  A theory of highly correlated layered superconducting materials isapplied for
the cuprates. Differently from an independent-electron approximation, their
low-energy excitations are approached in terms of auxiliary particles
representing combinations of atomic-like electron configurations, where the
introduction of a Lagrange Bose field enables treating them as bosons or
fermions. The energy spectrum of this field accounts for the tendency of
hole-doped cuprates to form stripe-like inhomogeneities. Consequently, it
induces a different analytical behavior for auxiliary particles corresponding
to "antinodal" and "nodal" electrons, enabling the existence of different
pairing temperatures at T^* and T_c. This theory correctly describes the
observed phase diagram of the cuprates, including the non-Fermi-liquid to FL
crossover in the normal state, the existence of Fermi arcs below T^* and of a
"marginal-FL" critical behavior above it. The qualitative anomalous behavior of
numerous physical quantities is accounted for, including kink- and
waterfall-like spectral features, the drop in the scattering rates below T^*
and more radically below T_c, and an effective increase in the density of
carriers with T and \omega, reflected in transport, optical and other
properties. Also is explained the correspondence between T_c, the
resonance-mode energy, and the "nodal gap".
