Inés Suárez

Inés Suárez was a Spanish conquistadora who joined the expedition of Pedro de Valdivia and participated in the founding and defence of Santiago in colonial Chile.

Suárez travelled to the Americas in search of her first husband and later joined Valdivia’s movement south from Peru. She helped sustain the early settlement at Santiago and played a controversial role in its defence during the Indigenous attack of September 1541. She later married Rodrigo de Quiroga and became a substantial landholder.

In Isabel Allende’s Inés of My Soul, Suárez narrates her journey, relationship with Valdivia and role in the conquest of Chile. The novel gives emotional and domestic detail to a life documented mainly through colonial records and later historical tradition.