Summary
After Rosa's death, Esteban returns to his home where
his sister Ferula and his mother Dona Ester Trueba live. Ferula
has dedicated her life to caring for Dona Ester, who is confined
to her bed with debilitating arthritis. In the wake of Rosa's death,
Esteban's natural bad humor worsens. It is also aggravated by Ferula
who, on the one hand, seeks salvation through her self-sacrificing
devotion to her mother, and on the other hand resents the fact that
a woman does not have the same freedom to leave the family behind
that Esteban does.
Dona Ester married below her social station, out of love.
Her husband quickly squandered their dowry trying among other things to
transform a property they owned in the country, Tres Marias, into
an opulent estate.
Esteban does not want to return to the mines, but he needs
to make money in some way so that he can support his mother and
Ferula, who he promises will never lack for anything as long as
he lives. Esteban decides, against Ferula's advice, to go to Tres
Marias and try to turn it into a moneymaking estate. Esteban finds
Tres Marias in ruins. The peasants who live on the land have not
seen an owner there in fifteen years. Most of the men have left
the property, and the women, children, and elderly who are left
barely subsist on the property. One of the few men who have remained
is Pedro Segundo Garcia, who had run the estate in the Truebas'
absence. Esteban spends all the money he had been saving for his
marriage on Tres Marias. He and the peasants labor day and night
to rebuild the estate, and slowly they begin to see the fruits of
their labors.
As soon as he has spare time on his hands, Esteban Trueba
realizes that he has an enormous sexual appetite. He rapes a young
virgin peasant girl, Pancha Garcia, whom he brings to live in the
main house as his housekeeper and mistress. Through his relationship with
Pancha, Esteban becomes interested in the peasants. He constructs
a schoolhouse and makes plans to increase the quality of life for
the peasants, although he in no way wants them to become his equals.
Esteban also sets up a voucher system, where he pays the peasants
by means of vouchers that he also accepts from them as payment at
the store he sets up on the property.
Pancha becomes pregnant, and Esteban loses interest in
her. She leaves the main house, and Esteban begins raping other
peasant girls. In a few years, Tres Marias becomes one of the richest
properties in the region. The workers are not satisfied with the
way Esteban treats them, but he refuses to listen to Pedro Segundo's
requests for things such as fair pay. Esteban continues to rape
every girl he can find and sires an enormous number of children.
He never acknowledges any of them, and only allows one, Pancha's
son, to bear his first name.
Esteban becomes involved in politics with other landowners
in the area. The other landowners also introduce Esteban to the
local brothel, The Red Lantern. Although Esteban prefers to rape
young girls, he does meet one prostitute he likes at the Red Lantern,
Transito Soto. One day he asks Transito if she would like a present.
Transito asks Esteban for fifty pesos, a good deal of money, so
that she can move to the capital and set herself up as a prostitute
there. She promises to pay him back with interest one day. Esteban
gives Transito the money. Thanks to a combination of rewards and
intimidation, the Conservative Party wins the elections.
