Mexico

“Anacleto Morones” is a short story by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, published in 1953 in the book El llano en llamas. Lucas Lucatero is at his ranch when, in the midst of heat and dust, he sees a group of devout women arriving from Amula. The unwelcome visitors come with the purpose of convincing him to return with them to the town to give testimony about the life and deeds of Anacleto Morones, whom they regard as a saint capable of performing miracles. However, they run up against Lucatero’s reluctance, for he holds a very different opinion of the man who was once his father-in-law.

“Macario,” a short story by Juan Rulfo included in El llano en llamas (1953), is an intimate narrative that immerses us in the world of a young man with an intellectual disability under the care of his godmother. Caught between violence and tenderness, Macario finds solace in his relationship with Felipa, an alternative maternal figure. The narration captures his daily struggle, his simple desires, and his peculiar view of life, offering a window into his deepest thoughts and his marginal existence.

“Remember” (Acuérdate) is a short story by Juan Rulfo, published in 1953 in the collection El llano en llamas. It tells the story of Urbano Gómez, a cunning and resourceful boy raised in an environment marked by poverty and neighborhood gossip. Through memories of his childhood—his quarrelsome mother, his sister with hiccup attacks, his sales and petty tricks to earn a living—the story reconstructs the years in which Urbano roams the village, depicting a lively atmosphere in which his figure becomes inseparable from the daily hustle and bustle, until an embarrassing incident at school alters that routine forever.