Here is a faithful, literary English translation, keeping the tone, atmosphere, and emotional weight of the original. I preserved the storytelling style rather than flattening it into literal phrasing.
“I Haven’t Had Sex in Six Months,” Said the Giant Apache Woman to the Rancher
1. Dust and Arrival
The dust of Parras, Coahuila rose like a restless soul over the dried-out fields of La Esperanza ranch. It was August, and the sun scorched even the shadows. The ranch hands hadn’t spoken to each other for three days. The owner, Don Crispín Saldívar, had died in a cantina during a confusing brawl no one fully understood. No one knew who started it or why, but the silence that followed was thicker than molasses.
In the middle of the corral, sitting on an old log, was the quietest cowboy in the north: Anselmo, nicknamed The Silent Wheels. He was 34, widowed since 27, with a weathered face and a Colt revolver that seemed fused to his left hand. He had spent months in absolute calm, keeping to himself, avoiding nearby towns, devoted only to ranch work and the silence that kept him company.
That afternoon, when the heat seemed to bend the horizon, she arrived. The wagon brought from Torreón creaked as it stopped in front of the hacienda. From beneath the canvas emerged a woman who made every ranch hand cross himself twice. She stood two meters and seven centimeters tall, barefoot, with powerful arms and solid legs—the commanding presence of someone used to long roads. Her copper-red hair was braided thickly down to her waist. She wore a short, worn cotton dress, as if it had survived more than one hard journey.
Her name was Brígida Ofarril—Irish by her father, Tarahumara by her mother. She was 29, a circus orphan. She had been passed between traveling shows many times, and each time she left by her own decision. The Malacara brothers, who recently displayed her as the “Giantess of the Desert,” claimed she was part of their act. But one of them had turned up badly injured on the road, and the other blamed her—though no one fully believed him.
Now she sat against the corral wall, knees drawn nearly to her chest, with a nasty wound on her left leg.
2. The Meeting and the Confession
Anselmo saw her and felt a strange mix of concern and respect. He approached slowly, like someone afraid of waking a sacred animal.
“Who hurt you, woman?” he asked, using the rough voice he rarely spoke with.
Brígida looked down at him, even while seated. Her eyes were green like aged mezcal.
“A scoundrel who tried to take advantage of my journey,” she replied plainly. “But he couldn’t.”
Then she added something that surprised everyone with its honesty:
“I’ve gone months without being able to rest in peace. I just want quiet—and a place where no one bothers me.”
Anselmo swallowed so hard it echoed through the corral. From that moment, something in the air changed.
The ranch hands whispered that the giantess was a witch, that she had survived dangers that would have crushed any man, that staring at her too long unsettled the soul. Anselmo didn’t believe in witches—but he believed in the strength she carried when she passed by.
That night he took her to the tool room, the only place large enough for her. He cleaned her wound with liquor and clean rags. She didn’t complain once.
When he finished bandaging her, Brígida cupped his face with one enormous yet gentle hand.
“You’ve lived through many things, haven’t you?”
He barely nodded.
“Well, now we’re in a place where maybe we can start over,” she said, laughing softly—her voice making the beams tremble.
3. The Telegram and the Decision
On the second day, a telegram arrived. Colonel Epifanio Garza, godfather to the late Don Crispín, was coming with thirty men to seize the ranch. He claimed the will was false and that the land belonged to him due to old debts.
The ranch hands began to desert. Anselmo stayed. So did Brígida.
“Why don’t you leave?” he asked her.
“Because you’re not leaving,” she replied. “And because I won’t let one more abuse go unanswered.”
That night, as the ranch emptied, Anselmo and Brígida shared bread and coffee in the kitchen. The silence between them was comfortable. She told him about the circuses, fairs, underground fights. She said the last time she had sex was six months earlier—with a man who didn’t know how to respect her and ran away when she defended herself.
“I haven’t had sex in six months,” she said without shame. “And I don’t miss it. What I miss is peace.”
Anselmo simply looked at her. It wasn’t a vulgar confession—it was the statement of a woman tired of being treated as a spectacle.
4. The Corpse and the Bath
On the third day, the foreman’s corpse appeared hanging from the large mesquite tree, killed by an attack no one could explain. Fear thickened like syrup.
That same afternoon, Anselmo found Brígida bathing in El Hawai, the ranch’s natural pool. The water reached only her waist. She breathed deeply, seeking calm. He froze.
She didn’t react.
“Are you going to stand there staring, or are you coming to help me check the wound?” she said calmly.
