Juan Rulfo
Encyclopedia
Juan Rulfo (ˈxuan ˈrulfo) (16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986) was a Mexican
author
and photographer. One of Latin America's most esteemed authors, Rulfo's reputation rests on two slim books, the novel Pedro Páramo
(1955), and El Llano en llamas
(1953). 15 of these 17 short stories have been translated into English and published in The Burning Plain and Other Stories), a collection of short stories that includes his admired tale "¡Diles que no me maten!" ("Tell Them Not to Kill Me!"). He and Jorge Luis Borges
were named the most important Spanish-language writers of the 20th century .
There are more than 6,000 negatives of his photographs at the Juan Rulfo Foundation.
. Their extended family consisted of landowners whose fortunes were ruined by the Mexican Revolution
and the Cristero War
of 1926-28, a Roman Catholic integralist
counter-revolt against the government of Mexico following the Mexican Revolution
.
Rulfo's mother died from a heart attack in November 1927, when he was ten; his two uncles died a year later. Juan Rulfo had just been sent to a study in the Luis Silva School, where he lived from 1928 to 1932. He completed six years of elementary school and a special seventh year from which he graduated as a bookkeeper, though he never practiced that profession. Rulfo attended a seminary
(analogous to a secondary school
) from 1932 to 1934, but did not attend a university afterwards──both because the University of Guadalajara was closed due to a strike and because he had not taken preparatory school courses. Instead, Rulfo moved to Mexico City
, where he first entered the National Military Academy, which he left after three months, and then he hoped to study law at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In 1936, Rulfo was able to audit courses in literature there because he obtained a job as an immigration file clerk through his uncle, David Pérez Rulfo, a colonel working for the government, who had also gotten him admitted to the military academy.
He married Clara Angelina Aparicio Reyes (Mexico City, August 12, 1928) in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on April 24, 1948; they had four children, Claudia Berenice (Mexico City, January 29, 1949), Juan Francisco (Guadalajara, Jalisco, December 13, 1950), Juan Pablo (México City, April 18, 1955) and Juan Carlos Rulfo
(México City, January 24, 1964). Juan Rulfo obtained a fellowship at the Centro Mexicano de Escritores, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation
. There, between 1952 and 1954, he was able to write the two books that would make him famous.
The first book was a collection of harshly realistic short stories titled El Llano en llamas
(1953). The stories centered around life in rural Mexico around the time of the Mexican Revolution
and the Cristero Rebellion. Among the best-known stories are "¡Diles que no me maten!" ("Tell Them Not To Kill Me!"), about an old man, set to be executed, whose prison guard happens to be the son of a man he killed; and "¿No oyes ladrar los perros?" ("Don't You Hear the Dogs Bark?"), about a man carrying his estranged, adult, wounded son on his back to find a doctor.
The second book was Pedro Páramo
(1955) a short novel about a man named Juan Preciado who travels to his recently deceased mother's hometown, Comala, to find his father, only to come across a literal ghost town
- populated, that is, by spectral figures. Initially, the novel met with cool critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed. Páramo was a key influence of Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez
.
The book went through several changes in name. In two letters written in 1947 to his fiancée Clara Aparicio he refers to the title of this work he was writing then as Una estrella junto a la luna (A Star Next to the Moon), saying that it was causing him some work. During the last stages of writing, he wrote in journals that the title would be Los murmullos (The Murmurs), a title that demonstrates the inspiration of the novels The Wild Palms and If I Forget Thee Jerusalem by William Faulkner
, and thanks to a grant from the Centro Mexicano de Escritores Rulfo was able to finish the writing between 1953 and 1954 and publish it in 1955.
Gabriel García Márquez
has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books, and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude
. He noted that all of Rulfo's published writing, put together, "add up to no more than 300 pages; but that is almost as many, and I believe they are as durable, as the pages that have come down to us from Sophocles."
Photography:
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and photographer. One of Latin America's most esteemed authors, Rulfo's reputation rests on two slim books, the novel Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo is a short novel written by Juan Rulfo, originally published in 1955. In just the 23 FCE editions and reprintings, it had sold 1,143,000 copies by November 1997. Other editions in Mexico, Spain, and other nations have sold countless more copies...
(1955), and El Llano en llamas
El Llano en Llamas
El Llano en llamas is a collection of short stories written in Spanish by Mexican author Juan Rulfo and first published in 1953.- Literary Reputation of the Author:...
