She lived in Cuba for a short time in the 1960s, where she became friends with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, inspiring her to write "Ché" (1969) and "Cubanía y Ché" (1998). Although sympathetic to their point of view, she was able to learn of the prisons of the regime and the atmosphere of repression, which she expressed in "Adiós al cañaveral" (1962). She later supported the Popular Unity government in Chile, led by President Salvador Allende, which ended with a 1973 coup. After publishing her novel "La ciénaga" (1975), she had to seek exile in Argentina, where she wrote "Destierro" (1983) and "Y va a caer" (1985). She returned to Chile in 1979, the year in which her husband Marcial died.