Anselmo stepped into the water fully clothed. He washed her leg carefully. His hands trembled—not from improper nerves, but from the responsibility of not hurting her. She was strong, but also human, and in that moment he understood it deeply.
Then a gunshot rang out—a sniper from the hill. The bullet grazed Anselmo’s head, taking half his hat with it. They ran back to the hacienda.
Colonel Garza had arrived early.
5. The Battle
Fourth day—the battle. Thirty men against two. It seemed impossible, but Brígida wielded a Winchester 1873 that looked light in her hands. Anselmo took his Colt and an old rifle. They fought from the windows.
Brígida moved with precision; Anselmo with discipline. They forced the attackers back without unnecessary destruction.
When only ten enemies remained, Colonel Garza shouted that they were surrendering—but then tried to force entry. Anselmo fell, wounded in the shoulder.
Brígida lifted him like a child and carried him to the basement. There, among sacks of corn and the smell of gunpowder, she removed his shirt and cleaned the blood carefully.
“You’re going to be fine,” she told him. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her words eased him more than any medicine.
6. The Truth and the Letter
Fifth day—the revelation. Colonel Garza reached the basement with five men. He found them exhausted, covered in sweat and dust.
He laughed.
“So—the giantess and the mute. Curious pair.”
But Brígida, though tired, grabbed an iron bar and fought back. Anselmo, wounded but alive, rose to help. Within minutes they subdued the threat without shedding more blood than necessary.
Then Garza dropped the bomb.
“The real heir to the ranch wasn’t Crispín—it was you, Anselmo. You’re his son. He left everything to you. That’s why they wanted you gone.”
Anselmo froze. Brígida embraced him from behind, steady and strong.
“Then the ranch is yours now,” she said calmly. “And here, you’ll be safe.”
On the sixth day, a letter arrived from Monterrey. Signed: Sister María de los Ángeles Ofarril, Brígida’s older sister, a cloistered nun. She explained that Brígida was not merely a traveler, but a woman who had escaped a forced marriage to protect herself—and had been hunted ever since.
Anselmo read the letter silently. Brígida watched him, her green eyes storm-filled.
“Are you going to turn me in?”
He burned the letter in the fireplace.
“No letter ever arrived here.”
She exhaled deeply and hugged him. Silence said everything.
7. The Final Duel
Seventh day—the final duel. The Malacara brothers were not dead. The younger had survived and returned with one hundred men from the border. They surrounded the ranch. This time, there was no escape.
Anselmo and Brígida stepped into the corral at dawn. She carried two sawed-off shotguns; he held the Colt and the rifle. They stood back to back, like legends.
“When this is over,” she said, “remember that we did the right thing.”
The battle was long. They fired until they ran out of bullets. Then they defended themselves however they could—never seeking unnecessary harm, only survival. Many attackers fell.
In the end, only the younger Malacara remained, consumed by rage.
“You ruined my life!” he shouted at Brígida.
“And you hurt my family,” she replied.
With a firm movement, she subdued him without killing him and handed him over to authorities when they arrived.
8. The Farewell
When it was over, Anselmo knelt, exhausted by his wounds. Brígida lifted him once more and carried him to the hut where they had spent their first night. There, as the sun rose red over Parras, she said:
“I care for you more than I imagined, cowboy—but I can’t stay. They’re looking for me everywhere, and if they find me here, they’ll put you in danger.”
He tried to speak, but his voice was gone. She hugged him one last time—a long embrace, filled with feelings that didn’t need words. Then she walked into the desert, barefoot, dress torn, braid undone, so large it seemed the horizon leaned aside to let her pass.
Anselmo stayed alone at the ranch. He never spoke again. But every night, when the wind carried distant echoes, a woman’s laughter made the mesquite trees tremble.
9. The Legend
In the cantinas of Coahuila, they still say that if you pass by La Esperanza on a full-moon night, you can see a red-haired giantess sitting in the corral, waiting for the day when paths cross again with the cowboy who gave her peace and freedom.
They say the story of Brígida and Anselmo is the story of two wandering souls—joined by pain and strength, separated by fate, but forever connected by land and wind.
And when people glimpse the giantess’s silhouette on the horizon, they remember that some loves need no words, no promises, no bodies—only memory, and the hope of meeting again.
And so, beneath the immense sky of Coahuila, La Esperanza ranch still stands. The dust still rises like a restless soul—but now, in every corner, there are footprints of a woman who defied all limits, and of a man who learned that true peace is not found in silence, but in the memory of one who knew how to love without fear.