Mexico | Lecturia

Elena Garro: The Cobbler from Guanajuato

“The Cobbler from Guanajuato” (El zapaterito de Guanajuato) is a short story by Elena Garro, published in 1963 in the collection La semana de colores. It tells the story of Don Loreto, an eighty-two-year-old shoemaker, and his grandson Faustino, who arrive in Mexico City from Guanajuato in search of relief from poverty. Lost, hungry, and destitute, they are taken in by Blanquita, a charismatic and compassionate woman who, despite facing her own struggles, offers them shelter in her home.

Juan Rulfo: Anacleto Morones

“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.

Juan Rulfo: Macario

“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.

Juan Rulfo: Remember

“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.

Elena Garro: The Day We Were Dogs. Summary and analysis

In Elena Garro’s The Day We Were Dogs, two girls, Eva and Leli, are left alone in a large house in the countryside while their family flees the summer heat. Amid abandonment and boredom, they decide to symbolically transform themselves into dogs and join the world of Toni, the house dog chained up in the garden. They adopt the names Cristo and Buda and live a day in a parallel time, alien to the human order. There, they witness a scene of violence: two men fight, and one kills the other. Soldiers interrogate the dog-girls, who respond with barks, and the murderer is arrested. The crime, however, marks them; the game is broken, and when they return home, they can no longer maintain the animal fiction. The night is filled with ghostly presences, and the girls realize that they have crossed a line: the experience of crime has expelled them from innocence and any possible heaven, even the one imagined for dogs.

Juan Rulfo: Paso del Norte. Summary and analysis

Plot summary: in “Paso del Norte,” an impoverished man who has failed in his pig-selling business decides to emigrate to the North in search of work to feed his wife and five children. Before leaving, he visits his father to ask him to look after his family. Still, the conversation becomes an exchange of recriminations for a life of abandonment, poverty, and family resentment. The son finally sets off on his journey, and after being guided to the border by contacts, he tries to cross the river into the United States with other migrants, but they are ambushed by gunfire in the darkness. Although injured, he and his friend Estanislado manage to get out of the water, but the latter dies shortly afterward. The protagonist, battered and defeated, is returned to Mexico. Upon returning to the village, his father coldly informs him that his wife has left him for a muleteer and that he has sold the house to pay for the grandchildren’s expenses. Without a family or a home, the man resigns to start over and searches for his wife. The story portrays the desolation of the migrant, the failure of the dream of the North, and the breaking of family ties amid misery.