Translated by Kristen McCleary
September 201
The play was the second most popular play of 1919. It was performed 309 times. [The most popular play of the year had 341 performances and the third most popular play only 198.] The audience estimate for live performance is about 30,000. In addition, the play was reprinted and sold in theatrical magazines. The editors of El Teatro Nacional say that this is their best-selling play. In the first edition, it sold 10,200 copies which sold out in five days. There was also a lot of demand for the play in the provinces, so 23,300 more editions were printed, totaling 33,500 copies. [This is the data reported in El Teatro Nacional, Year II, no. 39 and 40, April 16, 1919. That is, this is only in two weeks after its premiere date.]
The play reached an audience of at least 63,000 people in 1919.
The Viper of the Cross by Julio Escobar
First performed in the Teatro Nacional on April 2, 1919
Translated by Kristen McCleary
Scene I
Maruja’s house. A well-decorated parlor. To the left, through a large crystal door that divides the room, we see a hall decorated for an intimate party. One end leads to the street. To the right we see other rooms of the house. In one of them is the buffet. When the curtain rises, Diderot is seated in one of the chairs to the right, in front of him is a small table where a servant sets some drinks. To his left is Maruja who is dressed up for the ball, wearing a shining cross on her chest. Various couples dance tangos and when the dance finishes they leave to go to the buffet. Miguez leaves with a young girl, asking her:
Miguez: What dance do you like most, the foxtrot, tango, or pochocha?
Young girl: Me? I prefer the buffet.
M: Let’s go then
(They enter the buffet.) A well-to-do young man roughly pushes his female companion from the dance.
Young Man: Look you anemic toad, if you keep eyeing other guys, I am going to smash your mouth and break your bones, do you hear me?
Elvira: Yes, I do.
Young Man: Don’t talk back to me (he pushes her towards the buffet.) Maruja is watching and says to Diderot.
Maruja: Diderot, help that poor woman…or I will…
Diderot: Be quiet! She likes being hit.
Maruja: What did you say?
Diderot: There are sluts who are asking for it. If they don’t get hit, they protest.
Maruja: Impossible.
[the couple leaves the buffet, affectionate with one another as if nothing had occurred]
Diderot: You see they have made up. If I had gotten involved, she likely would have hit me with her shoe. Ridiculous!
Maruja: Not ridiculous. You would have been protecting a woman.
Diderot: Wait a minute, you mean protecting a whore. That is different.
Maruja: Why do you call her that?
Diderot: Because if I called her a woman, that would be offensive to decent women.
Maruja: One shouldn’t judge based on appearances. Here there are coquettes that look like ladies and ladies that are coquettes.
Diderot: Don’t I know it.
Maruja: Then how do you tell the difference between a woman and a whore?
Diderot: It’s easy, for those who only have one legal husband, that is a woman. The others who change men like they do their clothing, those are whores.
Maruja: And me? What am I to you?
Diderot: Will you permit me to say something frank and somewhat disagreeable?
Maruja: Yes.
Diderot: Thank you.
Maruja: Because if I didn’t allow it, you would say it anyway.
Diderot: Okay, then you are a whore.
Maruja: But you have only known me with Ricardo.
Diderot: This year that is true.
Maruja: No, in the past as well.
Diderot: That is true but not what is important. The important thing is you do not love him.
Maruja: You are mistaken.
Diderot: No the one mistaken is you.
Maruja: And so if I do not love him, why am I with him?
Diderot: Because he gives you money.
Maruja: Oh!
Diderot: Don’t look so horrified. It will make your face wrinkled and damage your looks.
Maruja: It’s just that you said such an atrocity.
Diderot: No, I said the truth.
Maruja: Those who make statements without supporting them are slanderers. You make statements but do not back them up.
Diderot: I don’t prove them because I know soon that you will. The day that Ricardo comes to you and says he can no longer support your luxuries, you will leave him. There are women who are like vipers. They have no feelings. Remember the fable of the shepherd and the viper?
Maruja: No.
Diderot: There was a shepherd who found a viper almost frozen solid in his path. He took pity on her and picked her up, put her in his shirt and warmed her up with his body heat. The viper, reanimated by the shepherd’s warmth, was reborn. The first thing she did was put her poisonous fangs into the chest of the person who had saved her. There are women who are like the viper of this fable.
Maruja: I am going to dance. The things you say to me are very bothersome.
Diderot: You are right. Go dance. Truth is like the light. It bothers those who are not accustomed to it.
