Doña Bárbara

Doña Bárbara is a novel written by Venezuelan author and politician Rómulo Gallegos, first published in 1929. It's one of the most widely known latinoamerican novels, and has been adapted to TV and film several times.

Santos Luzardo, freshly graduated lawyer from the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, decides to travel to this natal Apure flatlands to see his father's farm, Altamira, with the intention of sell the land. What he finds, however, is a farm in such state of disarray that he decides aghast selling it and instead attempts to bring it to its former glory. He is promptly informed that part of the reason of the sorry state of the land is because the region is controlled by a woman known as Doña Bárbara, a despotic devourer of men that has taken over the area due to a mix of cunning, seduction, and alleged pacts with demonic spirits. Not helping his impression of the woman is discovering that she seduced his cousin Lorenzo Barquero and then conned him out of his farm and abandoned him and the daughter that resulted of said relation, Marisela, to their luck. Now Lorenzo is an impoverished alcoholic and Marisela is a borderline feral teenager.


 * Mister Danger


 * Femme Fatale:
 * Hikaru Genji Plan: unintentional on Santos account
 * Kissing Cousins: Santos and Marisela
 * Meaningful Name: bordering in Anvilicious. Santos Luzardo, Doña Bárbara, and of course Míster Guillermo Danger. Also the neighboring farms in dispute, hacienda Altamira and hato El Miedo.
 * Rape as Backstory
 * Yes-Man: Mujiquita, the secretary of the Jefe Civil