Vagabunda: Novela

México: Libro Mex, 1959. Second Edition. Large octavo; 174 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates; 21 cm. Three full-page woodcut illustrations in b&w Very good(+). . Paperback.

In Spanish. Handsome woodcut illustrations; artist unknown. Vagabunda (1950) is Spota's fifth novel. Flor is a woman who has lived off men. She is aboard a boat with the sailor Carioco, planning to leave with him; after a game of cards his companion Pedro Riel tries to force himself on her, Carioco wounds Riel mortally, and in the struggle Flor goes over the side and is lost in the water and the dark. She washes ashore at Puerto Gaviota, where the wealthy Ávila family takes her in — a fortune built on smuggling. She works on the patriarch, Pascual, and then on his son Miguel, meaning to get away with the family's money. Pascual uncovers the scheme, shoots his own son, and sails off with her. The other Ávilas are Perla and Mario. The novel was filmed in 1994 by Alfonso Rosas Priego II, with Dolores Heredia as Flor. The film kills both sailors in the opening rather than letting Carioco live, gives Mario a role in radio broadcasting, and changes the family's smuggling from gold to archaeological artefacts.