"It is all about passion.
(...)
Passion lives here. Isn't it always true? Heart is what drives us and determines our fate.
That's what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders, and rebels. Who ask questions, bend the rules, and take risks. Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spousers.
(...)
The protagonists of my books are strong and passionate women (...). I don''t make them up. There's no need for that. I look around and I see them everywhere. I've worked with women and for women all my life. I know them well.
I was born in ancient times, at the end of the world, in a patriarcal catholic and conservative family. No wonder that by age of five, I was a raging feminist. Although the term had not reached Chile yet. So nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me.
I would soon find out that there was a high price to pay for my freedom and for questioning of patriarchy. But I was happy to pay it, because for every blow that I received I was able to deliver two.
(...)
For most western young women of today being called a feminist is an insult. Feminism's never been sexy. But let me assure you it has never stopped me from flirting, and I have seldom suffer from lack of men.
Feminism is not dead. By no means. It has evolved. If you don't like the term, change it for Goddess' sake. Call it Aphrodite, or Venus, or bimbo, or whatever you want. The name doesn't matter. As long as we understand what it is about and we support it.
(...)
What kind of world do we want? This is a fundamental question that most of us are asking. Does it make sense to participate in the existing world order?
We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged.
(...)
What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power and the power to abuse.
In our specie, the alpha males define reality and force the rest of the pack to accept that reality and follow the rules. The rules change all the time, but they always benefit them.
And in this case, the trickle-down effect - which does not work in economics - works perfectly. Abuse trickles down from the top of the ladder to the bottom.
Women and children, specially the poor, are at the bottom. Even the most destitute of men have someone they can abuse: a woman or a child.
I'm fed up with the power that a few exert over the many through gender, income, race, and class. I think that the time is ripe to make fundamental changes in our civilization.
But for real change we need feminine energy in the management of the world. We need a critical number of women in positions of power and we need to nurture the feminine energy in men.
I'm talking about men with young minds, of course. Old guys are hopeless, we have to wait for them to die off.
Yes, I would love to have Sophia Loren's long legs and legendary breasts. But given a choice, I would rather have a warrior heart (...). I want to make this world good. Not better, but to make it good.
Why not? It's possible. (...) Let's get off our fannies, roll up our sleeves and get to work, passionately, in creating an almost perfect world."
(Isabel Allende - edição e grifos meus.)