[Maruja sticks out her tongue at him as she goes towards the dance hall. Diderot watches her walk away, exclaiming]
Diderot: Whores. They are like tins produced in America. Containers that outside are very pretty, but inside, they are empty.
[Luciana comes in from the rear of the stage. She is a simple girl. Diderot runs to greet her.]
Diderot: Why did you come here?
Luciana: To see Ricardo. This telegram arrived at the boarding house and I brought it to him because sometimes he goes days without returning there.
Diderot: He is busy with work.
Luciana: Yes busy working with that woman!
Diderot: It seems that you don’t hold him in very high esteem. Has he ever done anything to you?
Luciana: To me nothing. But he has to himself. Before he met her, he didn’t go out all night. He always went to work and he was always happy. And now? Why should it be, señor Diderot, that these “happy” women should cause so much sadness?
Diderot: Because rotten fruit, rots all that surrounds it.
Luciana: But I just cannot understand how a man like Ricardo could like a woman who leads a life like Maruja does.
Diderot: It’s just that these women are like pigs. They feed themselves with trash but have very appetizing flesh.
Luciana: [Looking towards the dance] What a nice party!
Diderot: Do you want to go in?
Luciana: Oh no! I would die of fear and shame.
Diderot: Why?
Luciana: I don’t know. I am afraid of those people. I remember once when I was young, mama Lola and I passed by a house, lit up like this one. Inside you could hear music and laughter. All of a sudden a young man and young lady left the house and he started beating her. He hit her a lot, until she fell bleeding to the ground. My mother told me that this was in style in these kinds of places and among this type of people. That is why I never enter into those places. I am afraid and ashamed. I think that one day one of those young men will hit me like they hit her.
Diderot: You do well not going in and being afraid. This is like a swamp, mud is everywhere. It is all rotten. And once you go in, the more you move about, the more entrenched you are.
Luciana: Where is Ricardo?
Diderot: Around here somewhere. Do you really love him?
Luciana: Why should I lie? To love him like I do, is not a bad thing. In my mother’s boarding house, I care for him like he was my child.
Diderot: and he to you?
Luciana: He loves me, but in a different way. A little and in a different way. Like a little sister.
Diderot: He has never kissed you?
Luciana: Yes, on the forehead.
Diderot: and you liked those kisses?
Luciana: I like them because they are his but I would prefer them on my lips.
Diderot: And how do you know that kisses on the lips are any better? Who has taught you that?
Luciana: He….
Diderot: He has kissed you on the lips?
Luciana: Yes, before meeting her. And then on the forehead. That is why I hate her so much. If I could kill her without going to jail, I would do it. But there is prison. And if I were a prisoner, my mother would not have anyone to help her and she would die of sadness. There is no one else besides me to keep her company.
Diderot: Oh here comes Ricardo.
Luciana: Don’t let him see me! He told me never to come here.
Diderot: I will make an excuse for you.
Luciana: No, I don’t want that. I might see him with “that one,” and when I see her, my claws always come out, trying to get to her face that as ugly as it is caked with make-up.
Diderot: This is the love of his life, and he prefers the other! What nonsense. Men are worthless. They would be the last beings on earth if it were not for a few good women. Hmmph! [He takes a few drinks. Ricardo comes in, dressed elegantly. He looks troubled, pale. Diderot gives him the telegram. He pauses.]
Ricardo: Who brought it?
Diderot: Luciana.
Ricardo: and she left?
Diderot: Yes, she is a girl with a very delicate stomach and breathing in this environment makes her nauseous. [Pause]. Who is the telegram from?
Ricardo: My father. He is asking if I am okay because it has been awhile since he or my mother have heard from me. The bank doesn’t leave me alone for a minute.
Diderot: The bank? What doesn’t leave you alone for a minute is that octopus with the head of a woman. Ah, slutty women! They are worse than the devil! The devil only tortures the soul; women torture the soul, the body and the pocketbook. Hmmph! [He takes a swig].
Ricardo: Do you hate women?
Diderot: No, I know them well so I can’t hate them. I scorn them.
Ricardo: And why do you scorn them?
Diderot: Like I said, because I know them.
Ricardo: You must have been hurt at one time.
Diderot: Once? Half a dozen is more like it.
Ricardo: You must have known a lot of bad women?
Diderot: And a lot of good ones. Those are the most dangerous.
Ricardo: Why?
Diderot: Because they deceive better. The wolf, to deceive, needs to put on sheep’s clothing. Innocence is the preferred disguise of the coquette.
Ricardo: Say what you will, we cannot live without women.
