’s what the abusive father
does to the children or their wife
that’s what the their occupation forces
to in a country that they have occupied
that when there is absolute power or
impunity we we can become beasts I’m
very glad that I have never had that
kind of power what what kind of person
would I have been if I have been the
wife of a plantation owner in Haiti in
1800 would I be this person would I know
the world as I know today would I feel
for the slaves what the what I feel
today probably not probably I would be
inserted in a cultural situation that it
would seem completely natural to me that
that there would be slaves just as it is
natural for my mother to have a
housekeeper who lives in the house and
works 18 hours a day and she’s like a
daughter and but she’s not a daughter
and she’s working just the fact that she
serves the table shocks me but it’s it’s
natural energy that’s the way it’s done
so it all depends where we are
culturally so Isabelle I’m gonna ask you
one last question there was one person
oh okay well we’ll go to that and then
I’ll ask you Alaska if that’s okay
I was inspired a few years ago when
Michelle Bachelet was elected in Chile
as the first female president and moved
to Chile and was very interested in in
the the citizens there and how they were
very proud of having a female president
and what that meant and I was wondering
if you could reflect a little bit on
that and women as leaders in Chile well
women have been the pillars of the
society in Chile always it’s a very
patriarchal match of society in
appearance but women are the pillars of
the family and the community and they
have always been involved in all the
social issues and in politics but never
to the point of electing a president
until Michelle bascially was elected and
that changed everything because now
everything is possible for women
Michelle did a wonderful presidency we
had higher governments of what we call
the concertación that is a coalition of
parties of the center and the left for
20 years now we have a Conservative
government that came after Michelle
bascially Michelle is a nobody thought
that she would ever be elected because
she’s a single mother agnostic socialist
and a woman and she didn’t have a chance
and she left the presidency with 84 86
percent approval never in the history of
Chile we have had a president with that
kind of writing and I think she’s going
to be our next president
most probably yeah what’s your question
so what is your dream my dream my
personal dream to have long legs well I
want to thank you Isabelle inviting me
well thank you all for coming thank you
you
of the plot you want to give away but I
think I can summarize that the main
character is a very troubled young woman
with a very difficult past who flees the
United States to go live on a remote
island off the coast of mainland Chile
called chill away and I’m wondering
where did this story and the characters
come from at the time all my
grandchildren my four grandchildren and
their friends really have six because uh
two more that that are like mine they
all were teenagers and we I saw the
parents trying to protect them from all
the dangers that they were exposed and
all the horrible things that could
happen to them how can you protect them
from all that and as a grandmother I was
always very close to my grandchildren
saw them practically every day so I I
was scared especially with my youngest
granddaughter Nicole who are 15 look
like Jennifer Lopez but had the brain of
an 8-year old boyfriend from hell
so this is what happens to Maya Maya
this gorgeous girl who is athletic and a
good student when the grandfather dies
she loses it the grandmother goes into a
depression and she starts a spiral of
petty theft but alcohol and then it gets
worse and worse eventually she runs away
from home
and ends up recruited by gangsters in
Las Vegas where they are drug dealers
and criminals and I the grandmother
since Maya to chiloe the southern part
of Chile when there’s an archipelago
with many many islands a big island and
many small islands where I researched
and I found the perfect Island it’s not
paradise at all but it’s the island that
she needs a place where there’s a small
community of a few people who live off
the land or of the sea and they embrace
her but they teach her them in the first
week she learns the first law of nature
the law of reciprocity that you have to
give as much as you take which he had
never it never had never occurred to her
and I say this because I see my
grandchildren
they are totally entitled to everything
they have they don’t think they have to
give anything back and so she learns
that and she gets involved with the
community
she’s disconnected from all the
technology because if she gets in the
internet they will find her and so she’s
disconnected and for the first time in
her life she has no ear phones no phone
she has time to be bored to write a
notebook this is the notebook so the
story goes from what happened to her
before that she’s telling in the book in
a notebook and what’s happening in the
island at that time so how did you first
stumble upon kill away I knew the place
and I knew that it would be the perfect
contrast with Vegas a safe place to take
her and I also wanted to get back in