(1953). 15 of these 17 short stories have been translated into English and published in The Burning Plain and Other Stories), a collection of short stories that includes his admired tale "¡Diles que no me maten!" ("Tell Them Not to Kill Me!"). He and Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
were named the most important Spanish-language writers of the 20th century .
There are more than 6,000 negatives of his photographs at the Juan Rulfo Foundation.
Early life
Rulfo was born as Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno in Apulco, Jalisco (although he was registered at Sayula, Jalisco), in the home of his paternal grandfather. After his father was killed in 1923 and after his mother's death in 1927, his grandmother raised him in the town of San Gabriel, JaliscoSan Gabriel, Jalisco
San Gabriel is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico 141km from the capital of Guadalajara. The municipality covers an area of 449.01 km². It was the birthplace of Mexican actor José Mojica, with the main street carrying his name. It's municipalities include Jiquilpan and...
. Their extended family consisted of landowners whose fortunes were ruined by the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and the Cristero War
Cristero War
The Cristero War of 1926 to 1929 was an uprising and counter-revolution against the Mexican government in power at that time. The rebellion was set off by the strict enforcement of the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the expansion of further anti-clerical laws...
of 1926-28, a Roman Catholic integralist
Integralism
Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups...
counter-revolt against the government of Mexico following the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
.
Rulfo's mother died from a heart attack in November 1927, when he was ten; his two uncles died a year later. Juan Rulfo had just been sent to a study in the Luis Silva School, where he lived from 1928 to 1932. He completed six years of elementary school and a special seventh year from which he graduated as a bookkeeper, though he never practiced that profession. Rulfo attended a seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
(analogous to a secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
) from 1932 to 1934, but did not attend a university afterwards──both because the University of Guadalajara was closed due to a strike and because he had not taken preparatory school courses. Instead, Rulfo moved to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, where he first entered the National Military Academy, which he left after three months, and then he hoped to study law at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In 1936, Rulfo was able to audit courses in literature there because he obtained a job as an immigration file clerk through his uncle, David Pérez Rulfo, a colonel working for the government, who had also gotten him admitted to the military academy.
Major works
It was there that Rulfo first began writing under the tutelage of a co-worker, Efrén Hernández. In 1944 Rulfo had co-founded the literary journal Pan. Later he was able to advance in his position, and he traveled Mexico as an immigration agent. In 1946 he started as a foreman for Goodrich Euzkadi, but his mild temperament led him to prefer working as a wholesale traveling sales agent. This obligated him to travel throughout all of southern Mexico, until he was fired in 1952 for asking for a radio for his company car.He married Clara Angelina Aparicio Reyes (Mexico City, August 12, 1928) in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on April 24, 1948; they had four children, Claudia Berenice (Mexico City, January 29, 1949), Juan Francisco (Guadalajara, Jalisco, December 13, 1950), Juan Pablo (México City, April 18, 1955) and Juan Carlos Rulfo
Juan Carlos Rulfo
Juan Carlos Rulfo is a Mexican screenwriter and director son of cult author Juan Rulfo. He has written, produced, and photographed several films. He is married to Valentina Leduc Navarro a Mexican director....
(México City, January 24, 1964). Juan Rulfo obtained a fellowship at the Centro Mexicano de Escritores, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
. There, between 1952 and 1954, he was able to write the two books that would make him famous.
The first book was a collection of harshly realistic short stories titled El Llano en llamas
El Llano en Llamas
El Llano en llamas is a collection of short stories written in Spanish by Mexican author Juan Rulfo and first published in 1953.- Literary Reputation of the Author:...
(1953). The stories centered around life in rural Mexico around the time of the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and the Cristero Rebellion. Among the best-known stories are "¡Diles que no me maten!" ("Tell Them Not To Kill Me!"), about an old man, set to be executed, whose prison guard happens to be the son of a man he killed; and "¿No oyes ladrar los perros?" ("Don't You Hear the Dogs Bark?"), about a man carrying his estranged, adult, wounded son on his back to find a doctor.
The second book was Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo is a short novel written by Juan Rulfo, originally published in 1955. In just the 23 FCE editions and reprintings, it had sold 1,143,000 copies by November 1997. Other editions in Mexico, Spain, and other nations have sold countless more copies...
(1955) a short novel about a man named Juan Preciado who travels to his recently deceased mother's hometown, Comala, to find his father, only to come across a literal ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
- populated, that is, by spectral figures. Initially, the novel met with cool critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed. Páramo was a key influence of Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
.
