Born to a Chilean diplomat father, Isabel Allende spent significant time abroad as a child. Such locations include Bolivia, another Latin American country, where Allende attended a North American school, and Beirut, Lebanon, where Allende attended an English school. These biographical facts combine to give Allende a background that is distinctly global, political, and at times, "English".
I find it useful to consider her background in English language schools when analyzing her novel The House of the Spirits, which contends with both Latin American identity, global politics, and the nature of language itself. Within the novel, Clara's twin sons, Jaime and Nicolas, are sent to an English language boarding school. This seems to be connected with both a sense of loss on the one hand, and a symbol of wealth on the other within the text. We can trace the impact of Allende's English language education in moments like these and examine her treatment of these themes in order to gain more insight into the point she is making about the relationship between Latin America and the anglosphere. Furthermore, we might consider that Allende chooses to write her work in Spanish, which seems to be a statement within itself.
Allende, Isabel. "Timeline." Isabel Allende, www.isabelallende.com/en/timeline