Nos han dado la tierra. Palabras como preguntas

The story Nos han dado la Tierra by Juan Rulfo is about 4 farmers who have been given land during the distribution of land ending the revolution. The main problem of this is that they have not received good or fertile soil to be able to grow any crops, a dry land that in a way connotes emptiness and death; ““el llano no es cosa que sirva. No hay conejos, ni pájaros. No hay nada” (p. 9). This story, in a much deeper perspective subtly represents the injustice and oppression Mexican farmers went through in the early 1900s. 

“No decimos lo que pensamos. Hace ya tiempo que se nos acabaron las ganas de hablar” shows how they had barely enough energy to make it to the land and could not waste it on talking. This is most likely not exclusive to this moment in the story but describes the farmers’ lifestyles and the conditions they lived in. Throughout the story it is mentioned their firearms and horses were taken away from them, and even though they are trying to see the bright side about it they were left naked and vulnerable. Farmers had to survive rather than live and were not heard 

Palabras como preguntas witten by Yasnaya Elena talks about the relation between an indigenous woman and feminism. Yasnaya begins to explain the trouble and differences when translating different concepts into a different language. In this case, her mother tongue and spanish with the concept of “indigenous”, saying how they would never identify as “indigenous” per say, but had different words and concepts to refer to other cultures and nations. 

Then goes on to explain how feminism is also a troubling concept for indigenous women at first. They can not quite grasp the meaning or idea of feminism as they are not only being condescended for being women, but also for being indigenous. They find it hard to fight together as women as they do not identify with the women in higher classes who discriminate and condescend them for their roots and culture. 

Mexicans have had and still have a relationship with opression and discrimination (gender and indigenous wise) since its origins. It has been founded on the idea of a higher power and supremacy, built on eurocentrism and discrimination. In both texts the people in power abuse the vulnerable. In Rulfo’s text the government and the people in power are the oppressors and care little for the farmers. In the other text, Palabras como Preguntas, points out the same type of abuse but from mestizos, those most likely in power, towards indigenous people.