Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru in 1942. She was the daughter of Francisca Llona and Tomás Allende, who was at the time a second secretary at the Chilean embassy. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973. In 1945, after Tomás had disappeared, Isabel’s mother relocated with her three children to Santiago (Chile) where they lived until 1953.

Later, from 1959 to 1965, Allende worked with the United Nations Food and Agrilture Organization (FAO) in Santiago. For a brief while in Chile, she also had a job translating romance novels from English to Spanish. However, she was fired for making unauthorized changes to the dialogue of the heroines to make them sound more intelligent as well as altering the Cinderella endings to let the heroines find more independence and do well in the world.

Foundation

Allende started the Isabel Allende Foundation on 9 December 1996 to pay homage to her daughter Paula Frías Allende, who had a rare blood disorder that nowadays should not be fatal, but there was negligence in the hospital because she was given the wrong medication and she fell into a coma. Paula was 28 years old when she died in 1992.

The foundation is "dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected”. The foundation supports select nonprofits in Chile and California whose missions are to provide vulnerable women and children with access to:

Reproductive rights

Healthcare

Education

Protection from violence

The Isabel Allende Foundation is focused on achieving a world in which women and girls have economic and social justice, empowerment, and protection.