Juan Rulfo – 20th-century Mexican writer, author of Pedro Páramo and The Burning Plain, a pioneer of Latin American prose. His works fuse magical realism with stark rural reality, evoking silence, death, and solitude. He deeply influenced Gabriel García Márquez and the Latin American literary boom.
📖 His novel Pedro Páramo (1955) became a landmark of magical realism, though first published in only a few thousand copies. 🌵 He grew up in rural Jalisco, which shaped his themes and imagery. 🖋 Wrote just one novel and one short story collection, yet secured global fame. 🎬 Worked for years in Mexico’s film archives and as a screenwriter. ✨ Gabriel García Márquez said without Rulfo he couldn’t have written One Hundred Years of Solitude. 🌎 Pedro Páramo has been translated into 30+ languages and ranks among the greatest 20th-century novels. 📚 His works are standard study material in Mexican schools and universities. 💔 Orphaned young during the Mexican Revolution and Cristero War, he carried that loss into his writing. 😂 Fun fact: he joked his brevity came from “laziness and wanting each word to carry weight.”