Diderot: How we can’t live is with them. That is why you see me the way I am. I have a different one every month. I use them like a shirt. While they are new and clean, I use them. The second they get dirty or worn out, pffff! I change them.
Ricardo: One can see you have never been in love.
Diderot: The ones who have never been in love are them. I have been in love with many of them, and they, naturally, have not.
Ricardo: Why do you say “naturally”?
Diderot: Because it is proven that one is in love and the other stops being in love. With me, women have always stopped being in love.
Ricardo: Those romances have cost you dearly?
Diderot: Let’s see. Anywhere between two hundred and one thousand pesos monthly. Also in love, there are sales, payments, and retazos.
Ricardo: And you have resigned yourself to a life without sincere love?
Diderot: And what was I going to do about it? You do not order, organize, or manufacture love. It falls on you like a big win at the lottery. As for me, I have only had close or small wins.
Ricardo: How do you manage to live with these women who are not sincere in their affections towards you?
Diderot: Man is an animal who can adapt to anything. Just as there are those who can get used to costume jewelry, I have gotten used to the imitation of love. I don’t ask for love. I just ask that they fake it well. Believe me, fake love is better than the real thing.
Ricardo: Huh?
Diderot: Yes, better and less expensive. You are really in love with a woman? You give her everything including your head. With the others, the ones you give a few pesos to, that’s it! The one you love dominates you. She is selfish, jealous, her affection needs to be revealed, so it turns out burdensome and she becomes suffocating. In contrast, the ones who are not in love with you do not make opportune scenes of jealousy; they do not demand passion or devotion. Money is enough.
Ricardo: How good it must be to have such a philosophy!
Diderot: Better put, how good it is to have money! [They take a drink]
[A couple leaves the buffet and moves towards the dance floor.]
Girl: Do you like the sandwiches?
Miguez: Don’t even mention them. They taste like cardboard.
Girl: But don’t complain. They are handing them out for free.
Miguez: It is just that in other parties, I have eaten better ones for the same price.
[Dorila and Gutierrez appear in the doorway of the buffet, talking]
Ricardo: Here comes your Dorila.
Diderot: She is with Gutierrez, no?
Ricardo: and so?
Diderot: Let them enjoy their idyll. The truth is I am getting a bit tired of her, and I wouldn’t mind someone else taking over.
Ricardo: But you aren’t jealous?
Diderot: How am I going to be jealous if I don’t respect her? Besides, why should I humiliate myself? If she likes him, she is going to deceive me whether I am jealous or not.
[The couple come nearer. Gutierrez deposits Dorila at Diderot’s side.]
Gutierrez: Your girlfriend dances admirably.
Diderot: You are right. She is a girl who has talent for anything that’s stupid. [She hits him].
Gutierrez: Did you teach her to dance?
Diderot: No, when I met her, there wasn’t anything left to teach her.
Dorila: Come on, don’t tell stories. There was one thing you taught me.
Diderot: You are right. I taught you to write “viper” with a “v” and not a “b” and to not wipe your mouth with your sleeve. [She hits him angrily]. Don’t hit me. I am like a burro. The more you hit me, the more I kick.
Dorila: That is true, you are a burro.
Diderot: That is obvious. If I weren’t such a burro, I couldn’t support being with you for more than fifteen minutes.
Gutierrez: You don’t happen to dance tangos, do you, señor Diderot?
Diderot: No, and I regret it very much.
Gutierrez: Do you like the music? It is very expressive.
Diderot: What is expressive is the attitude. How the couples hold onto one another.
Dorila: Depending on the woman, and the feelings the man has for her.
Diderot: No depending on the man. The one who clasps tightly is the man.
Dorila: There are women who do not hold onto the men, and those who do not allow themselves to be tightly held either.
Diderot: I know. The ones who have partners they do not like.
[The couple from the start of the play, the well-to-do young man and Elvira, reappear]
Young Man: You are more stubborn than someone on strike at Vasena! [In January of 1919, there was a week of violence known as La semana trágica, or the tragic week. The violence had its roots in events of December 1918, when workers at the Pedro Vasena metallurgic factory had gone on strike, demanding a reduction in work hours and days, raises, and, the most contentious issue, the rehiring of worker delegates who had been fired at the beginning of the strike. Tensions exploded on January 7, when police accompanied strikebreakers to the factory, resulting in a physical confrontation that left five dead and twenty wounded.]
Elvira: Why? what’s wrong?
Young Man: Didn’t I tell you not to look at anyone while you were dancing?
Elvira: So you want me to dance with my eyes shut?
