Summary
A sun-scorched California rancho, heavy with the scent of crushed grapes and gunpowder, becomes the stage for a betrothal that never was. Don Luis Baldarama, monarch of 30,000 acres, intends to fuse two bloodlines by coupling his urbane son Audre to Isabella Chavez, porcelain heiress of the next valley; yet the fiesta’s lanterns have scarcely flared before secret passions detonate the ritual. Audre, whose heart already gallops after Erolinda Vargas—daughter of the ranch superintendent and a girl whose eyes hold the dusk of wild oats—whispers his treachery to Isabella among the violins. She, luminous with relief, confesses her own soul is promised elsewhere, and the two conspirators of autonomy sever the social ligatures with conspiratorial laughter. Under cover of a harvest moon swollen like a gold doubloon, the illicit lovers abscond to a pine-board cabin tucked inside a eucalyptus throat; but Selistino Vargas, patriarch sharpened by years of subservience and insult, storms in, sees only dishonor in his daughter’s flushed cheeks, and fires a single shot that splits the night like a church bell. Word races back that the young patrón is murdered; vaqueros—those leather-skinned centaurs—wheel their horses in drunken vengeance and lay siege to the hacienda, torches spitting. At the barricaded gate stands Erolinda herself, rifle trembling yet unwavering, a Marian silhouette against the blaze, until Audre—blood-soaked but breathing—staggers forth, claims her with a kiss that brands ownership not of land but of choice, and the riders lower their guns, recognizing in that embrace the fragile birth of a new order.
Synopsis
At the harvest fiesta, Don Luis Baldarama, owner of one of California's great ranchos, expects to announce the betrothal of his son, Audre, to Isabella Chavez, the daughter of a neighboring don named Miguel Chavez. However, Audre plans to elope with Erolinda Vargas, the daughter of the ranch superintendent. When Audre confesses to Isabella that he loves another, she joyfully admits that she loves someone else, also. Audre and Erolina slip away during a feast and meet at a cabin, but they are surprised by Selistino Vargas, who, believing that his daughter has been dishonored, shoots Audre. Thinking he was murdered, Audre's vaqueros storm Don Luis's house, but Erolinda holds them at bay until Audre, merely wounded, appears and pacifies his men. He kisses Erolinda in their sight, thus claiming her as his bride.
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