It's time for old politicians to return home, says Isabel Allende about Chilean government - ISTOÉ DINHEIRO

Writer Isabel Allende is honored at Harvard University

By Lucila Sigal

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Chilean writer Isabel Allende on Monday celebrated the gender parity of Chile’s new government, said it was time for old politics to give way to young people and found it curious that a granddaughter of former President Salvador Allende was appointed Minister of Defence.

“It’s a new generation coming to power. It’s time for the old wolverines to come home and play bingo,” the 79-year-old writer said in a video conference for the release of her latest novel called “Violet.”

“I am very happy with the ministry that (President-elect Gabriel) Boric appointed because it is very diverse, there are 14 women and 10 men. There’s really a solid intention for there to be gender parity and that’s just extraordinary,” she added.

Boric appointed a cabinet made up mostly of women, including socialist deputy Maya Fernández, granddaughter of Salvador Allende, the president ousted in the 1973 military coup. The writer is the former president’s niece.

“Not only will she be Minister of Chile, she will be Minister of Defense. In other words, she is a young woman who grew up in Cuba, granddaughter of Salvador Allende, in a very special position, in which she will have to deal with the armed forces and not forget the past of the armed forces in Chile,” said the author.

“I see it as a curious thing”, added Allende, author of “A Casa dos Espíritos”, a book that made her famous and whose publication completes 40 years.

In “Violeta”, the most read Spanish-language living writer in the world dives back into the female universe to tell the story of a woman who was born in 1920 with the so-called “Spanish flu” and dies with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. , the story of a 100-year life traversed by historical events.