The Story

A lot of time ago, in ¨El Tolima Grande¨, a little village of Tolima, there was a family that was very poor. They used to work in a very big ranch close to the village.  The family was formed by a couple and their three children, the husband was Gerbacio, he was a very hard-working man, he used to farm rice, milk cows and does other hard farm activities. While the wife, whose name was Catalina, was the maid of the ranch’s principle house, like cooking and cleaning. She was very beautiful and charming, her children were nice and hard-workers too as their father.


They were, during a lot of time, a happy family that did not really care about the problems they had or even their hard work. Always, at night the whole family had dinner together. Every day, at night, they talked and laughed around the table, sharing the few things they had.

They lived in the exactly same way for a long while. They did not have so much worries to think about. But suddenly one day Gerbacio started to notice something strange in Catalina’s behavior. They always were very loving each other, but after that day it was not the same anymore, day after day Catalina was more distant and Gerbacio started to ask himself why? He could not find any answer, he thought that it was his fault, but despite he tried to talk about it with Catalina, she always answered: “there is nothing to talk about, I am the same of always, I am just tired.”

Gerbacio tried to forget the problem. “Maybe is my imagination causing this problem, maybe I am getting old”, he thought. But One Sunday, when he was drinking at the pub of the village with his friend Alfredo, who was on his birthday, after some time and an extensive talk, Gerbacio decided to tell Alfredo about his problem with Catalina and asked for an answer or how he could figure it out these problems with his wife. But, Alfredo after listen to Gerbacio’s problem thought that it was not Gerbacio’s fault, Alfredo said to him that the problem probably was hers. Alfredo heard about some gossips about his wife and their boss and the possibility that Catalina was cheating on him with their boss, while Gerbacio does his work in the afternoon. Obviously Gerbacio, after listen to that story could not believe that. He thought that Alfredo was making fun of him, because he could not imagine that Catalina was able to do that. Alfredo tried to explain to him that it was just a gossip he had heard around, by people of the village and some workers of the ranch, and that was not a joke. Gerbacio was very angry about what Alfredo was saying. So, he told Gerbacio that there was just one way to figure it out. Gerbacio with doubt in his eyes tried to calm himself down and started to listen to Alfredo’s idea.

So, Alfredo said to Gerbacio that he could go and say to his boss and his wife that he had to go to the big city (Bogotá), because he had some family problems and he had to leave the ranch’s work for few days and try to solve it. Gerbacio thought that it was a really crazy idea, because it was very complicated and he also did not know where he could stay during his “trip”, situation that Alfredo offered to solve. Later Gerbacio, in his way home was thinking and considering Alfredo’s idea.

Since that day he was trying to prove those gossips that had been said in the ranch, but he could not prove anything about it. But even so his suspicions got bigger, so one day, he finally decided to put into action Alfredo’s idea.

He went to Alfredo’s house and decided how to make the plan. So they agreed to make it the next weekend. So Gerbacio told Mr Pedro, his boss, about his “trip”, Pedro who was a really bad person, surprisingly Pedro after a few minutes thinking about Gerbacio’s request told him yes, very kindly, as if he had wanted that Gerbacio got away for that weekend. Catalina did not care about the story, she just believed Gerbacio’s trip.

Gerbacio left home that Friday night and went to Alfredo’s house. At the next day he went to the ranch, he entered by a backward entrance of the ranch, close to the crops, then he sliced carefully to the house and he could not see Catalina in the kitchen and neither in the living room, where she usually worked, so Gerbacio opened the door and checked carefully the first floor. But Catalina was not anywhere. Gerbacio was scared. He decided to check the second floor where some noises came. Step by step while he was walking up the noises were getting louder. When he gave the last step at the second floor he could hear clearly that Catalina was in the Pedro’s room. Guess what Gerbacio listened to!?. He stopped in front of the bedroom’s door about 3 seconds. He was in cholera. He pushed the door so hard, actually he throw down the door and shouted: “what the hell are you doing?” Pedro and Catalina were on the bed kissing each other. Catalina scared said to Gerbacio: “it isn’t what you are thinking”. In that moment of unconscious, Gerbacio armed with his machete rushed to them attacking them. Pedro tried to jump over the bed, at the other side, to get his gun which was at the nightstand, but Gerbacio jumped over the bed and with a fast movement he cut the arm of Pedro with his machete. Catalina was screaming, she did not know what to do, she was frozen. Then, Gerbacio took the machete again and yelling: “I gave you all my love Catalina… my work and my loyalty” he turned to look Pedro and say “You stupid… you should die! Ahhhh!” Telling this, Gerbacio beheaded Pedro. There was a lot of blood on the walls. Gerbacio furious but sad, with some tears going down on his face, told Catalina: “Why? Why did you this to me, I always loved you without matters about our problems. Why? ... UNFAITHFUL WOMAN..” and Catalina answered: “Gerbaciooooo Calm down! Stop! He forced me to do th...” She could not finish the sentence when he sliced the machete to his right leg, she yelled, she said: “Ahhh…I Know I’m wrong but myyyy leg, what did you do?…my body, my beauty” Then he said: “I curse you Catalina, you shouldn’t do this, we could talk some time ago” He took her and pushed her through the window. 

She fell at the yard of the house, spiting blood she whispered: “you shouldn’t forget my beauty, you should treated me as the prettiest woman in the world, I’ll find you and…” and finally died. Gerbacio saw her through the window, and shouted and cried some minutes there, then he realized that some ranch’s workers were going there, so he ran without be seen. When the workers reach at the house, they just could saw the leg of Catalina and Their boss in pieces. The body of Catalina couldn’t be found. Gerbacio went to his home, which was near to the village, took up their children and left home, but after that he burned their house.

After sometime the few workers who still were working at the ranch were frightened for the image of Catalina. That is why the ranch was abandoned at the end.

                                                                                                     End.










                                    All the images were taken from: Google Images