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The Vortex
José Eustasio Rivera wrote one of the great novels of Latin American a fierce denunciation of the abuses of the rubber boom and, at the same time, a tragic song to the Colombian rainforest. The Vortex is chronicle, poem, and a story of love and loss, but also of struggle against a system that crushes lives in the name of progress.
The Vortex is both intimate confession and collective cry. Through Arturo’s voice and the testimonies of those he meets on the road, José Eustasio Rivera turns the novel into a chorus of lovers, wanderers, Indigenous people, and exploited workers, all swallowed by the same spiral of desire and ambition. The journey that begins as an act of rebellion becomes an exploration of how far a person—and a country—can be pushed before breaking.
Written in a language that is at once raw and lyrical, this classic of Latin American literature is a love story, a political denunciation, and an ode to the Colombian selva. Without answering every question it raises, the novel invites the reader into the very heart of the that borderland where passion, injustice, and the jungle’s own ferocity collide. It leaves us listening to the forest, wondering what survives when maps end and silence takes over completely.
The Vortex is both intimate confession and collective cry. Through Arturo’s voice and the testimonies of those he meets on the road, José Eustasio Rivera turns the novel into a chorus of lovers, wanderers, Indigenous people, and exploited workers, all swallowed by the same spiral of desire and ambition. The journey that begins as an act of rebellion becomes an exploration of how far a person—and a country—can be pushed before breaking.
Written in a language that is at once raw and lyrical, this classic of Latin American literature is a love story, a political denunciation, and an ode to the Colombian selva. Without answering every question it raises, the novel invites the reader into the very heart of the that borderland where passion, injustice, and the jungle’s own ferocity collide. It leaves us listening to the forest, wondering what survives when maps end and silence takes over completely.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 23, 2025
About the author
José Eustasio Rivera
40 books48 followersJosé Eustasio Rivera Salas was a Colombian lawyer and poet primarily known for his national epic The Vortex.
After a failed attempt to be elected for the senate, he was appointed Legal Secretary of the Colombo-Venezuelan Border Commission to determine the limits with Venezuela, there he had the opportunity to travel through the Colombian jungles, rivers, and mountains, giving him a first hand experience of the subjects he would later write. Disappointed with the lack of resources offered by his government for his trip, he abandoned the commission and continued travelling on his own.
In this venture he became familiar with life in the Colombian plains and with problems related to the extraction of rubber in the Amazon jungle, a matter that would be central in his major work, La vorágine (1924) (translated as The Vortex), now considered one of the most important novels in Latin American literary history.
After the success of his novel, he was elected, in 1925, as a member for the Investigative Commission for Exterior Relations and Colonization. He also published several articles in newspapers in Colombia. In these pieces, he criticized irregularities in government contracts, and denounced the abandonment of the rubber extraction areas of Colombia and the mistreatment of workers.
After a failed attempt to be elected for the senate, he was appointed Legal Secretary of the Colombo-Venezuelan Border Commission to determine the limits with Venezuela, there he had the opportunity to travel through the Colombian jungles, rivers, and mountains, giving him a first hand experience of the subjects he would later write. Disappointed with the lack of resources offered by his government for his trip, he abandoned the commission and continued travelling on his own.
In this venture he became familiar with life in the Colombian plains and with problems related to the extraction of rubber in the Amazon jungle, a matter that would be central in his major work, La vorágine (1924) (translated as The Vortex), now considered one of the most important novels in Latin American literary history.
After the success of his novel, he was elected, in 1925, as a member for the Investigative Commission for Exterior Relations and Colonization. He also published several articles in newspapers in Colombia. In these pieces, he criticized irregularities in government contracts, and denounced the abandonment of the rubber extraction areas of Colombia and the mistreatment of workers.
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