Young Man: No, you can look at me but not at anyone else. Do you see this mole on my face?
Elvira: Yes.
Young Man: Okay, the second your gaze wanders from this spot, I am going to hit you so hard that your profile will end up uneven. Let’s go. [He pushes her forward.]
Dorila: Ay, what a brute that man is.
Diderot: That is why she is in love with him.
Dorila: I am tired of hearing your stupid theories.
Diderot: Are you saying that because it is me who is saying these things or because someone else has?
Dorila: Because you are saying them. Let’s go eat. [They get up to go.]
Diderot: I have to talk to Ricardo. Your friend Gutierrez will go with you.
Gutierrez: My pleasure. [Dorila goes with him]
Dorila: Aren’t you jealous?
Diderot: Let’s go. It is not stylish to be jealous.
Dorila: How would you feel if I left you one day?
Diderot: I would be very sorry.
Dorila: Thank you.
Diderot: I would feel very sorry for the next fellow in charge of you.
Dorila: (Furious, she leaves with Gutierrez). Idiot!
Diderot: Don’t reproach me. If it weren’t like that, I would not be with you for even two minutes….(Dorila goes to the buffet. Diderot asks Richard, who is taciturn) What is wrong with you that you look like you are part of a funeral procession?
Ricardo: Something terrible has happened.
Diderot: Damn. What melodrama are you facing?
Ricardo: Can I confide in you as a real friend?
Diderot: Of course. As if I were your father.
Ricardo: Thank you.
Diderot: Go ahead
Ricardo: Okay. My love for Maruja has brought me to a terrible situation.
Diderot: I could have guessed.
Ricardo: Why?
Diderot: Because I know that it always costs dearly, being in love. I have become an expert in the topic having had to make payments myself.
Ricardo: Well, to avoid some of those costs, I have been taking advantage of a client’s account at the bank. Tomorrow I have to put it back. If not, I become a thief.
Diderot: How much is it?
Ricardo: A lot. Ten thousand pesos.
Diderot: I have five thousand. They’re all yours.
Ricardo: Thank you. Thank you very much. But I need ten thousand.
Diderot: You don’t have anyone else to go to?
Ricardo: No, I owe money to everyone. The only person who could save me is Maruja.
Diderot: How?
Ricardo: Giving me her jewelry to sell. Her gem-filled cross would be enough.
Diderot: She will not give them to you.
Ricardo: Huh? I gave them to her as gifts. She loves me.
Diderot: Not as much as you think. And even if she loved you as much as she loves her dear mother, she loves jewelry more.
Ricardo: Don’t talk to me like that, knowing that it hurts me.
Diderot: In your situation, I can’t rely on metaphors. Maruja will not give you anything. On the contrary, the second she figures out you are broke, she will throw you away like a squeezed out lemon.
Ricardo: That is impossible. Not even the worst of whores would do such a thing! If she does anything of the sort, something awful will happen. I have it all figured out.
Diderot: Well, there she is. Now you have the chance to talk to her about it.
[Maruja appears to the side arm in arm with Devoto. The two stop together at the door.]
Devoto: Do you have an answer yet to my proposal?
Maruja: Let me think about it.
Devoto: I have already picked out the car…80 horse power.
Maruja: It is too soon. Come and get me as soon as the tango starts. I will answer you then. [Devoto leaves. Maruja smiles at him and nears Ricardo.] What are you two doing here all by yourselves?
Diderto: Talking about silly matters.
Maruja: Talking about men’s business.
Diderot: I said “silly matters.” I meant “women’s business.” I am going to go get a drink. I will be right back. [He goes out the door towards the buffet. He pauses.]
Maruja: Why are you looking so down?
Ricardo: I have to talk to you about a very serious matter.
Maruja: Damn. How depressed you sound. And look. Are you trying to frighten me?
Ricardo: No. I just want you to prepare yourself for some serious matters. Sit down. [She sits while not moving her eyes from his face.]
Maruja: Go ahead.
Ricardo: I will tell you in few words. I am in a bad situation. I am in a predicament and only you can get me out of it. I need ten thousand pesos by tomorrow.
Maruja: I’m shocked. How in the world has that happened?
Ricardo: It is not worth it trying to explain it.
Maruja: Btu I have a natural curiosity. How did you manage to spend such a sum?
Ricardo: You really want to know?
Maruja: Yes.
Ricardo: Well, I have spent it all on you.
Maruja: I would have never guessed it.
Ricardo: Of course. Women never know how to appreciate the sacrifices that are made on their behalf. But right now that is beside the point. The point is you need to help me out of this jam.
