Voice, Authority and the Destruction of Community in Cré na Cille (The Dirty Dust) by Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

This chapter presents a comparative analysis of the novel El gallo de oro, written in 1958 and published for the first time in 1980, and its two cinematic adaptations: El gallo de oro, directed by Roberto Gavaldón in 1964, and El imperio de la fortuna, directed by Arturo Ripstein in 1986. It analyzes the presence of Rulfo in both films, the fidelity of both films to the source material, the similarity of expression, the diverging and overlapping thematic concerns. The chapter assesses the ways in which the literary quality and ideological depth of Rulfo’s work have been transposed in the filmic adaptations. Although Ripstein’s version maintains the main thrust of Rulfo’s plot, he does introduce substantial variations in the characterization of the protagonists. A life governed by chance is an unsettling way of accepting that, with regard to destiny, free will counts for nothing; a kind of fatalism converts ‘history’ into a cyclical process from which one cannot escape.