Pedro Páramo
List of characters
Abundio Martínez
- Burro driver who leads Juan to Comala. He is also the son of Pedro Paramo.
Juan learns later that Abundio has been dead for a long time.
Comala - Town in the state of Jalisco,
in Mexico, where Juan Preciado arrives searching for his Father
Damiana Cisneros - She works at the Media
Luna and also she meets Juan in his journey in Comala. She is murdered by Abundio
Martínez at the end of the book.
Dolores Preciado - (Doloritas) Mother
of Juan Preciado. She was the owner of the "Rancho de Enmedio". Pedro
Páramo married her and took the ranch from her.Then he sent her away
to her sister's. They never met again.
Donis and sister/wife - Juan encounters
this couple while wandering in Comala. They take him in and shortly after Juan
dies.
Dorotea - Crazy woman who lived of the
charity of the town. She provided girls for Miguel Páramo. She is buried
with Juan in the same coffin and tells him the story of Pedro Páramo,
Susana San Juan and the rest of Comala
Eduviges Dyada - Owner of a house in Comala
where Juan arrives. He spends the night there, then learns that she has been
dead for decades.
Father Rentería - He is the town's
priest. He doesn't fulfill his job by not giving absolution to the dying. As
a consequence, those who didn't die in grace wander around looking for salvation.
Fulgor Sedano - Administrator of the Media
Luna. He helped Pedro Páramo obtain (illegally) the lands that made him
the cacique. He is killed by revolutionaries at the beginning of the Mexican
Revolution (1911)
Juan Preciado - One of many sons of Pedro
Paramo, arrives in Comala and dies there. He is buried in the same coffin with
Dorotea. Most of the narration is Juan telling the story of his arrival in Comala
to Dorotea.
Miguel Páramo - Another son of
PP. He was taken in by his father when he was an infant. He gets killed on a
horse accident when he is around 17, but he was already guilty of a murder and
numerous rapes.
Pedro Páramo - Father of Juan Preciado,
"cacique" of Comala, desperately in love with Susana San Juan. His
death means the end of Comala and is also the last scene of the book.
Possible sequence of events
1. Pedro Páramo and Susana play together as children
2. Susana's mom dies
3. Bartolomé takes Susana to Andromeda mine
4. Death of pedro's mom
5. Death of Pedro's dad
6. Arrival of Fulgor Sedano, the Administrator
7. Marriage of Pedro and Dolores. Incorporation of the Enmedio ranch to the
Media Luna
8. Death of Toribio Aldrete. Incorporation of his property to the Media Luna
9. Eduviges commits suicide
10. Death of Miguel Páramo
11. Confession of Dorotea to Father Rentería
12. Susana comes back to Comala
13. Bartolomé goes back to the mine, where he dies, leaving Susana with
Pedro
14. Beginning of Mexican Revolution
15. Death of Fulgor Sedano
16. Pedro sends men to "help the revolution"
17. Death of Susana San Juan
18. The Cristeros War
19. Comalans leave the town
20. Death of Abundio's wife
21. Death of Damiana
22. Death of Pedro Páramo
23. Death of Abundio
24. Death of Dolores Preciado
25. Death of Juan
26. Death of Dorotea
Basic Bibliography
These are some articles on Pedro Páramo that you can borrow them from me:
Baker, Armand. Water-Imagery and the Theme of Disillusion in Pedro Páramo. Hispanic Journal, 14-2 (1993): 49-60.
Jordan, Michael. Noise and Communication in Juan Rulfo. Latin American Literary Review 24- 47 (1996): 115-30
Gann, Myra. Temporal and Spatial Shifters in Pedro Paramo. Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura, 7- 2 (1992): 157-62
These are books you can find in the Library:
Structures of power : essays on twentieth-century Spanish-American fiction. Edited by Terry J. Peavler and Peter Standish. Albany : State University of New York Press, c1996
Vital Díaz, Alberto. Lenguaje y poder en Pedro Páramo. México, D.F. : Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1993