“La Vorágine”, a “100% Colombian” series on the genocide of Amazonian ethnic groups
On July 24, the Max platform unveiled “La Vorágine,” a serial adaptation of the great Colombian novel of the same name, published by José Eustasio Rivera in 1924. Through the adventures of Arturo Cova and Alicia, the work reveals a little-known episode from the early 20th century, when the exploitation of rubber justified the murderous enslavement of Amazonian ethnic groups. The Colombian press is enthusiastic.
“Before falling in love with a woman, I gambled my heart away and violence won.” This enigmatic sentence opens one of the most important novels in Colombian literature: La Vorágine, by José Eustasio Rivera (published in 1924 and translated into French ten years later by Georges Pillement), whose television adaptation has excited the entire Colombian press. First broadcast on Colombian national channels, the series is available on HBO Max starting this Thursday, July 24.
Directed by Luis Alberto Restrepo, the series follows the adventures of Arturo Cova, a young, idealistic poet from Bogota who runs away with Alicia, a high-society woman who refuses to submit to an arranged marriage and with whom he has a forbidden relationship.
"But their romantic escape in the great eastern plains [of Colombia] will soon turn into a nightmare," as they venture into the Amazon and discover with horror the rubber fever that is raging throughout the Amazon region and justifies the enslavement of the Amerindians, summarizes Canal Capital on its website .
When it was published a century ago, this aspect of the book caused a scandal. Because, as the contemporary art magazine points out,
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