The Burning Plain by Juan Rulfo

Author:Juan Rulfo [Rulfo, Juan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1967-06-14T14:00:00+00:00

From there we struck off toward San Pedro. We set fire to it and then we set out for Petacal. It was just about time for the corn to be harvested and the cornfields were dry and bent over by the strong winds that blow on the Plain in this season. So it was very nice to see the fire march along through the pastures, to see almost the whole Plain become a burning coal in that bonfire, with the smoke weaving up above, that smoke that smelled of cane and honey because the fire had reached the canefields too.

We came out of the smoke like scarecrows, with our faces smudgy, driving cattle here and there to get them together in some place and skin them. That was our business—cowhides.

Because as Pedro Zamora said to us, “We’re going to have this revolution with the money of the rich. They’ll pay for the arms and the expenses this revolution costs. And even if we don’t have any flag right now to fight for, we must hurry and pile up money, so when the government troops come they’ll see that we’re powerful.” That’s what he said.

And when the troops came at last, they let loose killing us again, as they did before, but not as easily. Now it was clear from leagues away that they were afraid of us.

But we were afraid of them too. It was a sight to see how our balls slid up to our throats just hearing the noise their harness made or the clicking of their horses’ hooves on the stones of some road when we were waiting for them in ambush. As we watched them go by we almost felt like they were looking sidewise at us and saying, “We’ve sniffed you out, we’re just pretending, that’s all.”

That’s the way it seemed to be too, because suddenly they’d throw themselves on the ground, fortified behind their horses, and they’d hold us off there, until some others encircled us little by little, catching us there like trapped chickens. That’s when we knew we weren’t going to last very long, even if there were a lot of us.

The reason is that it wasn’t General Urbano’s men any more, who’d been sent against us in the beginning and who got scared just from a little shouting and hat waving, those men recruited by force from their ranches so they’d fight us and who’d only dare attack when they saw there weren’t very many of us. There weren’t any more of them. Others took their place later, and these were the worst. A certain Olachea led them now, and his men were brave and could stand a lot, highland men brought from Teocaltiche, mixed with Tepehuan Indians from the north—Indians with heavy heads of hair, used to going without food for many days and who sometimes waited for hours spying on you with their eyes fixed, without blinking, waiting for you to show your head so they could shoot, straight

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