Juan Rulfo, "Tell Them not to Kill Me!"

October 10th, 2012

     Excited to return once again to The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories, I couldn't help but draw insights from it's content. This week's assigned reading came from the short story "Tell Them not to Kill Me!" by the famous Mexican author, Juan Rulfo.
    
     "His eyes, that had become squinty with the years, were looking down at the ground, here under his feet, in spite of the darkness. There in the earth was his whole life. Sixty years of living on it, of holding it tight in his hands, of tasting it like one tastes the flavor of meat. For a long time he'd been crumbling it with his eyes, savoring each piece as if it were the last one, almost knowing it would be the last."
 

(Juan Rulfo, The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories, 287)

 

     In this passage, Juvencio, a poor Mexican farmer who finds himself running from the law for a crime that he committed numerous years prior, expresses his utter disappointment for the inevitable fate that awaits him at the end of his death walk, through the land that he has worked througout his life. Clearly, it is a relationship of both love and hate. For more than sixty years Juvencio worked hard with the land and livestock that one day would be the ultimate cause of his murder and own execution. This "give and take" or "love and hate" relationship between mother earth and Juvencio was a risky one that is known all to well by countless farmers around the globe and can only be truly understood by those who lead this kind of lifestyle. As the words of a famous agrarian, revolutionary corrido state, "The Earth belongs to those who work it." (Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America, 165)

     Being from Oklahoma, I have had the opportunity to deal with many a farmer and speak with them about the ups and downs of making a living off the land. As I read this passage, my mind quickly reverted back to my second grade class when we studied on a basic level the history of Oklahoma. Oklahoma was founded and populated almost completely by the Land Run of 1889. Prosperity and fortune was the pursuit of these hard-working U.S. citizens and a life of diligent labor was expected in the hopes of obtaining a plentiful, subsistance-based living.

     Unfortunately for the "Sooners" of Oklahoma, the great and dreadful Dustbowl of 1934-1936 would soon hit and cause the same despair, helplessness, and state of panic that Juvencio displays walking towards his own execution as he reflects on the curse of the land that he lovingly gave his life to. I can only begin to imagine the feelings of self-loathing and pure frustration that filled the minds of those who gave all that they had to treck across the Great American Plains in order to establish, what was thought to be, a safe and sure future. As history, without fail, relates, a lack of understanding in regards to crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, and other techniques to prevent the further damning effects of wind erosion were not yet discovered and many lost all that they possessed.

     Unknown by many and eerily similar to the ultmate fate of Juvencio, tragedy trounced the hope of redemption and many young plainsmen found themselves taking their own lives, seeking refuge in suicide. Juvencio, on the other hand, was punished for his own actions. In both cases, the land or lack therof (Juvencio's animals grazing in the claimed pastures of another), led to the permanent demise of the individual and convalescent state that preceded that fall. Perhaps, in opposition to the aforementioned corrido, THE EARTH OWNS THOSE WHO WORK IT.