Maruja: Me? But how?
Ricardo: By hocking your cross.
Maruja: My cross! But…look Ricardo, I have to tell you…You know…
Ricardo: Enough. Don’t say another word. Your gesture should have been only one: to take it off and give it to me. Not because I gave you that cross, but because you love me. If you had loved me, you would never have wavered, for not even one second. You are not my girlfriend, you just exploited me.
Maruja: You can’t talk to me like that.
Ricardo: No one can tell me how to talk. Truth punishes phonies like you. You are a merchant who sells affection and I am just one on your long list of clients.
Maruja: Don’t say things like that because you will have to hear things that will hurt you like lashes from a whip.
Ricardo: Say them. I expect anything from you. Riffraff holds no surprises for me. I am used to it all since I see you and hear you everyday.
Maruja: And if I am riffraff, why have you been with me?
Ricardo: Because I loved you. Because attraction has dominated my feelings and I couldn’t control myself. For me, you are like a bad habit.
Maruja: That is what I should have said.
Ricardo: You can’t say that you have lost a fortune because of me. When I met you, you were living off of what you could fish from the cabaret.
Maruja: I gave you my youth, and that was worth a lot.
Ricardo: Not so much, about 20 pesos per night.
Maruja: I have had an offer from someone else, a car in my garage…
Ricardo: Liar.
Maruja: I can even tell you his name….Devoto!!!
Ricardo: Go with him. Vile woman. [He throws her to the ground. She raises herself up. He looks at her with hatred, moving towards the dance floor like a wounded beast. As he leaves, he yells out:) Whore!
Maruja: Bank clerk!
[The tango begins. Ricardo falls into a chair and puts his head between his hands. Through the door, she passes by, dancing with Devoto. As they dance past, they laugh out loud. Ricardo raises his head, as if he has been bitten by a viper. He takes out his revolver and runs towards the door to kill her. As he nears the doorway, he stops and shouts, “For what!” He vacillates, then turns and leaves with his head down. The tango continues. She turns to pass through the doorway and guffaws stridently. From afar, we hear a gunshot. Ricardo has killed himself.]
Curtain Falls
Scene II.
Richard’s house. A simple room of an upstanding single man in a respectable boarding house. To the left there is a big door. When the door is open, one sees Ricardo laid out in wake, with his coffin surrounded by candles. People enter from a door in the rear: to the right of that door a large window. It’s night. The young man and Elvira leave the wake.
Young Man: Poor Ricardo! To kill yourself for embezzling! If it were me, I would have taken twice the amount and gone to Switzerland, where there is no extradition.
Elvira: and the police?
Young Man: No big deal. You give them a bribe and they leave you alone. [they leave. Another couple leaves the house, a neighbor woman and an old woman.]
Old Woman: Poor thing, to die from a gun shot. Who would have guessed such an end for someone in such good health!
Neighbor woman: Did you know him?
Old Woman: I saw him around.
Neighbor woman: So why did you come then?
Old Woman: I thought they might be giving out drinks.
[Gutierrez and Diderot enter. Pause.]
Gutierrez: Poor Ricardo. He was such a good man.
Diderot: That is why he ended badly. If he had been a wretch, he would have lived to one hundred years.
Gutierrez: But how did he find the courage to kill himself?
Diderot: Courage? It seems cowardly to me.
Gutierrez: The man who kills himself to me seems very brave.
Diderot: The brave one is he who lives. To kill oneself is to give up like a coward. To live in full combat, that is the one who is brave. The one who he should have killed was her.
Gutierrez: It is more noble to forgive.
Diderot: With these women, impossible. It is better to kill them like we do vipers, by stepping on their heads.
Gutierrez: The Bible says one must forgive.
Diderot: Right, but these women exist outside of any religion. The Bible talks about women who sin for love, not for self-interest.
Gutierrez: Do you think she will come to see him?
Diderot: Oh yes, those women tremble when faced with a mouse or spider, but not in front of the cadaver they are responsible for producing. She will come out of gratitude.
Gutierrez: You think this woman is capable of being thankful for anything?
Diderot: Yes, for the fame that she now has since Ricardo killed himself over her. Now when she goes into a cabaret they won’t be saying, “Oh look at that girl who sings so well.” They will say, “Oh there goes the girl that Ricardo Peralta killed himself over.” She will enjoy that. Everyone is flattered to be part of an important event. The stupider a person is, the vainer they are. That is why Maruja is so vain.
Gutierrez: His poor mother! Poor father! How they must have suffered upon hearing the news.
