This is not a film adaptation of the Veracruz (México) legend of a woman, during the days of the Spanish colonies in America, who was accused of witchcraft and escaped from prison aboard a ship she painted on a wall of her cell. Although screenwriter Xavier Villaurrutia signed a stage play and an opera based directly on this account, the film is completely different.
It is a tale of rivalry between landowners, a story of lust and death, set on the island of Cuba. At the center of the controversy, the protagonist is Belén San Juan, the beautiful mulatto daughter of landowner Luis San Juan and a black slave. Both her father and her uncle Carlos San Juan own cane plantations during the golden days of the sugar industry in Cuba. When Luis dies, Belén inherits her father's properties, arousing the wrath of her uncle, who tries to appropriate her land with the help of his friend Antonio. However, the intervention of the young landowner Pedro, in defense of the interests of Belén, increases the tension by opposing the designs of Carlos San Juan.
As far as I know, it is very difficult to find copies of both the film based on the Veracruz legend and this Cuban story, which share the same title.
It is a tale of rivalry between landowners, a story of lust and death, set on the island of Cuba. At the center of the controversy, the protagonist is Belén San Juan, the beautiful mulatto daughter of landowner Luis San Juan and a black slave. Both her father and her uncle Carlos San Juan own cane plantations during the golden days of the sugar industry in Cuba. When Luis dies, Belén inherits her father's properties, arousing the wrath of her uncle, who tries to appropriate her land with the help of his friend Antonio. However, the intervention of the young landowner Pedro, in defense of the interests of Belén, increases the tension by opposing the designs of Carlos San Juan.
As far as I know, it is very difficult to find copies of both the film based on the Veracruz legend and this Cuban story, which share the same title.
