Definition of "barranca"

“Well: hardly,” said the Consul, softly as before, casting a suspicious eye for his part in the other direction at some maguey growing beyond the barranca, like a battalion moving up a slope under machine-gun fire.

1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 138

Have you ever been south of Monterey? / Barrancas carve the coastline / And the chaparral flows to the sea / 'Neath waves of golden sunshine

1973, Al Jardine (lyrics and music), “California Saga (California)”, in Holland, performed by The Beach Boys

[…] his hero, the Consul, is shot and thrown down the barranca followed by a dead dog.

1994, Gordon Bowker, Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry