This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. The internationally renowned author tackles difficult issues and her latest book in the midst of winter. The story follows three characters including two immigrant woman fleeing violence as their lives intercept after a car accident. Wallin San Diego on her book tour, she sat down with Jean Guerrero to discuss everything from gender violence to immigration.You've fought for women's rights for decades to your foundation and in your books and in your latest book some characters are survivors of violence. I want to ask your thoughts about the movement. What you think is accomplished?We can relate to personal stories. If we talk about numbers, for example, immigration or sexual harassment or the millions of women that are being harassed is not mean anything until we see a face and hear a story. And my book I deal with immigration. When we talk about those issues and the U.S., we talk about numbers. These are people. It's a personal story. We can relate to that person to a story and everything changes.What's happening today with this movement and the woman that are coming out for the first time making men accountable and that is something that will change the way that we understand gender relationships in the U.S. and many other places in the world. I think it is very important.It is so relevant right now two characters are immigrants. The stories unfold within the context of current events. You wrote it's already in the air unleashed by Donald Trump's hateful presidential campaign. Why did you choose to place a characters in this landscape?By the time he had become president, I finished the book but it was there. He did not invent anything, he just harvested sentiments that were there always. They are there and every society. The thing is that as we evolve to a better world, these things are kept under control. These are sentiments and this is hatred. The tendency is to have more understanding, inclusion and more democracy.Living in the U.S. do you feel a greater urgency given-year-old to comment on current events like these?I don't try to preach or give a message of my books but I write about things I care for. These issues are things there deal with and my foundation.Are you planning to visit the border wall prototypes?No. It's interesting that in the world that we live today everything is global technology, communication, information, drugs, guns, everything except people. People have to be within boarders.Your book touches on the role that the U.S. has played on violence. You write about how stricter border controls make crime more ruthless.There is a change and policy for decades, when we were in the middle of the cold war and it was divided between the influence of the Soviet Union and the U.S., the CIA provoked and supported terrible dictatorships and different parts of the world. The circumstances have changed. The Cold War ended and now the role of the CIA is different but still intervenes and other countries. We have not done enough and Central America -- let's talk about my character. Guatemala suffered 30 years of genocide by indigenous people. Perpetrated by the ruling class and supported by the CAA with the excuse of fighting communism and the military. This created havoc in the infrastructure of the country. Then the MS 13 that has 80,000 members and commit atrocities. No one is control them. People who leave their country and come here illegally are running for their lives. Who would want to leave everything that is familiar to them, their home, their family, their language, their country unless they are desperate. They are running away from extreme violence. The way to changes is not building a wall, it's changing the circumstances and the countries of origin so that they don't have to get out. We never had Syrian refugees and tell the war in Syria forced millions of people out. So when things change in Syria, these people will try to go back. Some people have left with the key of their house and their pockets and they don't know when they will be able to go back, but that is what they dream of. I know about this because I have became a refugee and I know that I would've never left my country.Tell me about in the midst of winter what inspired you to write this story?It happens through a storm and Brooklyn. -- In Brooklyn. It happened to three people. He is vegan and has four cats and he doesn't want anything bad to happen. There is a journalist was gone to hell because of the dictatorship. She said a very hard life. She is renting the basement. They're both and their 60s. It's a mature romance. He doesn't pay any attention to her and then one day, Richard rear-ended another car and the car is driven by this Guatemalan young woman who was terrified at what is happening. That night she shows up at his house with a huge problem and then he is confronted with the situation and what she has to make a decision. His life changes. The life of these three characters changes because of those three days and the storms.Its original exploration a morality. A character find the body in the trunk of a car and they deal with it and a very nontraditional way. Your character play with the boundaries of that.I've done this and many books. I was fascinated by organic justice, which is very often the opposite of the legal system, the judiciary system. It doesn't make the rich and the powerful accountable. We've seen this and this country and everywhere that the rich get away with everything and the poor pay. Who are the people that are filling up the private prisons and this country? I don't trust justice, but I do believe injustice of the heart of what we know is right and our hearts.That was Isabel Allende speaking with Jean Guerrero
Illegal immigration, gender violence and poetic justice are just a few of the subjects that Isabel Allende grapples with in her latest book, "In The Midst of Winter."
The internationally renown Chilean author's novel interweaves the lives of an elderly vegan professor who is terrified of everything and desires nothing, a fierce Chilean journalist who has a crush on him and a young Guatemalan woman fleeing horrific violence.
