SOURCE: Allende, Isabel, and Michael Skafidas. “Pinochet's Ghost.” NPQ: New Perspectives Quarterly 16, no. 3 (spring 1999): 22-6.

In the following interview, Allende discusses her views of American culture, her place in literature, and the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

[Skafidas]: Until you and your family were forced to flee Pinochet's government after the coup against [your uncle] Salvador Allende, you had lived your life in Chile. You come from a culture and a family that, for good reason, has been suspicious of or even hostile toward America. As you have said, Henry Kissinger is no less guilty than Augusto Pinochet for the crimes that took place in Chile during the 1973 coup. Now that you have lived in the US for more than a decade, how do you evaluate America?

[Allende]: In the US I live in a sort of bubble. To start with, I am a legal immigrant...