Diderot: They don’t know yet. We still haven’t sent the note that Ricardo wrote for them.
Gutierrez: But someone must tell them what happened!
Diderot: It won’t be necessary. We found a letter in Ricardo’s pocket from his father that says he is coming today. They think he is sick.
[Loud knocks on the door interrupt the dialogue. Maruja enters, dressed elegantly, with Devoto, dressed in a tuxedo].
Maruja: Good evening
Diderot: How evil. Couldn’t you find a more expensive dress to come here in? [sarcastically].
Maruja: I did not have any clothes for mourning. Besides, my boyfriend wanted me to come like this. He is retroactively jealous.
Diderot: Jealous for your past? He will be jealous his entire life then.
[Devoto enters and nods his head very coldly in Diderot’s direction]
Maruja: Leave me alone for a minute. You can come get me shortly.
Devoto: Very well. [He leaves and Diderot does not look at him]
Maruja: How terrible this is. Oh my goodness.
Diderot: He could not have lived better. To keep you in luxuries, he gave up the simple things.
Maruja: Poor fellow. [She wipes her eyes with a handkerchief.]
Diderot: Stop furrowing your brow.
Maruja: I really loved him.
Diderot: Right, that is what made him kill himself.
Maruja: How would I have guessed he would have gone so crazy seeing me with Devoto?
Diderot: It wasn’t for seeing you dance. It was for what you refused to do for him.
Maruja: I didn’t believe it was true what he told me.
Diderot: Right, for you whores, who lie all the time, you expect that everyone else lies, too.
Maruja: I didn’t come here to be insulted.
Diderot: I don’t insult. I just tell the truth.
Maruja: Where is the poor man?
Diderot: Right there!!!
Maruja: Who is in charge of the burial?
Diderot: His friends.
Maruja: No, I want to pay for it myself.
Diderot: That is about right. Once all is said and done this has been your work.
Maruja: You think I am responsible for his death?
Diderot: You know better than I, that I am not mistaken.
Maruja: I want the funeral to be very fancy.
Diderot: That is good. You are very generous with your victims.
Maruja: Enough already with the insults.
Diderot: I don’t do anything other than what I should. You started it after all.
Maruja: Me? How?
Diderot: by coming here. Your presence here in this place is an insult.
Maruja: You are disgusting.
Diderot: That is like the pot calling the kettle black.
[She moves to the room where Ricardo is laid out, and in the moment that she goes toward the door, Luciana appears. She is dressed in mourning, pale and with circles under her eyes. Upon seeing Maruja, she hakes fiercely and in a trembling voice she says:)
Luciana: What do you want?
Maruja: To see him.
Luciana: You can’t.
Maruja: Why not?
Luciana: Because it would be a sacrilege.
Maruja: Watch what you say.
Luciana: I say what I feel.
Maruja: You can’t always just say what you feel.
Luciana: Yes you can, when it is the truth.
Maruja: You are very rude.
Luciana: Or very sincere.
Maruja: But, why cannot I go in?
Luciana: Because you are the only one responsible for his death.
Maruja: You believe that?
Luciana: Yes!
Diderot: And the proof is clear. They say that criminals always return to the scene of the crime to look at the victim.
Maruja: Well, if he killed himself over me, it only proves that he liked me a lot.
Luciana: Something which you were not worthy of.
Maruja: He would never have done the same for you.
Luciana: Well I am not a loser.
Maruja: I supposed as much. You are virtuous. With that face, you couldn’t help but be anything else.
Luciana: Bitch! [she moves to throw herself on Maruja. Diderot stops her.]
Diderot: Calm down.
Maruja: Let her go. Maybe a few slaps will teach her some manners.
Luciana: Let me spit on her face!
Maruja: Well enough of your stupidity. Let me go into the room.
Luciana: I don’t want to!
Maruja: (Strengthening her resolve). And if “he” would have wanted it?
Luciana: Now he doesn’t want anything, and if he wanted something it would not be to see you.
Maruja: You are mistaken. “He” wants this. Read the letter that he left for me.
[She hands her a letter she had been carrying near her heart. Luciana reads it and is stunned and automatically repeats the last words.]
Luciana: “Maruja, come and see me for the final time when I can no longer tell you disagreeable things….” He calls for her!
[She collapses into a chair. Maruja looks at everyone with a challenging air and opens the door. Upon seeing the wake, she is improved and shakes her head. But she gets control over herself and enters immediately. The door closes behind her.]
Gutierrez: She is heartless!
