Isabela Gimenez is a character in the book called Eat, Pray, Love. This book takes place in the year 2021 in Spain, in the rural community of Nerja. The novel revolves around the life of four people who belong to different nationalities and have different professional statuses: a Jew, a Spaniard, an American, and a British. Isabela and her sister, Blanca, are both converts to Christianity. While she is focused on being a good mother and wife to her husband, Blanca worries that her status as a Jew will prevent her from advancing in her profession: as a child, she hid her Jewish identity out of fear of not being accepted into heaven, but by the time she is an adult, she wants to advance in her work, and leave her roots behind.
It is during this time that her sister starts to feel increasingly alienated and depressed. The tensions begin when the woman’s husband starts to talk about leaving her, and Isabela begins to worry that if they divorce, she’ll never find the man who gave her life so much happiness. However, the woman’s friend, Paco, who lives in the same neighbourhood, has just started dating Paco’s brother. Paco tries to convince Isabela to leave her husband and marry Paco, but Isabela refuses, thinking about how much happiness she will give up. Her friend encourages her to trust Paco, since his family is also Jewish, and Paco promises to return.
Isabela and Paco eventually marry, and Isabela’s conversion to Christianity is revealed in the last scene of the novel. She becomes a convert to Roman Catholicism, and lives happily ever after. In the years to come, we will learn more about what motivated Isabela to follow in her footsteps, as well as about the role religion plays in Spanish society as a whole, and in Spain in particular.