ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the Gothic tradition with which the monsters, vampires are charged is used by the artists to critique local traditions of other horrors, particularly physical violence and other insidious forms of class-specific warfare. Adopted by Mayolo and Ospina, the term Tropical Gothic was coined by Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis as a response to Luis Bunuel's challenge to write a Gothic novel set in the tropical weather of Cali. Tierra caliente is a geographical term used in Colombia to describe areas with tropical weather; it is also a classist term used by local elites to refer to the periphery of Bogota. Ospina's vampire turns out to be a complex bloodsucker, mostly because unlike Dracula, Don Roberto cannot draw blood from his victims himself. Don Roberto's network's mode of obtaining blood is to bleed, rape, kill, and dispose of the bodies in vacant lots, an unnecessarily violent process that escalates the methods of European vampires.
