Thursday, September 18, 2008
Doña Bárbara - Wed., Sept. 17 - Curses, portents and Looooove in the Llanos
Melesio want to know why Las terneras are angry at Gervasia. Genoveva lies to him and says that Gervasia won't do her part to help around the house or go to school. Melesio doesn't believe her but since lies have short legs, he will discover what their secret is very soon. ["como las mentiras tienen patas cortas, muy pronto voy a descubrir cual es el secretito.." ] Since pregnancy can't be hidden for too long (except on FELS), he will find out very soon. Gervasia is not grateful to her sisters/cousins.
Gervasia leaves to get Melesio some coffee and the terneras hear a bird call. Genoveva identifies it as an 'alcaraván,' which is translated in the titles as Stone Curlew. She she says that her grandmother said that when a Stone Curlew calls, single girls are in danger ['la abuela decía que cuando cantaba un alcaraván, las solteras corren peligro']. She clarifies that the danger is unwed pregnancy.
A Stone Curlew is a kind of bird but it's not found in Venezuela. My Birds of Venezuela field guide says that an 'alcaraván' is a Southern Lapwing. A picture of a Southern Lapwing is below.
When Antonio tells Federica that he doesn't love her and that he won't marry her, she tries her bell tower suicide stunt again. This time Antonio calls her bluff and she doesn't jump, of course. Pernalete hauls Antonio off to jail but Santos gets him released. Federica still won't give up on getting Antonio, though.
DB comes to to the movie presentation in Progresso. While Santos is off getting Antonio out of jail, DB has her men bring Luisana to her. DB puts a curse on Luisana ['te maldigo..'], blows some dust on her and says that the closer she is to DB's man, the closer she will be to death ['mientras más cerca estés de mi hombre, más cerca estarás de la muerte']. Although she says that she doesn't believe in withcraft, Luisana starts shivering and can't get warm.
Marisela goes to confront Luisana about the missing items from Luisana's room. She overhears Luisana telling Mauricio about DB's curse.
Mauricio gives Cecilia the same "Slave of your love" book that he gave Antonio. Reading it, Cecilia has a fantasy of her and Antonio in an oldtime movie.
Then Antonio comes to Altamira in person and in a very hot scene, Cecilia tells him that she has read romance novels and seen movies and waited 30+ years and now she wants her man in her bed right now. 
I hope Antonio and Cecilia get to go all the way before Luisana, who has collapsed, is found.
Meanwhile, there are more portents. There is a thunderstorm that Santos says is unusual in the dry season and where the ranch hands sleep, Pajarito hears a rooster crow. He says that when roosters crow in the night, it means someone is going to die ['cuando los gallos cantaban de noche, es porque alguien se va a morir'].
Tomorrow: Luisana is dying?
Labels: barbara
I completely agree. I will be very disappointed if Toño and Cecilia can't finally be lovers, at least once for God's sake!
I think I posted earlier about whether we were supposed to believe in brujería for this novela. It sure seems to me that that's where they're going. The big question is what will Marisela do? She'd like to get rid of the "patas de garza" but her innate decency may compel her to tell Santos what DB has done.
I loved all the mysticism and symbolism of the thunderstorm and roosters crowing during the last scenes.
: Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 2:27:00 PM EDT
I will be interested to see how Santos reacts to that!
What Marisela finds out tonite at the Fear will also be interesting, as the promo has her speaking to Juan Primito about the recent goings on. Melesio noted, when he met Luisana at Altamira once, that she (Luisana) was not the one who could deal with Doña Bárbara's brujeria. I think that it's obvious that only Marisela will be able to contest this sort of issue with Doña Bárbara.
I have really enjoyed the storyline of Antonio and Cecilia, and it was especially good last nite, operating under the influence of Mauricio's bow and arrow. Finally, Cecilia has accepted herself as something other than "the iron maiden" and now she hopefully will face the wrath of Federica together with Antonio.
Regarding Gervasia, I feel as if there is going to be real trouble from that girl. If Melesio kicks her out of the house, she may well end up being Doña Bárbara's new protege, or at least stooge, in the perpetration of deviltry.
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