Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

civilized folk marry the barbarians 209
In return for this the foreigner enriched himself by smuggling cattle at
pleasure. The remains of the old La Barquereña were scarcely more than a
lot of savannah crossed by a creek, dry in winter, called The Lick, whose
salty banks attracted the cattle belonging to neighboring reaches. Numerous
herds were always to be seen there licking the creek bed, and thanks
to this it was very easy to capture unbranded herds within the limits of the
piece of land, which did not attain to the size required by law for the common
right to unmarked herds wandering over the prairie. Señor Danger,
however, found it easy to vault over legal obstacles and seize his neighbor’s
cattle, for the Luzardo overseers were always corruptible and the owner of
El Miedo did not dare to protest.
Interpreting this as a sign of defi nite declaration of war on Santos Luzardo,
Balbino Paiba had planned the Altamira fi res in the hope of recovering
his mistress’ lost favors, executing in advance the designs he attributed
to her, and gave the carrying out of the plan to the surviving Mondragon
brothers, who were again lodged in the house at Macanillal and were the
only people in El Miedo who obeyed his orders. 3 But as he kept his responsibility
a secret, on account of that “god help the man who dares to touch
Santos Luzardo,” Doña Bárbara, in her turn, interpreted the confl agrations
which had razed Altamira as the work of the “powers” assisting her, especially
as the destruction of the fence Luzardo expected to put an end to her
outrages had been no more than the realization of her own desire. And thus
she became calm, perfectly confi dent that all the other barriers separating
her from the man she wanted would fall at the proper time, and that when
she wished him to, he would come to give himself up with alacrity [. . .].
[On Marisela]
Santos concluded, pleased at the happy results of her alternating rude and
docile naturalness, and seeing Marisela as a personifi cation of the soul of
the Plainsman, open as the prairie and improved by every experience.
But in addition to giving him the incomparable satisfaction of successful
accomplishment, Marisela made the house a happy place for him and
brought in the necessity of personal orderliness. When she arrived at Altamira,
it was no longer the dirty bat-roost Santos had settled in a few days
before, for he had seen to the whitewashing of the walls, spattered with the
fi lth of the loathsome creatures, and the scrubbing of the fl oors, covered
with a hard coating of clay brought in on the peons’ feet for unknown years;
but it was still a house without a woman. As to material things, there was
no one to stitch and mend; his meals were served by a peon. Spiritually, and
most important for Luzardo, there was the lack of any control, the liberty