Out of the Wings

Las brutas (c.1980), Juan Radrigán

Las brutas : ACT TWO

Las brutas, translated by Catherine Boyle

ACT TWO

Context:

This extract is from the scene in which Don Javier comes to try and sell the sisters luxurious items of clothing and tells them about life in the world beyond their closed existence.

Sample text

JUSTA:

Leave us alone! We know what our life is. God wanted us to be here and He

knows.

JAVIER:

No, but that’s all wrong. You’ve got it all wrong. God lives if people live, get

it? I mean if women stopped wanting to get married and have children the world would end and if the world ends that’s the end of God. If we don’t want him and life to die, women have to have children; that’s the law.

JUSTA:

We’re like the fig tree my mother used to talk about. The fig tree belongs to

God too, even though He cursed it.

LUCIA:

And we’re not that sort of women. We don’t go out looking for men. What do

you want us to do when nobody ever comes here? They don’t even come when you’re dying. When the old lady who lived near the nitrate mine fell in the ravine and broke her spine, they said one of those men that cure everything was going to come, but she shouted for two days and nobody ever came. If they don’t come when you’re dying why would they come when you’re alive?

JAVIER:

Well, you’re quite far out here. But women need never want for anything.

Don’t they say that one hair of a woman has more power than a whole team of oxen? All you need to do is take a bit more care of yourselves. There’s something for everybody in God’s great garden.

LUCIANA:

Do you think so?

JAVIER:

Of course. I should know. I had two of the ugliest sisters on God’s earth and they got married no problem. Of course, their husbands aren’t the best to look at either, but every man will find their woman.

JUSTA:

This is our life, we’re fine here. Didn’t you say Vicente didn’t have enough to

eat?

JAVIER:

That’s right, he doesn’t earn much and he goes hungry. But I don’t think wild

horses could drag him back here. He got to know …

JUSTA:

He knows nothing. We’re the ones that know. People are bad there; when

people leave here they’re treated worse than animals. Once, when Nicolás was here …

LUCIANA:

Nicolás? When, Justa?

JUSTA:

Once when you two were out at the pastures. He came here and told me he

was on the run.

LUCIA:

Who from? What had he done? He was the quietest of them all!

JUSTA:

That’s not the point! It doesn’t matter there if you’re quiet or honourable. On

the ranch where he was working they beat him up because he said that they should be paid in money and not in food. They wanted to skin him alive. That’s why he ran away. Is that where you want to go?

JAVIER:

That’s not all. That’s not all he did.

LUCIANA:

Did he rob something? Is that what you mean? Nicolás’s never robbed anything

in his life! We don’t do things like that!

JAVIER:

No, he never robbed anyone, and he didn’t kill anybody. He spoke out. And

where he was working that was worse than robbing. But don’t let’s talk about that. When Vicente comes he’ll tell you.

JUSTA:

He can’t come. If he comes by here I’ll chase him with my stick, just like I did with Nicolás. God’s marked him out to die, because he left my father to look for the seam alone; that’s why He’s punished him and he’s going hungry; and he’s going to die on the run with no one to help him. You’ll see. One day they’ll throw him off the ranch and they’ll do bad things to him and he’ll do bad things to other people. Then they’ll hunt him down and kill him and when he needs to go into hiding nobody’ll help him and they’ll drive him out the way I did, because there’s no escape for him. That’s the way it’ll be.

JAVIER:

God, you’re hard, Justa. I’ve never known anybody like you.

LUCIA:

Don’t get angry. We don’t want to hear things. We want to barter things.

LUCIANA:

That’s it, that’s all we want. So if all you brought was bad news you can go.

JAVIER: (To himself)

I told you, Javier. I knew you’d hang yourself with your own rope.

LUCIANA:

What did you say? Do you want to barter or not?

JAVIER:

Why else am I here? Why else would I spend the whole day on top of that

damn mule?

LUCIANA:

Have you got skirts? Show them here so that I can see if they go with the

jumpers.

JAVIER: (Relieved.)

Skirts? Yes, I’ve got some. (He looks in the suitcase, takes them

out) Look at these! (He passes one to Luciana and another to Lucía) What do you think?

LUCIANA: (Trying a skirt on over her clothes)

Ay, that’s lovely! Look, Lucía.

LUCIA:

It’s too short, you can’t go anywhere in that, it’s scandalous. (Looking at

hers) Have you got a longer one in the same colour?

JUSTA:

What do you want that for? You can’t go running after goats dressed like that!

(To Javier) Why are you bringing these things for us now? Why not bring thick clothes?

JAVIER:

There aren’t any around. Before, I could find clothes because I’d buy them

second-hand round and about. But now people use their clothes till they fall to pieces. We’re in a crisis and we have to make do with what we have.

LUCIANA:

What’s a crisis?

JAVIER:

It’s when there’s no money because there’s no work; and no work because

there’s no money.

LUCIA:

What? I didn’t understand a thing.

JAVIER:

I don’t understand either, nobody understands, but we’re all suffering. But,

let’s see if I can explain myself. Have you got any money to pay me in cash?

LUCIANA:

No, we’ve not got anything. We’ve not sold anything for cash.

JAVIER:

Why not?

LUCIA:

Why haven’t we sold anything, Justa?

