Rulfo, Juan [key], 1918–86, Mexican writer. In his fiction he recreates the desolation of his native southern Jalisco and brings to life its simple people in a harsh and tragic manner. He wrote one book of short stories, The Burning Plain and Other Stories (1955; tr. 1967). His novel, Pedro Páramo (1955; tr. 1959), is a complex work with many episodes arranged poetically rather than chronologically and narrated by people who are already dead; in its fusion of realistic and fantastic themes, it was an important influence on later writers.
See study by L. Leal (1983).
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