My Name Is Emilia del Valle

Emilia del Valle is the titular protagonist and narrator of the novel. She is the biological daughter of Molly Walsh and Gonzalo Andrés del Valle, though her father does not acknowledge her until she travels to Chile. As a result, she has a close relationship with Don Pancho Claro, who she considers to be her true father. The novel, for the most part, concentrates on her activities as a writer, beginning with her writing professionally in approximately 1883 and ending in 1892, when Emilia is 26 years old. My Name is Emilia del Valle is her account of her life, her family, and her travels.

At the start of the novel, Emilia presents her family’s history and briefly remarks on her childhood, in which she was a curious child, though her mother was careful to teach her that “curiosity is a liability in a woman: It leads to misfortune” (24), introducing the theme of The Trials of Womanhood and Work in the 19th Century. However, Emilia also saw it as essential to her ambition since her curiosity “has kept me always looking around the next corner or over the horizon” (24).