INÉS OF MY SOUL
by Isabel Allende
This is the history of Inés Suarez a poor seamstress in Spain whose husband went to the Americas to seek his fortune after hearing about the wondrous possibilities being opened up by Francisco Pizarro in Peru. After he disappears, she gets royal permission to search for him and sails to the New World to discover he had been killed in a military skirmish fighting with Pizarro’s brother.
She settles in Cuzco and ekes out a living as a seamstress and cooking wondrous empanadas. It is here that she falls passionately in love with the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia who has been a great ally of Pizarro’s. His dream is to conquer Chile, an area with fierce indigenous tribes who have held off others who have attempted to colonize them. Diego de Almagro had led an expedition as far south as the River Bio Bio crossing the fierce Andes and the driest desert in the world only to crumble under the forces of the Mapuche warriors and had to return to Peru his forces decimated and demoralized. 
Chile was given it’s name by Diego de Almagro since this is what is was called by the Incas from the Mapuche word for “where the land ends.
Pedro de Valdivia wants glory, but more than that he foresees a land where there can be honor, tolerance, justice and a place where native and Spaniard can co exist amicably if treated appropriately. With Ines and her sword at his side, Valdivia leads his conquistadors south from Peru, carving out a new country in the process. They founded the now capital Santiago, the cities Valdivia as well as Conception.
Valdivia and Inés succeed in much of what they start out to do but ideas of egalitarianism and glory don’t always successfully coexist and great ideals fall by the wayside. Valdivia was married and he was forced to give up Inés as well. Inés was then married to Rodrigo Quiroga who was a second of Valdivia’s as well as a great friend of Inés’ and the two end up with different destinies.
The story is told by Inés as a very old woman at the end of her life to a younger woman Isabel who is like a daughter to her. The struggle of the establishment of the Spaniards in Chile is epic, violent and prolonged. It is a story well worth telling.
This is the history of Inés Suarez a poor seamstress in Spain whose husband went to the Americas to seek his fortune after hearing about the wondrous possibilities being opened up by Francisco Pizarro in Peru. After he disappears, she gets royal permission to search for him and sails to the New World to discover he had been killed in a military skirmish fighting with Pizarro’s brother. She settles in Cuzco and ekes out a living as a seamstress and cooking wondrous empanadas. It is here that she falls passionately in love with the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia who has been a great ally of Pizarro’s. His dream is to conquer Chile, an area with fierce indigenous tribes who have held off others who have attempted to colonize them. Diego de Almagro had led an expedition as far south as the River Bio Bio crossing the fierce Andes and the driest desert in the world only to crumble under the forces of the Mapuche warriors and had to return to Peru his forces decimated and demoralized. Pedro de Valdivia wants glory, but more than that he foresees a land where there can be honor, tolerance, justice and a place where native and Spaniard can co exist amicably if treated appropriately. With Ines and her sword at his side, Valdivia leads his conquistadors south from Peru, carving out a new country in the process. They founded the now capital Santiago, the cities Valdivia as well as Conception.Valdivia and Inés succeed in much of what they start out to do but ideas of egalitarianism and glory don’t always successfully coexist and great ideals fall by the wayside. Valdivia was married and he was forced to give up Inés as well. Inés was then married to Rodrigo Quiroga who was a second of Valdivia’s as well as a great friend of Inés’ and the two end up with different destinies.The story is told by Inés as a very old woman at the end of her life to a younger woman Isabel who is like a daughter to her. The struggle of the establishment of the Spaniards in Chile is epic, violent and prolonged. It is a story well worth telling.
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