touch with the Chilean roots because
there is a mystery in her family the
book has the structure of a crime novel
with suspense and is she going to be
found by the end her enemies or not
what’s going to happen to her and there
is a mystery in her family and there is
a mystery in the country she goes to a
country where which is very different
from what she was used to where people
don’t talk about certain things the
scars and the wounds of the dictatorship
are still there for many many people but
people don’t talk about it and for young
people it’s old history it has nothing
to do with them it doesn’t concern them
at all but I believe that as a people we
need to look at our past in order not to
make the same mistakes and this is what
the Jewish people has has done so well
by keeping alive the Holocaust and they
have kept it alive and I think that it
is very important that we remember what
we’ve done reading the book I thought
that part of your mission was to be an
educator no I’m pleased no no
responsibility I’m not accountable for
anything here and I don’t try to deliver
a message as you teach anything I just
yeah tell what I know
where I have been the experiences I have
had interesting because there’s a lot of
history that as you were saying people
aren’t really aware of and you do go
into that in some depth and I think it’s
very very important as you say for
people to be aware of that especially
young people and I also felt that Maya
is a very important character she
descends into kind of depravity of
there’s almost unimaginable to people
and it’s important that we are aware
that there are people out there who are
so leave that kinds of knives and it
could be your kids my kids I mean it we
are not talking about homeless people
only way it can happen to any kid and
all the part about addiction in in in
the book that Maya suffers I did not
have to research it
I have lived it in my family my my three
stepchildren
are addicted two of them have already
died
of drug-related causes one of them died
four weeks ago he was 35 years old and
we thought he wasn’t recovering but the
demon of addiction is lurking you know
and when you think that everything is
fine it hits you again I was wondering
as I read the book if it was very very
painful to you to write some it was it
was painful to write about my in some
places I don’t go into specifics for
example if I write about torture
I don’t describe the torture I I create
the atmosphere of fear but I don’t
describe it because it’s too painful on
the other hand if there’s an erotic
scene I describe it to the detail
because in that sense I really want
people to learn right I took notes on
that see I reread that scene many times
because I wanted this you know there’s a
new book that came out in Spanish called
Ahmad and it’s there all the all the sex
and love scenes of my books put together
it’s like an ecology of whatever and my
mother was horrified absolutely out of
context it sounds pretty bad and and
it’s very successful people want to hear
about that
imagine that
I’m thinking New York Times bestseller
this problem so I wanted to ask you kind
of broke more broadly speaking what’s
the purpose of fiction for you why do
you why do you keep writing fiction well
because I like to tell stories that I
like to hear stories I think that
stories connect us in a story we find
that another person has experienced who
what we have experienced or we connect I
think that the the first form of
communication was probably music rhythm
and then as soon as we learned to speak
it was storytelling we were in ancient
times you couldn’t write but we could
tell stories and pass knowledge from one
generation to another by repeating the
same stories that become myths and
they’re the same myths everywhere and
and it’s the same idea of how the world
was formed and and how we come to be who
we are so I think that that’s the whole
purpose of stories connect us and create
is this sort of collective unconscious
where we are all the same we are all
brothers or sisters that’s beautiful
that’s great
did you so you began life as a writer I
think writing nonfiction well you were a
journal well it was featuring in my case
I was a lousy journalist okay so if I
didn’t have a story I wouldn’t make it
up excellent it’s a model we all should
follow it
when you began really giving yourself to
writing fiction did a transformation
occur in you as a writer was it
liberating it was a person as a pretty
thing that when when I wrote the house
of the spirits I put down in those pages
everything that mattered to me they
passed the country I had lost my family
my grandfather the stories he had told
me the the wonderful creature that my
grandmother was everything was in that
book it shows the world Who I am
from where I come what is my country
everything everything is contained there
so it it’s entered me it gave me a voice
and it gave me I was 40 years old when I
wrote the book I felt that my life was a
failure that I was going nowhere I was
living in exile my marriage was was a
disaster my my grandma my children were
going to the University and leaving home
so there was you know that feeling that
what am I going to do with the rest of
my life if there is a rest of my life
and then the house of the spirits and
