Mexico's Transformation: Rulfo's Narrative of Revolution and Rural Life

Mexico in the 1940s and 50s: A Nation in Transition

Mexico was undergoing significant changes after the revolution. While the country showed signs of development in population and production, the agricultural sector lagged. Land reform was delayed, increasing the marginalization of the dispossessed. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held power. Mexican intellectuals held differing views: some believed the revolution had achieved its goals, while others felt it had failed or betrayed its ideals, advocating art as a form of critical expression.

Rulfo's Narrative: Reflecting the Mexican Experience

Juan Rulfo's narrative is characterized by its portrayal of the reality of the Mexican man, his concrete and existential struggles rooted in history. His stories, however, are not mere propaganda. He narrates the experiences of Mexican men shaped by their country's history. His characters are campesinos, simple people speaking in common Mexican vernacular, slang, and colloquial language, reflecting the sentiments of the time.

Tales of the Plain: Themes of Fate and Despair

Tales of the Plain explores interconnected themes:

• The human inability to escape a predetermined fate.
• Guilt.
• Consciousness.
• The fear of condemnation.
• War without clear purpose.

The characters are subject to a life of hardship, fragile and moral beings caught between despair and hope. Rulfo suggests that the essence of man is contained within himself. The characters do not interact; they remember. The intention is to reveal the subjectivity of the character, their own existence, through first-person narration, monologue, or a silent partner. Memory serves to rebuild their lives, but it is fragmented and disorganized, disrupting the chronological order of the story.

Space and Time: A Meaningless Reality

The past and present blur, with allusions to the future. Time is circular: what happened is equal to what is happening and what will happen. Space is equally diffuse, with the character's location being unimportant. Thus, space is not a framework but a symbol of monotonous, even repetitive, events. The characters themselves are indistinct, with little description of their external appearance. This indeterminacy of time, space, and appearance reinforces the vision of a meaningless reality.