Women Rewriting History: Ines Suarez and the Conquest of Chile

The Spanish Ines Suarez was part of Pedro de Valdivia's expedition and played a fundamental role in the Conquest of Chile. Following the example of other historical novels or fictionalized biographies written in the 20th century, Isabel Allende dedicated a novel to her in 2006. The novel seeks to rewrite the discourse of European colonialism in Latin America. By way of giving literary form to the claims of French and American feminism of the second half of the 20th century, Allende seeks to reconceive the identity of women as well as their role in history.