Isabel Allende

“If You Touched My Heart” (Si me tocaras el corazón) is a short story by Isabel Allende, published in 1989 in the book Cuentos de Eva Luna. Amadeo Peralta, raised in a family of violent and authoritarian men, learns from childhood that power is imposed with cunning and brutality. Forced by his father to improve the family reputation, he must marry a young woman with a respectable surname. During a trip to the provinces, amid the heat and tedium of a forgotten village, Amadeo discovers a teenager playing a psaltery, an encounter that will eventually mark a decisive turning point in his destiny.

The Gold of Tomás Vargas (El oro de Tomás Vargas) is a story by Isabel Allende, published in Cuentos de Eva Luna (1989). It tells the story of Tomás Vargas, a greedy, quarrelsome, and womanizing man who the people of Agua Santa despise. His meanness and selfishness lead him to accumulate a treasure in gold coins while his wife, Antonia Sierra, and their children live in misery. When a pregnant young woman arrives claiming his protection, Vargas takes her into his home, unleashing a conflict that changes the family dynamic. Her destiny becomes intertwined with the gambling, greed, and tensions of a town that tolerates him but does not respect him.