I’m writing just opened a door into
another space and I am another person
that’s great every time you begin a new
book does that door kind of open again
with fear with fear because every book
is a new adventure I write very
different books and I’ve tackled
everything and young adult cookbooks
everything have there has there been a
time when when the fear has actually
sort of paralyzed you when you haven’t
been able to write I don’t think it was
fear I think it was sorrow after my
daughter died I wrote a memoir called
Paola and and then I went into what they
call a writer’s block and then one day I
was in a coffee shop and Annie Lamott
and beloved writer said how are you
doing I know about your daughter and he
said well not good not good I can’t
write I’m in a writer’s block and she
said there is no such a thing as a
writer’s block your reservoirs are empty
fill them up
and I went to India in a trip to India I
I filled them up yeah
everything changed after that right well
yeah
you actually write beautifully about
that trip to India in that in the book
that I added it called better than
fiction you have an amazing stories
about could you tell everyone of that
that story and what what the outcome was
well I didn’t want to go because I
thought I can’t deal with the poverty
and with a mess I just can’t
well you come back from India and what
you bring back is the beauty but I had
an experience there that changed me we
were with a driver
in crossing Rajasthan the Rose who are
impossible and it was a part the car was
too the engine heated up and and the
driver said I have to stop for a while
and there was an acacia tree in the back
somewhere nothing is no village no well
nothing and under the tree like five or
six women and children and my friend
table and I walked toward them we didn’t
have a common language but at the
beginning they were scared and then
curiosity was stronger than fear and
they started touching tables hair she
had her hair tinted purple and we had
bought some bracelets in a market some
silver bracelets a bunch of them and the
women were touching our bracelets and so
we took off the bracelets gave them the
bracelets and we couldn’t communicate
but we sort of touched and then the
driver honked and we started walking to
the car and one of the women came
running and she gave me a little parcel
and I thought she was trying to give me
something back for the bracelets I said
no no it’s not necessary
no no no and she insisted and put this
person in my hands and I sort of opened
it they were just relaxed and I open it
and there was a newborn baby inside
newborn I mean it’s still had the
umbilical cord and I blessed the baby
kiss the baby
it smelled like nothing that I’ve ever
smelled in a baby like ash earth and
feces and I tried to give the baby back
and she she refused she stepped back and
in that moment that driver came running
and he grabbed the baby from my hands
and gave it back to the mother pushed me
in the car and we drove off and when I
could I realize what had happened we
were already driving away and I said why
would that woman give me her baby and
the driver said it’s a girl who wants a
girl and that was a moment in my life
when when I really liked I I was pulled
out of my my own sorrow I was only
focusing on myself when there is so much
to do in the world there’s so much grief
so much need all the money that I had
earned with Paola the book I have put in
a separate account because I didn’t want
to touch it thinking that one day I
would do something to honor my daughter
and that was the moment when I realized
that I could create a foundation to try
to help little girls like her like that
little girl and she that little girl
haunts me she would be if she’s alive 16
now and 16 or 17 and she haunts me
because I think I could have given her a
life could I maybe I could have taken
her out of India bring her with me
of course what everybody says is I was
trying to replace my daughter I know I
don’t think so I think it just opened my
eyes to the need in the world so I have
a foundation now that works with women
and girls empowering women and girls you
can google my name and you’ll find it
there if you want to know what do we do
you’ve heard about call my invented
country and and for those of us who are
travelers and who would like to go to
Chile where would you recommend that we
go one of them it must see places or
they must see things to get the essence
of the jalisa long and narrow strip of
land so you have all the climates and
all the landscapes and it’s gorgeous and
the people are kind and there are no
ferocious animals or serpents or any of
that so it’s a safe and wonderful
country up in the north we have the
driest desert in the world the driest
climate in the world where all the
astronomical observatories are and some
Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert
is according to my daughter-in-law has
been all over the world the best place
that were where you can go but you can
also go to Patagonia or to all the
region of regions of the lakes and the
volcanoes in the south it’s beautiful
and CEO of course once you read my book
and please read it you will want to go
to Chile
do you think the people chill away know
that you’ve written the book oh yeah I
