My Name Is Emilia del Valle

Chaos reigns as the new government and its supporters take over Santiago. Many people are killed for supporting the government (or being accused of doing so). Eventually, order is restored. Paulina del Valle ventures out with her husband to find her friend, Balmaceda’s mother. The woman’s house is ransacked, and a servant reports that she sought asylum in a foreign consulate.

Emilia’s firing squad had loaded their guns with blanks as a cruel joke. Other journalists meet a similar fate as the Revolutionary Junta determines that they cannot kill foreign journalists because they need to maintain goodwill from foreign governments. Because Emilia is a woman, they believe that her tortured and messy condition will not look good. She is brought fresh clothes and treated as though no abuse has been carried out at all. She bathes and changes her clothes. Eric and Fredrick wait for her. When the two men point out Covadonga, who had waited for her outside the prison, Emilia claims the dog as her own.

Eric had worked to secure her release, eventually sending a telegram to the ambassador. He also found a naval captain with whom he was friends. Now a leader in the Revolutionary Junta, the man wrote a letter demanding her release just in time. Fredrick had been contacted by the ambassador, and Paulina agreed to host Emilia. The del Valle’s support for the rebels pays off; no one will bother them.

Emilia spends weeks recovering in her great aunt’s home. Eric continues to correspond about the war, but he signs his articles with both of their names.

Emilia also gets to know Paulina better, and they share about their respective lives. Paulina fully accepts her into the family, admitting that there have been other children born out of marriage. She also reveals that Emilia has inherited property from her father, land taken from the Mapuche. It has not been settled, however, and is not worth much. Eventually, Emilia tells Eric that they should go see it.

The next day, Emilia and Eric receive news that President Balmaceda died by suicide. Emilia speaks to Rufina, the woman who cared for her father and had also, as it turns out, cared for the president. She writes an article delineating Rufina’s story: The president decided to go to the Argentine consulate to protect his family from potential violence. However, he also worried for the Argentine ambassador’s safety, so he decided that dying by suicide was the only way out. A letter was found with his body in which he condemned the revolution and emphasized the importance of democracy. 

The country’s mood toward the former president shifts to respect. Copies of his letter circulate.

Emilia and Eric talk about marriage, and Paulina buys them rings and throws a “ring ceremony” for them. It also becomes the occasion on which she announces Emilia’s formal relationship with the family. While her husband thinks that throwing a party while so many are still suffering is wrong, Paulina sees that the lives of the upper class have returned to normal.

Emilia is skeptical of marriage and feels terrible that her parents aren’t there to witness it. She wants to let their relationship grow, but she also worries about what marriage will mean for her career. She and Eric agree to do the ring ceremony and then marry in San Francisco. She writes to her parents back home.

The ring ceremony goes off without a hitch, and that night, Eric sneaks into her room. They make love, and Emilia reveals her relationship with his brother. They let it stay in the past.

Mr. Chamberlain demands that Emilia return now that public interest in the Chilean war has faded. He sends a more delicate request to Eric to come back to San Francisco. Eric begins to make arrangements to return home. Emilia, however, feels changed by her time in Chile. She feels older, having been so close to death. She also wants to see her father’s land.

Eric is upset when she tells him of her plans to travel south, worried that something will happen. She emphasizes that she needs to do this soul-searching on her own, and he replies that he will respect her choice. He departs for San Francisco, and Emilia goes with Covadonga southward.

Emilia travels by boat, aboard the Niña Juanita. She spends the voyage writing about her life, beginning with the day she had her portrait done and her mother took her to see the head in a jar. The captain, a man named Janus, is interested in what she is doing and thinks that he wants to write his life story. He asks for her help, and Emilia advises him to take notes on his memories.

On her journey, Emilia meets many people, including immigrants who’d settled on land seized from Indigenous people. Eventually, they arrive in Valdivia, a major port that is influenced by its German settlers. The captain knows everyone and ultimately decides to accompany Emilia on part of her trek to her land.

The next part of Emilia’s journey puts her on a boat up the Calle-Calle River. Emilia feels grateful to witness the extraordinary beauty of her surroundings, from the many trees to the mountains.

When they next arrive on land, Janus’s friendship with the toqui Aliwenkura aids Emilia—the Indigenous tribe distrusts whites because of both the Spanish conquest and the Chileans’ attempts to control their lands. Janus convinces them to lend them horses, and a young girl rides with Emilia so she can take the animals back to their family. They make it to a smugglers’ outpost where they spend the night.

The next day, they travel further, until the young girl announces that they have gone far enough. A day later, they make it to Lake Pirihueico. Seeing its beauty, Emilia recognizes that she could never own the land; she is only a visitor. They wait for a boatman to help them cross the lake. Janus tells her it may take days for the boatman to arrive, and while they wait, she shares about her life, including her encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe while in prison. He tells her to believe that it was real. 

When the boatman comes, Janus says it’s time for him to return to his ship. He tries to convince her to come with him, worried that she is ill. Emilia replies that she needs to see her journey to its end. She can already imagine herself returning to this place to live out the end of her life. She feels like this place holds the roots of her ancestors, Spanish and Indigenous.

The epilogue is narrated by Eric Whelan.

Eric goes months without hearing from Emilia and prepares to leave for Chile to find her. Then, he receives a letter from Captain Janus, who recounts his time with Emilia. After he left her, he continued to worry and discovered that she had become very ill. He is writing to Eric to let him know that he is happy to help him find Emilia. Eric departs immediately.

He meets Janus, and together they travel to the Mapuche, who recount how a foreign woman had stayed with them. She was tended by a healer, and they gave her a new name: Ailen, “meaning luminous and transparent” (283). She eventually continued in her journey, giving one of them the medallion of Our Lady of Guadalupe she always wore pinned to her dress. 

Janus advises Eric to return home, as Emilia is one who must always travel onward. However, Eric thinks that Emilia also wants love in her life. He understands why she would want to carry on, but he also wants to be with her when she desires to return home.

Captain Janus leaves. Several Mapuche ultimately help Eric find Emilia atop a steep hill. They immediately embrace. She’d heard he was with the Mapuche and had been waiting for him, wanting him to see where she was living. The Mapuche had cared for her, and she had spent her time writing. Covadonga was also still with her. She shows him her completed journals, and Eric recognizes that he will never be able to fully grasp her, only hope that their love can keep them together.

Emilia tells him that she is ready to go home.