This book is based in memory, but I have been aided by the comments of friends: Delia Vergara, Malú Sierra, Vittorio Cintolessi, Josefina Rosetti, Agustín Huneeus, Cristián Toloza and others. I have also called on works by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Eduardo Blanco Amor, Benjamín Subercaseaux, Leopoldo Castedo, Pablo Neruda, Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt, Jorge Larraín, Luis Alejandro Salinas, María Luisa Cordero, Pablo Huneeus, and many more. I am grateful, as always, to my mother, Francisca Llona, and to my stepfather, Ramón Huidobro, for helping me with various dates and for correcting the final text. Also to my faithful agents, Carmen Balcells and Gloria Gutiérrez, to my copy-editor, Jorge Manzanilla, and to my North American editor, Terry Karten.