Diderot: And shameless. These whores are terrible. They are capable of crying three days for a dog and they cannot cry, not even one minute, for a man.
[Gutierrez walks into the room where Ricardo’s body lays in wake. He pauses.]
Luciana: He certainly loved her a lot.
Diderot: Man is an animal with bad habits.
Luciana: And towards me, who loved him like crazy, who cared for him like a little sister, like a mother…he felt nothing, nothing!
Diderot: As the song says, “Of what I have, I don’t want. Of what I want, I don’t have.”
Luciana: To get a man to be in love with her, women have to treat men badly.
Diderot: In that way, men are similar to asses: “they don’t obey those who give them candies, but do obey those who beat them.”
[Doña Lola appears, Luciana’s mother and the owner of the boarding house. She is in an agitated state.]
Luciana: What is wrong, mama?
Lola: Ricardo’s father is here!
Luciana: What did you tell him?
Lola: That he is sick, that he cannot see him.
Luciana: And what did he say?
Lola: He demands to see him.
[The outside door opens again and don Carlos appears. He is an older fellow, a bit uncouth, but kind. He looks at everyone and greets them, politely.]
Carlos: Good evening [To Lola] Where is Ricardo?
Lola: In his room. (Carlos moves towards the room, Luciana stops him.)
Luciana: You can’t go in.
Carlos: But, why?
Luciana: The doctor forbids it.
Carlos: A doctor’s order does not matter to a father.
Luciana: You could harm him, waking him up.
Carlos: If it is like that , I will wait. [He sits down and looks at all of them with a serene look tht no one wants to disturb. He pauses and asks about Diderot:] Does this gentleman also wait for him to wake up?
Luciana: Yes sir, he is a friend. [Doña Lola leaves.]
Carlos: It is nice to meet you, you are my friend, too. My son’s friends are also my friends.
Diderot: Thank you sir.
Carlos: [Speaking quietly so he does not disturb Ricardo:] I came because in the last letter I received from him, he said he was not feeling well. My wife told me, I can no longer travel, I am too old…you go..So, I came. It has been years since I have seen him.
Diderot: [trying to change the conversation]. How is life in the country?
Carlos: Very bad, sir, very bad. One can hardly make a living. Sometimes it’s the drought, other times the frost that destroys many months of work and a lot of hope. And when the harvest is good, the locusts carry it all away. Money attracts money. “The hens lay eggs and weasels eat them.” In addition, one gets old and younger kids replace you or machines replace you. And you are no longer at an aged where you can learn a new trace, and so you live badly. It always helped us out the little that Ricardo would send us, but lately, he stopped sending anything. They are so forgetful these city boys! They are in love with partying. My wife, when I was leaving, told me to tell him that he needs to be careful with bad women. They say that they are like the viper of the cross. The only difference is that the viper wears a cross on its head and the women wear it shining on their chests. [He is surprised at the silence that follows this]. What the heck, why aren’t you saying anything?
Diderot: We are just happy listening.
Carlos: I have been rambling on, haven’t I?
Diderot: Not at all sir, not at all.
[Gutierrez enters the room after leaving Ricardo]
Gutierrez: Poor fellow!
Carlos: [Jumping out of his chair]: Is he so very bad?
[Gutierrez looks at him surprised. Carlos moves towards the door and opens it. He sees the burning candles and screams out: My son!!! He runs into the room. He sobs. Luciana follows him in. The friends are frozen with grief.]
Diderot: A father loves his son in a manner that one hundred sons are not capable of loving one father.
Gutierrez: That is true.
Diderot: The painful thing is that at times we are so selfish that we do not think in the pain that we cause those who truly love us. Poor father!
[Carlos comes into the room again, he is pale, exhausted, devastated. Luciana supports him.]
Luciana: Take a little fresh air. Do not despair. Do not forget that you still have your wife to think about. [She takes hi to the side of a window. The friends leave to the next room].
Carlos: Had he been sick for long?
Luciana: About three months.
Carlos: My poor child! What was it he had?
Luciana: I don’t know, I mean, I know, but I am not sure.
Carlos: What do you mean, you aren’t sure? What does the dr. say? Who is the doctor? I want to see him. He will have to explain the illness to me, how he tried to cure him, how he died.
Luciana: Calm down, don Carlos.
Carlos: Calm down? Uh, how can I be calm when I have just lost that which I loved the most in my life? Oh, no! I need to know everything, everything. [Seeing Luciana’s indecisiveness.] You know something. Ricardo did not die on his own. [Taking her between his hands]. You know something! And if it is true that you loved him, you must tell me. If someone killed him, I must have revenge. Whoever killed him must die!