was there two years ago it was taken so
long for the translation that it is a
historical no no okay so I have a lot of
people going to cheer the way because I
don’t know but but I have been there
after the book and there are many people
from the island and are in the book real
people really we with other names but
they are there and they recognize
themselves now for example there is my
daughter-in-law and I were invited to a
circle of women that gather on full on
the full moon and they gather in the
what they called el rucola Ruka which is
like a Kiva and it’s a sacred place
feminine place where men don’t go make
men ever built it but they have been
ogling and so the women gather there
it’s hot it’s not a sweat lodge but it’s
hot and it’s wonderful it’s it’s during
the Pachamama the mother earth
so we had at night they are with my
daughter-in-law and I wrote it exactly
as it was in the book and they all the
women there sent emails and they
communicate is wonderful Wow so that’s
real they’re all real
that’s an amazing scene in the book I
remember thinking this couldn’t possibly
be of course it’s real I think I could
make that up
well I think we should go to questions
okay we’ll go to questions in the middle
there that gentleman two seats in thank
you do you ever urine our dream of going
back to Chile to live there once more if
I would go back to live in Chile I have
a foot there and a foot here but my son
my grandchildren my husband my dogs
everything is here
and I love this country this country has
given me so much it has given me an
infinite space to create privacy you
know I feel safe here you live in terror
with this paranoia of terrorism this is
a very safe place you don’t know what
the rest of the world looks like so I go
to to Chile because that’s my roots and
my language and the sense of humor and
everything that I love but I want to be
here and I hope that my ashes will end
up here yes could you please tell us a
little bit why did you write a book like
the the island under the sea the island
beneath the sea really I wasn’t planning
to write that book at all the island me
neither see is a story of the slave
revolt in Haiti 200 years ago I have no
connection with that story why would I
write about that now that the book is
has been written I know what the book is
about but I didn’t when I was writing it
it took me four years of research and I
got sick researching about slavery one
of my obsessions is the abuse of power
if if any human being has absolute power
and impunity is not accountable we tend
to commit commit atrocities
that’s what the torture does to the
victim that’s what the abusive father
does to the children or their wife
that’s what the their occupation forces
to in a country that they have occupied
that when there is absolute power or
impunity we we can become beasts I’m
very glad that I have never had that
kind of power what what kind of person
would I have been if I have been the
wife of a plantation owner in Haiti in
1800 would I be this person would I know
the world as I know today would I feel
for the slaves what the what I feel
today probably not probably I would be
inserted in a cultural situation that it
would seem completely natural to me that
that there would be slaves just as it is
natural for my mother to have a
housekeeper who lives in the house and
works 18 hours a day and she’s like a
daughter and but she’s not a daughter
and she’s working just the fact that she
serves the table shocks me but it’s it’s
natural energy that’s the way it’s done
so it all depends where we are
culturally so Isabelle I’m gonna ask you
one last question there was one person
oh okay well we’ll go to that and then
I’ll ask you Alaska if that’s okay
I was inspired a few years ago when
Michelle Bachelet was elected in Chile
as the first female president and moved
to Chile and was very interested in in
the the citizens there and how they were
very proud of having a female president
and what that meant and I was wondering
if you could reflect a little bit on
that and women as leaders in Chile well
women have been the pillars of the
society in Chile always it’s a very
patriarchal match of society in
appearance but women are the pillars of
the family and the community and they
have always been involved in all the
social issues and in politics but never
to the point of electing a president
until Michelle bascially was elected and
that changed everything because now
everything is possible for women
Michelle did a wonderful presidency we
had higher governments of what we call
the concertación that is a coalition of
parties of the center and the left for
20 years now we have a Conservative
government that came after Michelle
bascially Michelle is a nobody thought
that she would ever be elected because
she’s a single mother agnostic socialist
and a woman and she didn’t have a chance
and she left the presidency with 84 86
percent approval never in the history of
Chile we have had a president with that
kind of writing and I think she’s going
to be our next president
most probably yeah what’s your question
so what is your dream my dream my
personal dream to have long legs well I
want to thank you Isabelle inviting me
well thank you all for coming thank you
you
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