JUSTA:

The owners of the herds don’t buy cheeses, it’s the shepherds who buy

them. But owners of the herds say that nobody’ll buy their animals, so they’ve sacked the shepherds. And now the shepherds haven’t got money to buy anything.

JAVIER:

That’s a crisis.

LUCIANA:

So, why’s there no work? The animals haven’t died; the earth’s not dried up.

JAVIER:

They’re things that come from the capital. When it rains there it pours here.

LUCIANA:

Is the capital that big city they talk about?

JAVIER:

Yes. Our wicked stepmother.

JUSTA:

It’s always the city. Everything in the city is evil. Isn’t that where that

Government man is? The one in charge?

JAVIER:

That Government man? (He laughs.)

JUSTA:

Don’t laugh, he’s evil! (Pause.) He wants to kill us.

LUCIA:

He wants to kill us, Justa? Why?

JAVIER:

Not you, no.

LUCIANA:

Who, then? Who is this Government man?

JAVIER:

It’s not a man, and it’s not in Copiapó, it’s far, far away … (Remembering.)

Ah, you’re saying that because of that business about erosion. Of course, everybody took fright and started selling their animals wherever they could. That’s why I asked you before if you’d found someone to buy them. But don’t pay any attention. It was a mistake, a misunderstanding, but there are chancers out there taking advantage and scaring people into selling their animals for nothing. A turbulent stream’s great for fishing, see? I bet I know what the bait’s like round here.

LUCIA:

What’s he talking about, Justa?

LUCIANA:

What’s erosion? What’s that got to do with us?

JUSTA:

They say that the goats eat the stones and the earth, and that the earth could

run out … They say that the police are going to come and kill the sheep and the goats.

JAVIER:

No, don’t believe that! God, how can I make you understand? That was only an

idea that …

LUCIA: (To Justa.)

Is that why we’ve not gone anywhere? Is that what you knew?

JUSTA:

Yes. But if they come they’ll have to kill us first! I’m not going to let them kill

my animals!

LUCIANA:

But we’ve not done anything to that Government. We don’t even know him!

They’re slandering us! Goats don’t eat stones! That Government knows nothing. He’s a liar!

LUCIA:

If they killed our animals it’d be like killing us!

JAVIER:

But they’re not coming! That was a lie!

JUSTA:

I didn’t want to talk about this! I didn’t want that!

LUCIANA:

What are we going to do, Justa? We’ll have to hide the animals!

JAVIER:

But listen! I’m telling you the truth. It’s all over! It never came to anything.

LUCIA:

When was that?

JAVIER:

A while ago, when they realised that the goats didn’t eat the cheese rennet.[1]

It’s true, Justa, I wouldn’t lie to you. Christ, don’t you see what happens living here shut away from everything?

LUCIANA:

Maybe it is a lie, Justa. He knows, he comes from the city.

JAVIER:

Of course, believe me. Don’t sell your animals.

JUSTA:

We’ve got to sell them to buy sugar and tea and vegetables. And we’ve run out

of beans.

JAVIER:

Well, to buy those things, yes. The same as always.

LUCIA:

You see, Justa? You were all worried for nothing. If you’d told us, we’d have

gone and asked. But you never tell us anything.

JAVIER:

Come on, come on, don’t go and fight now. You can be calm now. After the

storm comes the calm. So, choose some clothes so that you can get dressed up for the Candelaria Festival.

LUCIANA:

What? We’ve never been, we’ve never heard of it before.

JAVIER:

It’s a lovely festival, people come from all over the place; there’s dancing,

singing, people getting to know one another … falling in love too … because there’s no age for love, you know, and you’re not so bad-looking …

LUCIANA:

The things you say, Don Javier …

JAVIER:

It’s true. But the thing is that you never get dressed up, put make-up on, but if

you take your time and look really carefully you’re all handsome women. Has nobody ever told you that you’re not at all bad? Eh?

LUCIA:

Eh, Justa, who’d ever say that to us?

JAVIER:

Nobody, of course, if you live all cooped up nobody can say anything to you.

That’s why you’ve got to get out, get together with other people, the Lord helps he[2] who helps himself. Christ and I bet that with those skirts and those jumpers there’ll be no lack of men to come up and ask you to dance … Have you ever danced?

LUCIANA:

No, never. We don’t know those things.

JAVIER:

Shall I show you a little? It’s dead easy. Look (He takes hold of Luciana. They

take a few steps.) But don’t be shy. Look, like this …

JUSTA: (Separating them.)

Leave her!

JAVIER:

What’s up with you? There’s nothing wrong with dancing!

JUSTA:

Yes there is! What you’re doing is really bad. … Near the Coipa ravine there
was an old man who had been left all alone but he had his memories of the people who’d died and he talked to them, so he didn’t really feel lonely. Then a bad woman came along and she was ill and asked if he wanted to get together with her, and the old man believed her and started loving her. But after she’d eaten and slept there for a while, she got better and upped and went. The old man cried all day and all night. And then he wanted to talk to his dead to comfort him, but there were no more dead in the house to talk to - everything was full of the bad woman who’d left, because she’d touched everything and been everywhere. So the old man died of heartache because that time he really was alone for ever. That’s what you’re doing to us. It’s the same thing:: you want us to forget what we’ve always loved; you want to put other things in our heads. But these things are bad just like that woman. They’re not real, they don’t belong to us, and they’ll go.

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