Power and Terror in Alvaro Cepeda Samudio's La casa grande. A Reading of Modernity in Colombia

Cepeda Samudio's book is more than the narrative of the Massacre of Banana Plantation Workers. The relationships between the characters in the novel concentrate some of the features of Colombia's transition to modernity and its assimilation of the logics of capitalism. The sociopolitical context in which Cepeda writes his work shares some of the structural characteristics of the period he recreated. The article explores the ways in which the author creates new senses and meanings on the basis of the characters' interpretations of the Massacre, from diverse and concrete political and social conditions. It also shows how the novel's plot is marked by the connection between politics and religion on which modern capitalism began to be built in Colombia.