A struggle between power and love in the Venezuelan plains.
Doña Bárbara, known as the most beautiful woman in Venezuela, is the formidable and feared owner of the hacienda “El Miedo,” formerly called “La Barquereña.” Her power and reputation have been forged through traumatic experiences that shaped her relentless character.
In her youth, Barbarita was a mestiza who grew up among smugglers. During this time, she met Asdrúbal, a charismatic young man who was part of one of the criminal pirate boats. He taught her to read and write, earning her trust and affection. Barbarita fell in love with Asdrúbal, who represented hope for love and salvation. However, the captain of the boat, jealous and seeing Asdrúbal as a threat, ordered his murder. This event, followed by Barbarita’s brutal rape by the pirates, marked the beginning of her violent life and changed her character forever.
Rescued by an old Indian named Eustaquio, Barbarita learned the arts of witchcraft in an indigenous community before being expelled. Later, she joined Lorenzo Barquero, becoming his lover and eventually stripping him of his property, “La Barquereña.”
Years later, Santos Luzardo, a young lawyer, returns from Caracas to take charge of his inheritance, the hacienda “Altamira,” and discovers that the lands are under the control of Doña Bárbara, known as “The Man-Eater” for her ability to manipulate men for her own purposes.
Determined to reclaim his legacy and restore order, Santos faces Doña Bárbara, who uses both her sensuality and witchcraft to try to subdue him. However, Santos does not succumb to her charms and is drawn to Marisela, the daughter of Doña Bárbara and Lorenzo Barquero, a beautiful yet wild young woman.
While Santos dedicates himself to educating Marisela and improving the situation in “Altamira,” Doña Bárbara begins to feel an unexpected attraction to him, evoking memories of her first love, Asdrúbal. Despite her efforts to win Santos over, love blossoms between him and Marisela, provoking Doña Bárbara’s jealousy and anger.
Ultimately, faced with the decision to destroy or redeem her own daughter, Doña Bárbara chooses the path of sacrifice, relinquishing her desire for revenge, bequeathing her properties to Marisela, and mysteriously disappearing.
Santos and Marisela manage to recover and restore “Altamira,” while the enigmatic figure of Doña Bárbara fades into the shadows, possibly returning to her origins, a time when she was happy.
RELEVANT INFORMATION:
Doña Bárbara is considered the central novel of Venezuelan literature. It addresses the themes of the conflict between barbarism and civilization concerning progress versus geographic determinism and the social backwardness of “caudillismo” and violence. The novel has been reprinted more than forty times and translated into several languages.
Rómulo Gallegos was a prominent Venezuelan novelist, politician, and educator, considered one of the most important writers of 20th-century Spanish-American literature. He achieved international renown with the publication of this novel and became the president of Venezuela in 1947. Overthrown by a military coup, he continued writing from exile until his return to the country years later. He was the first president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
He received the National Literature Prize of Venezuela, was named Doctor Honoris Causa by Columbia University, and was nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his honor, the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize was created.
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