Allende sat down with KPBS to discuss this book, President Trump's wall and the #MeToo movement, which involves women sharing stories of sexual harassment and assault on social media to raise awareness about the ubiquity of the problem.
What follows is a partial transcript of the interview. Her book's title comes from the French philosopher Albert Camus, who wrote: "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."
Q: You’ve said that the only way to change the world is to empower women and nurture feminine energy in men. How can we accomplish the latter?
A: Educating men. Young men. I think the old men, we have to wait until they die off. There’s nothing we can do about them. But the young ones, women like you and me are bringing them up so everything is changing and we know that it is changing. Because in my lifetime, I have seen a big change. The generation of my son is very different from mine and my grandchildren are totally different too.
Q: You’ve fought for women’s rights for decades, through your foundation and books. I want to ask your thoughts about the #MeToo movement. What do you think is accomplished by telling these stories that raise awareness about the ubiquity of gender violence?
A: We can relate to personal stories. If we talk about numbers, for example immigration or harassment, if we talk about millions of women who have been harassed — that doesn’t mean anything until we see a face or hear a story ... Anita Hill started by denouncing sexual harassment in the workplace. And she started a revolution. She lost the hearing, and she lost in that moment, but she won the war. Because now we are conscious about harassment in the workplace ... So what’s happening today here with this movement and these women coming out, they’re for the first time making men accountable. And that is something that will change probably the way we understand gender relationships in the United States and by extension other places. And I think it’s very important.
Q: “In the Midst of Winter” is so relevant in the U.S. right now given the current immigration debate ... You wrote: “Xenophobia toward Latinos was already in the air, unleashed by Donald Trump’s hateful presidential campaign.” Why did you choose to place the characters in this landscape?
A: By the time he became President, I had finished the book. Yet the issues he gave a megaphone to — xenophobia, racism, misogyny — all that was in the air, it was there … He didn’t invent anything, he just harvested sentiments that were there always. And they’re there in every society. We are no exception. The thing is that as we evolve to a better world, these things are kept under control, these sentiments and this hatred. And then sometimes given the wrong circumstances it emerges. But the tendency is toward more comprehension, more understanding, more inclusion, more democracy.
Q: As such a prominent Latin American writer living in the United States, do you feel a greater urgency to comment on these issues?
A: Not in my books ... I don’t try to preach in my books or to give a message, but I write about the things I care for.
Q: The prototypes for Trump’s wall were just built in San Diego, I don’t know if you were planning to visit them?
A: No.
Q. What are your thoughts on the wall we have in comparison with the one that is being planned?
A: It’s interesting that in the world we live today, everything is global: technology, communication, information, drugs, guns — everything except people. People are contained. People have to be within borders, nothing else is.
Q: Your book touches on the role the U.S. has played in the violence of Mexico and Central America. You write about how “stricter border controls” make criminal organizations more rich and ruthless. Do you think elected officials have done enough to recognize and repair the havoc that the U.S. has historically helped wreak in Latin America?
A: No ... For decades, when we were in the middle of what was called the Cold War and the world was divided between the area of influence of the Soviet Union and the area of influence of United States, the CIA provoked and supported terrible dictatorships in different part of the world. The circumstances have changed, the Cold War ended and now the role of the CIA is different but still intervenes in other countries ... Let’s talk about Guatemala, for example — my character is from Guatemala. Guatemala suffered 30 years of genocide against the indigenous people, perpetrated by the ruling class supported by the CIA with the excuse of fighting Communism ... this created havoc in the infrastructure of the country, the social network of the country, and then the gangs came.
Q: (Your book) is this really original exploration of morality. One of your characters finds a body in the trunk of car and they deal with it in a less-than-legal way … You write that justice is cruel and the law is blind. Your characters really play with boundaries of that. What inspired you to explore these ideas?
A: I’m always interested fascinated by poetic justice, organic justice, natural justice, which is very often the opposite of the legal system, the judiciary system that always punishes the weak and the poor and doesn’t make the rich and the powerful accountable. And we’ve seen this in this country, we’ve seen it everywhere — that the rich get away with everything and the poor pay. Who are the people filling up the prisons in this country, the private prisons by the way? Black people and brown people and the poor. So I don’t trust justice but I do believe in the justice of the heart — of what we know is right in our hearts.