The book went through several changes in name. In two letters written in 1947 to his fiancée Clara Aparicio he refers to the title of this work he was writing then as Una estrella junto a la luna (A Star Next to the Moon), saying that it was causing him some work. During the last stages of writing, he wrote in journals that the title would be Los murmullos (The Murmurs), a title that demonstrates the inspiration of the novels The Wild Palms and If I Forget Thee Jerusalem by William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, and thanks to a grant from the Centro Mexicano de Escritores Rulfo was able to finish the writing between 1953 and 1954 and publish it in 1955.
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books, and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia...
. He noted that all of Rulfo's published writing, put together, "add up to no more than 300 pages; but that is almost as many, and I believe they are as durable, as the pages that have come down to us from Sophocles."
Further reading
Spanish:- Lecturas rulfianas / Milagros Ezquerro., 2006
- Tríptico para Juan Rulfo : poesía, fotografía, crítica / Víctor Jiménez., 2006
- La recepción inicial de Pedro Páramo / Jorge Zepeda (Editorial RM-Fundación Juan Rulfo, México, 2005. ISBN 84-933036-7-4)
- Entre la cruz y la sospecha : los cristeros de Revueltas, Yáñez y Rulfo / Angel Arias Urrutia., 2005
- Estructura y discurso de género en Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo / Alba Sovietina Estrada Cárdenas., 2005
- Voces de la tierra : la lección de Rulfo / Felipe Garrido., 2004
- Mito y poesía en la obra de Juan Rulfo / María Luisa Ortega., 2004
- La ficción de la memoria : Juan Rulfo ante la crítica / Federico Campbell., 2003
- Juan Rulfo / Núria Amat., 2003
- Análisis de Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo / César Pérez P., 2003
- Homenaje a Juan Rulfo / Dante Medina., 2002
- Perfil de Juan Rulfo / Sergio López Mena., 2001
- Revisión crítica de la obra de Juan Rulfo / Sergio López Mena., 1998
- Juan Rulfo / Alberto Vital Díaz., 1998
- La sociedad en la obra de Juan Rulfo / Magdalena González Casillas., 1998
- Rulfo en su lumbre : y otros temas latinoamericanos / Jaime Mejía Duque., 1998
- Juan Rulfo, el eterno : caminos para una interpretación / Anita Arenas Saavedra., 1997
- Juan Rulfo : la naturaleza hostil / Antonio Aliberti., 1996
- Recopilación de textos sobre Juan Rulfo / La Habana, Cuba : Centro de Investigaciones Literarias., 1995
- Los caminos de la creación en Juan Rulfo / Sergio López Mena., 1994
- Juan Rulfo : la lengua, el tiempo y el espacio / Gustavo C Fares., 1994
- Juan Rulfo, del Páramo a la esperanza : una lectura crítica de su obra / Yvette Jiménez de Báez., 1994
- Juan Rulfo y el sur de Jalisco : aspectos de su vida y obra / Wolfgang Vogt., 1994
- El laberinto y la pena : ensayo sobre la cuentística rulfiana / Rafael José Alfonzo., 1992
- Imaginar Comala : el espacio en la obra de Juan Rulfo / Gustavo C Fares., 1991
- Rulfo y el dios de la memoria / Abel Ibarra., 1991
- Rulfo, dinámica de la violencia / Marta Portal., 1990
Photography:
- Mexico: Juan Rulfo Fotógrafo, 2001 : The Spanish language edition of his photographs with essays by the same authors as the volume above, but written in Spanish.
- Inframundo: El México de Juan Rulfo / 1st ed. 1980, 2nd ed. 1983 / Versions in Spanish and English with essays. Published in 1980/83 by Ediciones del Norte in Hanover, NH
- Juan Rulfo: Letras e imágenes, RM, 2002. The book is outlined in: http://www.clubcultura.com/clubliteratura/clubescritores/juanrulfo/letrasimagenes01.htm
- http://www.guiarte.com/noticias/juan-rulfo-fotografo.html
- http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/ojos/Pedro/Paramo/elpepuint/20070903elpepicul_2/Tes
- http://www.elangelcaido.org/2005/11/200511jrulfo/200511jrulfoe.html
- http://ldsmag.com/article/1164?ac=1
Links
- ¡Diles que no me maten! - Sound recording of reading ¡Diles que no me maten! with Juan Rulfo Voice
- "Asombro por Juan Rulfo" - Transcription of a speech given by Gabriel García Márquez on the 50th anniversary of El Llano en llamas, 18 September 2002.