Chile’s 2 Isabel Allendes, author and senator, join president in supporting trapped miners

The Isabel Allendes visit trapped miners’ families

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — The two Isabel Allendes joined Chile’s president Sunday in a visit to the mine where a team of hundreds is working to rescue 33 men trapped a half-mile underground.

Author Isabel Allende, renowned for novels such as “The House of Spirits,” was introduced by President Sebastian Pinera at a brief news conference as a great Chilean — “perhaps the best ambassador that our country has had.”

Standing with them was her relative, Sen. Isabel Allende, a socialist who represents the Atacama region where the mine is located and who has been critical of Chile’s mine-safety regulation.

“I come from California and I travel all over the world, and all the television screens of the world are showing the faces of those 33 miners and the name of Chile,” said the author, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area town of San Rafael. She returned to Chile for bicentennial celebrations and accepted the president’s invitation to visit the mine.

“I’ve received hundreds of messages from people praying for them, from people who send messages of support, positive energy and thanks to the people who are above ground, working day and night without rest to rescue their comrades,” she added. “For me this is very emotional.”

The two Allendes are first cousins, once removed — the senator’s father was President Salvador Allende, who was ousted by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the 1973 coup. The writer’s father was Tomas Allende, first cousin to the socialist president.

In Spanish, that makes the president the author’s “second-degree uncle,” and she has often described him as her “uncle.”