In fuga dalla tirannia, dall’odio e dal perdono: Urania Cabral in La fiesta del Chivo di Mario Vargas Llosa

Abstract

Rafael Trujillo is known as one of the most vicious and ruthless dictators to have afflicted Latin America. His regime, which for thirty-one years oppressed Dominican people, came to an end on the day of his assassination, the 30th of May of 1961. In 2000, Mario Vargas Llosa published La Fiesta del Chivo, a novel that recounts the last fifteen days of the Dominican despot. The protagonist of the work, Urania, is the daughter of Agustín Cabral, one of the senators of Trujillo. After more than thirty years in the United States, she returns to Santo Domingo. Through her story we learn of the barbaric violence and bitter betrayal that led her to flee from an indelible and incurable sorrow, which will mark her existence. This paper aims at analyzing how Urania’s escapes are, at different times, both a separation and a rapprochement with her life and origins in the constant search for truth.