Doña Bárbara

Por Romulo Gallegos

En la parte más desierta y bravía del cajón del Arauca estaba situado el hato de Altamira, primitivamente unas doscientas leguas de sabanas feraces que alimentaban la hacienda más numerosa que por aquellas soledades pacía y donde se encontraban uno de los más ricos garceros de la región.

“Pues esta es la historia que se cuenta en Doña Bárbara: la del hato Altamira, el más grande del Cajón del Arauca, herencia de los hermanos José y Panchita Luzardo […] Este agujero negro del monte, ciénaga irresoluble en las letras de un documento, es también una suerte de Aleph de la llanura venezolana. Grado cero del paisaje que contiene la esencia del vasto territorio que Lorenzo Barquero, el desgraciado hijo de Panchita, bautizará como ‘la devoradora de hombres’. 
Con ambigüedad deliberada, la novela traza el paralelismo entre la llanura y Doña Bárbara, quien también es conocida con el mismo sobrenombre. […] Como un avatar del tremedal motivo del litigio, Doña Bárbara ha ido extendiendo sus dominios cual si la llanura hubiera acordado con ella castigar la codicia y desidia de los dueños legítimos.

Es aquí donde Santos Luzardo, joven abogado de la ciudad, hace su entrada en el escenario de la infancia para establecer en esas tierras salvajes el imperio de la ley y recuperar lo que le pertenece.” 

–Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Random House Publishing Group
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 25 ago 2020
• ISBN: 9780593310748

Comentarios para Doña Bárbara

[colligan · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

My rating is probably more reflective of my reading preferences than the quality of the book. I did not realize going in that, despite being set in Venezuela, the book was largely a "western". Not being a huge fan of the genre (nor being appreciative of its potential) the book didn't work for me. Not a bad read but not the best for me.

[amymacevilly · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

The blurb on the cover says "a Madame Bovary of the llano", but really it feels much more akin to Steinbeck's East of Eden, both in setting - ranching and farming - and in content: generational family story centered on a scion of the family returning to the family ranch and trying to do good; and the contrast between love and lust and hate; and the good that good and love eventually works. Some of the comments by the narrative voice and the characters regarding women, indigenous, and racialized peoples are bothersome, but they are product of a time and a place and we cannot deny that these ideas or attitudes did not exist. There is a term in the original that has been translated as "tiger" and I just cannot fathom tigers being out on the plains of Venezuela.

[janerawoof · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Plot is hard to summarize, but broadly, this is set in the 1930s and concerns a man, Santos Luzardo, trying to recover his ranch land on the plains of Venezuela most of which has been swallowed up by a witch-like woman, Doña Barbara, and her evil henchmen while Santos has been away and dependent on an unscrupulous overseer. We are given a good deal of the local color. This is a seminal work in Latin American literature, with the beginnings of "magic realism", developed more fully in later works. As far as characters: names are symbolic: "Santos"--holy or saintly; "Barbara", a wild, untamed force. There's even an Ugly American, Señor Danger, one of the villains. Besides the regaining of Santos's land, a big theme is Transformation to the positive of the personalities of the main female characters.This may read better in the original Spanish; I felt this English translation was clunky.