Saturday, May 30, 2020

2 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Would the Instituto Allende have been so named after Salvador Allende, a Marxist, who became president of Chile in an entirely free election in 1970, and for three years headed that rare thing - a real socialist government. The CIA helped undermine this expression of democracy and Wiki's stark announcement brings the Allende story to a sad close: Cause of death: suicide by gunshot.

Perhaps not. I think Allende is a fairly common surname in Latin countries. Isabel Allende, the Chilean novelist, has written over 20 books, translated into 35 languages, and sold 67m copies.

At the time of your instruction in mural painting my literary life was on hold. I was repairing radio equipment for the RAF in Singapore. I had written this and that during training in England but had been unable to take my portable typewriter out east with me; without a typewriter I was mute. But your experience with the "serious comedy" reminds me that I too dabbled (even that is too strong a word) in scriptwriting with a draft MS for children's TV. For a few heady days there was hope and then the diminuendo began.

The attractions of scriptwriting continued to lurk (no descriptions, very few changes of scene, a tiny number of words compared with the slenderest novel, rewriting much less of a burden) and during a few thrilling weeks in the early eighties I wrote five linked playlets, cast them all, directed the production, and - for the first and last time in my life - I trod the boards as the over-arching narrator. It sounds wonderful and I must confess I enjoyed myself. But it was meaningless; the event was amateur.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Robbie, no, the Instituto Allende wasn't named after Salvador Allende. Its name comes from the fact that it is located in the town named San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Of course I know about President Salvador Allende of Chile and the outrageous events of the late 1960s and 1973 when American interference brought down his democratic Socialist government. Doesn't everyone who keeps up with world events know about this? Certainly to people of our generation, especially those who have lived in and loved Latin America, Allende was a hero to many of us. As for Isabel Allende she is as well known as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I don't care for her writing but that's beside the point.