Trivia / Doña Barbara

• Self-Adaptation: Rómulo Gallegos was invited to work as the scriptwriter for the 1947 movie adaptation.
• Write Who You Know: With the exception of Santos Luzardo and Marisela, all the characters are based on people Gallegos knew or heard about during his travels through the flatlands.
  • The titular character of Doña Barbara was inspired by a woman named Pancha Vásquez, who Gallegos never met personally. He heard about her from his friend Juancho Rodriguez, who told him about a woman, "who rode like a man. Greedy, superstitious, without fear of taking out anyone who annoyed her". While Doña Barbara is described as beautiful, Andres Eloy Blanco, a politician and poet who met Doña Pancha personally in 1920, said "she was pretty ugly, dark, almost black. Maybe she was beautiful when young, but now is not the case", and said she was prone to obtaining lovers.
  • Lorenzo Barquero, according to a prologue to the 25ª anniversary edition of the book was inspired by a doctor in law that became rich in the flatlands, but became an alcoholic. While Gallegos never said the name of the doctor, some scholars believe the character was inspired by two men: Dr. Galo Segundo Bramón, a medic Gallegos knew when very young, and that his family always spoke very well; and Dr, Francisco Mier y Terán, who was a victim of alcoholism as is very likely the man Gallegos was referring to in the prologue.
  • María Nieves was inspired by a worker from the flatlands Gallegos met, and he put him all and name, and the guy was flattered by this, and sometimes, when someone disrespected him, he would jokingly say "respect pal, that I'm in Doña Barbara".