“¡Diles que no me maten, Justino!” (Tell them not to kill me, Justino!). Juan Rulfo’s story opens with these words. It belongs to his collection El Llano en llamas, published by the Fondo de Cultura Económica in 1953.
Juvencio Nava is tied to a post, about to be shot. Decades earlier, he killed his compadre, don Lupe Terreros. The colonel who holds him is don Lupe’s son. Juvencio begs his son Justino to go and plead for him. “Diles que lo hagan por caridad” (Tell them to do it out of charity). The colonel, heard only as a voice, refuses, and Juvencio is shot.