Luciana: You are right. Whoever killed him must die.
Carlos: Tell me, for God’s sake.
Luciana: Ricardo did not die from an illness. He killed himself.
Carlos: God, oh my God. But why?
Luciana: Because of her!
Carlos: Her? Who is she?
Luciana: His lover, a wretched woman.
Carlos: And for a woman like that, a father dies of sorrow?
Luciana: He loved her a lot. He was unable to fight against the passion.
Carlos: These passions stick to a man like mortar to a brick, they cannot be pulled off without also yanking out the heart. Cursed woman!
Luciana: One day he gave up resisting against the expenses a woman like that demands and…
Carlos: what?
Luciana: And he took money from the bank!
Carlos: Liar! Liar! My son cannot be a thief! [He throws himself down, devastated.] I am disgraced! My son a thief? Why to they allow vipers like that to live in this world? Have pity on me! Pity! [He cries desperately. Luciana does too. Suddenly don Carlos is quiet and he asks in a controlled tone:] who is she?
Luciana: A bad woman.
Carlos: I know, but what is her name, where is she?
[Maruja enters the room.]
Luciana: Here she is!
[Don Carlos slowly rises, and looks as if he has seen something horrible. Maruja turns to leave. He stops her.]
Carlos: Wait a moment.
Maruja: What do you want?
Carlos: To speak with you.
Maruja: Who are you?
Carlos: Ricardo’s father.
Maruja: Oh! (She holds back an anguished scream).
Carlos: Luciana, leave us alone, we have to talk. [Luciana leaves]. I am the father of that poor boy, Ricardo, who had the misfortune to know you.
Maruja: Misfortune? But why? I loved him very much!
Carlos: And that is not a great misfortune? [sarcastic]
Maruja: Why?
Carlos: Because women like you are awful. Wild animals without heart, feeling, dignity.
Maruja: Sir, what right do you have to talk to me that way?
Carlos: The right that truth bestows on me. [She tries to leave, he stops her by holding onto her arm.] And the right of being the stronger one. I will choke you if you scream.
Maruja: [Trying to calm herself, frightened out of her wits:] What do you want from me?
Carlos: A moment. You have bankrupted his life and mine and that of his poor mother. Because of you we will die from sorrow or from hunger.
Maruja: Not because of me. I never told him to steal. If I have been a waste, he has been a thief. So we are even.
Carlos: Shut up you wretch. Don’t even pronounce his name. My son a thief? It is impossible. He was born in a good home, not in the mud, the squalor, like you were.
Maruja: Sir, this conversation has got to end. I cannot stand here listening to such things. Please take the expenses for the funeral and what will allow you to have a peaceful old age. [She takes off the cross that she carries around her neck.]
Carlos: And stain his tomb with something of yours? To take money from you? Never! Look at what I will do with what you have taken by trafficking his body! [He steps on the cross.]
Maruja: Well, so if it is not that, what do you want from me?
Carlos: The crime was committed here, it must be paid for here. You will die, crushed, like the viper of the cross!
[He grabs her trying to choke her. She tries to run away. Cornered, she realizes that this is the end and she pulls out the gun from her purse. Don Carlos, jumps grabs her wrist and takes away the weapon. She fights like a tiger to get it back. She spits and bites him. He finally gets the best of her and throws her onto the ground. She gets up and takes a letter opener from the table and throws herself against Carlos. He moves back a little and he, taken over by the instinct of self preservation, points and pulls the trigger. The bullet enters Maruja’s heart and she is killed instantly. Carlos realizes what he has done and he collapses into a chair looking with disbelief at what he has done. The gun falls from his hands and lands nr the body. Luciana and Diderot enter the room.]
Carlos: I killed her!
Diderot: No, you have carried out justice. The crime was committed here, it was paid for here.
[They can hear people making noise outside and coming closer. Carlos is terrified.]
Carlos: I will go to jail. My poor wife will die…die of hunger. [He sobs uncontrollably].
[People come into the room, horrified at what they see. Devoto who enteres among them, runs to the body, shakes it, kisses it and shouts:]
Devoto: Dead…dead! [But suddenly, he looks at Carlos and asks:] but who killed her?
Diderot: [with energy] She killed herself with her gun. There it is. She was not able to live without him. She loved him a lot!
Carlos: Yes, yes, she loved him a lot [he sobs again and exclaims in a ragged voice:] Ricardo! Ricardo…[and enters into the room where Ricardo’s body is…]
CURTAIN FALLS