While most people have heard the tales of the conquistadors, it is always about the men who came to the new world in search of gold and fame but what about the women who traveled with them? Were there any? In fact, Inés Suarez, who was born in Spain, traveled to the new world in the 16th Century to help settle Chile making her probably one of the few conquistadoras.
With this factual information, Isabel Allende construes a historical tale of love, ambition and conquest. The main character recounts her life with the three men that she loved: Juan Malaga, her first husband, Pedro de Valdivia, the man she conquers Chile with and finally Rodrigo de Quiroga, her last husband.
It is with Pedro de Valdivia that Inés shares in the triumphs and hardships of settling Chile. She proves to be adept at sewing, cooking, seeking water, and even fighting the warriors of the Mapuche tribe. It seems there is nothing that Inés can't do and because of that I found Inés a bit too hard to believe at times.
The most interesting aspect of the novel for me was reading about the conquista itself. How the native people fought to keep their land and how the Spanish wouldn't stop until they had complete domination. It is a wonder that with so many problems the Spanish encountered they never gave up. Perhaps reading this excerpt of what Pedro de Valdivia dreams of for Chile will help explain this intense need to conquer:
“The road to Chile was the equivalent of crossing through hell... In his imagination, Chile, would be the ideal place to build a just society based on hard work and cultivating the land, not on the ill-gotten wealth bled from mines and slaves. In Chile, even religion would be simple, because he – who had read Erasmus – would personally recruit kind and gentle priests, true servants of God, and not an assembly of corrupt and odious men. The founders' descendants would be sober, honest, hard-working Chleans respectful of the law.”
While I didn't like Inés as a main character very much I did appreciate learning more about the history of Chile, even if it was in a fictionalized account. I think my biggest disappointment of the novel though comes from my own expectation of what I had when I open a book by Isabel Allende. I expected a tale filled with those touches of magical realism that have made her earlier novels so memorable. Unfortunately those were sorely absent in this tale.
Added 01/08