El Llano en llamas

Written as a monologue, where an orphaned town idiot named Macario describes in his flowing narrative a few of the special aspects of his everyday life. The past and present mingle chaotically, and frequently the most startling associations of ideas are juxtaposed, strung together by conjunctions which help to paralyze the action and stop the flow of time in the present. This helps to establish the sickly atmosphere surrounding the idiot boy, who is gnawed by hunger and filled with the terror of hell, and is protected, as well as exploited, by his Godmother and the servant girl Felipa.[9]

The story speaks of four countrymen, having abandoned their homes and are marching across a sun-baked barren plain, in order to reach a parcel of land they were given as part of the government's land reform program. However, as they reach their property, they find out the land they were given is too hard and far away from any water source to have any practical use. When they complain to the deputy about it, he apathetically tells them they shouldn't attack the government that gave them the land, and they're left to wonder what to do.

The story is narrated by a man described as "the last inhabitant of the Hill of the Mothers-in-law", a village formerly controlled by the feared criminals and now-deceased Torrico brothers. Even though during the land reform the sixty original inhabitants were given equal plots of land, the Torrico brothers forced the rest of the villagers to give up their land and everything they produced within it, driving them all out. When there was nobody but the narrator and the brothers left, the Torricos turned to Highway robbery, which caused their deaths.

The story starts with the line, “Everything is going from bad to worse here.” The narrator speaks about the hardships that his family has recently had to endure, which included the death of his Aunt Jacinta the previous week. During the burial, he says that “it began raining like never before”.[10]

The story is split into two parts. The first part is narrated in third person, and alternates between descriptions of two different people: a fugitive “man” and his “pursuer,” often referred to as “the one who was following him.[11]"

The story begins with an eerie description of the town of San Gabriel. The town “emerges from the fog laden with dew,” and the narrator describes a number of elements that serve to obscure it from view: clouds, rising steam and black smoke from the kitchens.

“Talpa” is narrated in the third person by a nameless character, who is described only as the brother of Tanilo and the lover of Tanilo’s wife, Natalia. The story begins at what is technically its end, with a description of Natalia throwing herself into her mother’s arms and sobbing upon their return to Zenzontla. The narrator recounts how Tanilo was ill and covered in painful blisters. Natalia and the narrator planned to bring Tanilo to Talpa, ostensibly so that he could be cured by the Virgin of Talpa, but in reality, they hoped he would die so they could continue their extramarital relationship without guilt. After Tanilo's death, however, Natalia refuses to speak to the narrator out of shame. The narrator concludes that he and Natalia must live with remorse and the memory of Tanilo's death as he watches Natalia cry with her mother. [12]

The story begins with an epigraph from a popular ballad, the lines “They’ve gone and killed the bitch / but the puppies still remain…” This refers to the way that the spark that began the Spanish Revolution created successive movements which were often quite independent of its original impulses and were often difficult to bring to heel.

The story is about a man named Juvencio Nava, who pleads with his son Justino to intervene on his behalf in order to stop his execution by firing squad. Juvencio is about to be executed by a colonel for the murder of a man, Don Lupe, forty years earlier. The conflict arose when Don Lupe would not allow Juvencio to let his livestock graze on his land, and Juvencio did it anyway. His prison guard happens to be the son of the man he killed. Published as the seventh story in 1951 with a preface by Elias Canetti and Günter Grass[13].

Like other stories in The Burning Plain, “Luvina” is written in the form of a confession. The narrator is someone who previously taught in the town of Luvina, speaking to the new teacher who is about to travel there to replace them. This is not revealed until midway through the story, however.

This story takes place between 1926 and 1929 during what was known as the Cristero War. It is told in the third person by an omniscient narrator, who describes the flight of a Cristero soldier, Feliciano Ruelas, from a successful ambush of federal troops. When they cannot locate him, they kill his family members instead.[14]

The narrator begins by describing a man named Urbano Gómez. He had died around fifteen years before, but he was a memorable person. He was often called “Grandfather” and his other son, Fidencio, had two “frisky” daughters, one of which had the mean nickname of “Stuck Up.” The other daughter was tall and blue-eyed and many said she wasn’t his.[15]

The story opens with a father’s request that his son Ignacio tell him if he can’t hear any dogs or see any lights in the distance, as he is very nearly deaf and blind. The man is carrying his estranged adult wounded son on his back to find a doctor. Ignacio tells him that he doesn't hear any dogs or see anything, which doesn't satisfy his father. Ignacio is tired, begging for water and food, but the man cannot give these to him. He grows frustrated with his son, telling him that he hates him for the various crimes he's committed, including murder, but he is helping him for the sake of Ignacio's late mother. At the end, Ignacio realizes that there were, indeed, dogs barking in the distance. There is a translation of "¿No oyes ladrar los perros?" in English with the title "No dogs bark", an improper translation by Georg D. Schade[16], at the University of Texas web-site.[9]

A father asks his son where he is headed, and learns his destination is “up North.” The son’s pig-buying business has failed, and his family is starving, which is in contrast with his father. The son says the father can not understand his family’s suffering because he sells “skyrockets and firecrackers and gunpowder,” which are popular whenever there are holiday celebrations. The business in pigs is more seasonal, and therefore less successful.

One of the longer stories, it is told in first person by the character of Lucas Lucatero. Lucatero begins the story by cursing the women who have come to visit him. He is prideful and jealous, and though he does not confess to the crime directly, the repeated references to a pile of stones indicate the place of rest of the body of Lucatero's father-in-law, Anacleto Morones.[17]

This is one of two short stories that the author added to the second edition of the Spanish language collection in 1970. The final version of the collection has seventeen short stories.[18][19]

This is one of two short stories that the author added to the second edition of the Spanish language collection in 1970. The final version of the collection has seventeen short stories.[18]