"The Gold of Tomás Vargas" has received mixed reviews since it was first published in the story collection, Cuentos de Eva Luna, in 1990, and in English as The Stories of Eva Luna in 1991. Since the story was first published as part of a collection, the majority of the criticism covers the entire collection.

Even then, many critics, like Donald L. Shaw, did not consider The Stories of Eva Luna an important work in Allende's career, saying that the stories "in general seem marginal to Allende's mainstream development as a writer of fiction and as a representative of the Post-Boom." The "Post-Boom" that Shaw refers to is the group of Latin-American writers who grew up reading and being influenced by "boom" writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Other negative criticism includes Jane Urquhart's review in Quill and Quire, where she said...