# Doña Bárbara
**Doña Bárbara** is a 1943 Mexican film directed by Fernando de Fuentes, adapted from the 1929 novel of the same name by the Venezuelan writer and former president [Rómulo Gallegos](https://www.edgepedia.org/romulo-gallegos) (1884–1969). It stars [María Félix](https://www.edgepedia.org/maria-felix) as the title character, a wealthy Venezuelan landowner hardened by a violent youth, and it is described by Cineteca Nacional México as one of the most refined examples of the production quality of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.[1](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10690) • [2](https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/686)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | 1929 novel *Doña Bárbara* by Rómulo Gallegos, who took part in the screenplay adaptation[3](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-135122/) • [4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) |
| Direction and production | Fernando de Fuentes; CLASA Films, S. A. de C. V., with Jesús Grovas as producer[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) |
| Principal cast | María Félix (Doña Bárbara), Julián Soler (Santos Luzardo), María Elena Marqués (Marisela), Andrés Soler (Lorenzo Barquero)[5](https://www.cineol.net/pelicula/dona-barbara-b63ee946-93ab-4639-9358-032182276cd4) |
| Premiere | 16 September 1943, cine Palacio, Mexico City[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) |
| Runtime | Reported as 133, 137, or 138 minutes by different reference sources[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) • [1](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10690) • [6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara) |
| Awards | Unión de Periodistas Cinematográficos Mexicanos 1944: Best Picture, Best Male Co-acting (Agustín Isunza), Best Female Co-acting (María Elena Marqués)[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) |
| Legacy | Source of María Félix's lifelong nickname "La Doña"; the only screen adaptation of the novel to attain the status of a classic, according to scholar Jenni M. Lehtinen[1](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10690) • [7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in Altamira, in the Venezuelan plains (llanos). As a young woman, the future Doña Bárbara witnessed the murder of her fiancé and was raped by sailors; the trauma transformed her into an implacable, feared, and violent woman.[6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara) Years later she is a wealthy landowner who dominates men with her beauty and the authorities with her money, ruling the local peasants through a mixture of cunning, force, and witchcraft.[6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara) • [8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/342871.html)
Her power is challenged when Santos Luzardo, a lawyer who has studied in Caracas, returns to claim the lands she appropriated through tricks.[6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara) • [8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/342871.html) Doña Bárbara falls in love with him and sets out to win him at any price, but Luzardo falls in love with Marisela, the daughter she abandoned, the child of her earlier relationship with the alcoholic banker Lorenzo Barquero.[6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara) • [3](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-135122/) Unhappy again, and with her own daughter as a rival in love, the landowner is prepared to do anything to win the heart of the man she loves.[6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara)
## Themes and interpretation
The confrontation between Santos Luzardo and Doña Bárbara is widely read as a symbolic struggle between civilization and barbarism on the Venezuelan plains, a conflict at the center of Gallegos's novel.[9](https://iris.unibas.it/handle/11563/19732) • [10](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/encyclopedia-of-latin-american-literature.pdf) The Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature describes the conflict as a microcosmic re-enactment of the archetypal civilization-versus-barbarism opposition associated with Domingo Sarmiento, and calls Doña Bárbara, the personification of the llanos, one of the memorable characters of Spanish American literature.[10](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/encyclopedia-of-latin-american-literature.pdf)
The film presents its protagonist as both villain and victim. MoMA's program note describes a landowner whose sexual victimization in adolescence creates a deep hostility toward men and drives her pursuit of self-sufficient control over her ranch and the surrounding area, allowing María Félix to develop the type of strong female protagonist that became her legacy in Latin American cinema.[1](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10690) The character has also been read through mythical archetypes: the young Barbarita, the sorceress, the sphinx of the savanna, the devourer of men, and finally the mother, all contained in a single figure.[9](https://iris.unibas.it/handle/11563/19732)
## Production
The film was made at CLASA studios during the World War II years, when Mexican film production became fully industrialized and drew heavily on adaptations of foreign literature; among the most frequently adapted foreign authors was the Venezuelan Gallegos, whose *La trepadora* (1944), *Canaima* (1945), and *Cantaclaro* (1945) were also filmed in Mexico.[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) Gallegos himself wrote the cinematic adaptation and dialogue, and Fernando de Fuentes directed with the collaboration of Miguel M. Delgado.[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/)
The technical crew included the photographer Alex Phillips (black and white), editor Charles L. Kimball, sound engineers Jesús González Gancy and Howard Randall, and composer Francisco Domínguez, with art direction by Jesús Bracho.[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) • [6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara)
## María Félix and the birth of "La Doña"
For María Félix, who had made an inauspicious start in 1942 and 1943, the film was the vehicle for her rise to stardom; producer Salvador Elizondo of CLASA imposed her in the role over Isabela Corona.[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) The role suited her combative public persona, and she promoted the image of the strong, man-subduing woman in later films such as *La mujer sin alma* (1943), *La devoradora* (1946), and *Doña Diabla* (1949).[4](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/) She became so closely identified with the part that she was referred to as "La Doña" for the rest of her life.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93555/dona-barbara) The film also propelled her co-star María Elena Marqués into lasting stardom.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667)
## Reception and standing
The film was celebrated almost unanimously by critics on its release and established itself as one of the representative works of the Mexican cinematographic [Golden Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-age).[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667) Cineteca Nacional México describes it as one of the most refined examples of the production quality Mexican cinema achieved during that era.[2](https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/686) Of all the screen adaptations of Gallegos's novel, only the 1943 film has attained the status of a classic, according to Jenni M. Lehtinen, a scholar of Latin American literature and screen adaptation whose 2021 study *Doña Bárbara Unleashed: From Venezuelan Plains to International Screen* examines the story's afterlife on screen.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667) • [12](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo86587014.html)
## Later adaptations
Gallegos's novel has been adapted repeatedly for both cinema and television. Betty Kaplan directed a 1998 film, an Argentine-Spanish-United States co-production starring Esther Goris as Doña Bárbara and Jorge Perugorría as Santos Luzardo, which premiered in Argentina on 14 May 1998 and in limited United States theaters on 12 March 1999.[13](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/dona-barbara) • [14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dona_barbara_1999) Unlike the twenty-first-century telenovelas, Kaplan's film remains relatively faithful to Gallegos's original story, and press reactions at its release were pervaded by disappointment, with critics measuring it against the 1943 classic.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667)
On television, the novel inspired Venezuelan telenovelas broadcast in 1967 and 1974, and the Spanish-language United States network [Telemundo](https://www.edgepedia.org/telemundo) produced two adaptations in the twenty-first century: the 2008 telenovela starring [Edith González](https://www.edgepedia.org/edith-gonzalez), and *La Doña* in 2016, both of which took significant liberties with the plot to suit contemporary audiences.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667) • [15](https://www.wordandfilm.com/adaptation/dona-barbara-q650903/) A second season, *La Doña 2*, premiered on 13 January 2020 and continued the story beyond the boundaries of the original novel, following a trend of television series moving past their source texts.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667)
## References
1. [Doña Bárbara. 1943. Directed by Fernando de Fuentes, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10690)
2. [Doña Bárbara, Cinegogía film database (description from Cineteca Nacional México)](https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/686)
3. [Doña Bárbara (1943), SensaCine México](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-135122/)
4. [Película: DOÑA BÁRBARA (Fernando de Fuentes, 1943), Diccionario de Directores del Cine Mexicano](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-dona-barbara-fernando-de-fuentes-1943/)
5. [Doña Bárbara (1943), CINeol](https://www.cineol.net/pelicula/dona-barbara-b63ee946-93ab-4639-9358-032182276cd4)
6. [Doña Bárbara, Morelia International Film Festival](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/dona-barbara)
7. [Jenni M. Lehtinen (2021). Doña Bárbara Unleashed: From Venezuelan Plains to International Screen. University of Wales Press, via JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14491667)
8. [Doña Bárbara (1943), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/342871.html)
9. [Giovanna Ferrara (2009). Acercamiento a la figura de Doña Bárbara y su transposición cinematográfica, Università degli Studi di Basilea, IRIS](https://iris.unibas.it/handle/11563/19732)
10. [Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/encyclopedia-of-latin-american-literature.pdf)
11. [Bret Wood (2005). Dona Barbara, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93555/dona-barbara)
12. [Doña Bárbara Unleashed, University of Chicago Press distribution page](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo86587014.html)
13. [Doña Bárbara (1998), cinenacional.com](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/dona-barbara)
14. [Doña Bárbara (1999), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dona_barbara_1999)
15. [Doña Bárbara, Word & Film adaptation database](https://www.wordandfilm.com/adaptation/dona-barbara-q650903/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction › Films based on early 20th-century literature*
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