“Diles que no me maten” is a famous tale by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) from his short story collection “El Llano en llamas” (1953).
It’s the story of Juvencio Nava who begs his son Justino to stop his execution for killing Don Lupe forty years ago. The conflict arose because Don Lupe wouldn’t let Juvencio graze his cattle on Don Lupe’s land. It turns out that the old man’s prison guard is Don Lupe’s own son.
The story is really about the conflict between land owners and the people who live and work on the land. Much of Latin America is rural and this is problem has deviled us since c0lonizers brought European concepts of property rights and social structures to the Americas.
In Colombia, the colonial Spanish land grants were only broken up in the 1970s by the narcos. In many places across Latin America, the same old families control everything.
“Diles que no me maten” (Tell Them Not to Kill Me)
“Diles que no me maten” (Tell Them Not to Kill Me), a Colombian version of the Mexican story about the conflict between landowners and peasants, is at ID Studio Theater in Mott Haven, The Bronx on December 9 and 17, 2022 at 7:30pm. Free with rsvp docs.google.com 🇲🇽🇨🇴