Pedro Paramo

Dorotea speaks to Juan. She and Donis saw Juan in the town square, and Juan seems to have died from fright. They buried Juan, who believes that he was killed by “the murmuring” (63). Now, Juan is dead.

Despite this, he hears his mother describing her nostalgic memories of Comala. Juan claims to have followed the ghostly voices to the square. There, the voices seemed to be within the walls. He chased after them but then became suddenly cold and scared. He hoped someone would save him, but he was not found until the morning. As Juan felt overwhelmed by the voices, he felt his soul freeze and he felt as though he was dying.

Juan tells Dorotea that he came to Comala to find Pedro Paramo. He had been full of hope, which Dorotea warns is deadly and dangerous, so he will “pay dear for that” (65). Dorotea explains that she came to the town to find a son that she believed to be hidden from her. However, she now understands that this was all a dream. In a good dream, she believed that she had a son. In a bad dream, she was chastised by heavenly angels who told her that she had no son and that she had “the womb of a whore” (66).

By the time of this second dream, however, she was already an old woman. The desertion of Comala had already begun. She decided to stay while most of the townspeople left. Dorotea died in Comala, she says, and now she is buried alongside Juan. When she says that she hears rain, Juan hears a sound above them, almost like footsteps. Dorotea comforts Juan, assuring him that they will be buried together below the ground for “a long time” (67).

In the past, Fulgor hears the song of a mockingbird during a storm. He feels this is an auspicious sign for “another good” (68) harvest in Comala. On his orders, 200 men ride their horses out of Media Luna ranch. Miguel passes Fulgor and makes a comment about his recent sexual exploits. Miguel then visits Damiana Cisneros, the woman who works in the kitchen on the ranch. When Miguel asks Damiana about Dorotea, he is told that Dorotea is outside. After the recent death of her child, Dorotea has taken to cradling a bundle of clothes and “calls it her baby” (69).

Miguel goes out to propose something to Dorotea. He returns and orders Damiana to serve the same food to Dorotea as she serves to him. Outside, Fulgor thinks about the ranch’s shortage of grain. He also worries about the reckless Miguel, who has recently “killed a man” (70). Miguel has left his horse at the front gate of the ranch and has not removed the saddle. Pedro is not concerned about his son’s reckless behavior, even though Fulgor has mentioned it to him many times. When a weeping widow came to the ranch to plead with Pedro for justice, Pedro dismissed her. He does not care that Miguel killed the woman’s husband because the man was one of “those people” (71) and those people do not count. Fulgor stares at the rain, hoping to forget his problems.

In the present, Juan recalls a conversation with his mother about the smell of rain. She talked about the sky over Comala. Now, Juan is bemused that he should come to the town rather than her. He tells Dorotea this and she dismisses his comments about the sky, as she never looks at it. She has long ago given up the idea that she will go to heaven as Father Renteria told her that her sins are unforgivable; she will “never know glory” (72). Without the possibility of reaching heaven, Dorotea sees no reason to live. Juan and Dorotea discuss her soul, which she was eager to abandon when she contemplated suicide.

In the past, Fulgor corrals his men outside the Media Luna ranch. Meanwhile, Pedro remembers when his mother told him about his father’s murder. His death was the first of many. Outside, Fulgor and his men have recovered Miguel’s body that is now “wrapped in old gunneysacks” (74). According to Fulgor, Miguel died alone after falling from his horse. Pedro watches the men carry the body and he feels detached from the world, though he feels “no sorrow” (75). Miguel’s death, he reasons, is an essential act of penitence. Pedro orders the men to kill Miguel’s horse and complains that the women are weeping too loudly. 

Father Renteria recalls “the night Miguel Paramo died” (75). He was sleepless so wandered around the town. Renteria thinks about the strange way in which Pedro took control of Comala. He had sex with many women in the town but always refused to recognize his children. Miguel was the only recognized child, who was brought to Pedro as a baby after the death of his mother in childbirth. Even then, Pedro tried to convince Renteria to raise the boy as a priest. To Renteria, the child seemed to have “bad blood” (76), so he refused. Pedro gave the child to Damiana, and she raised Miguel.

People call out to the wandering priest. They want to know whether a person is dead. Renteria wants to respond that he is “the one who’s dead” (77). He returns home, where his niece Ana tells him that several women called at the house to make a confession. They missed Renteria because he was making a confession of his own in another town. In Contla, the priest refused to offer “absolution” (78) to Renteria after Renteria confessed to the way in which he had allowed Pedro to corrupt the town and the church. The priest told Renteria that he should work hard to protect Comala from Pedro, to the point where he insinuated that Renteria should be excommunicated. Everything grown in the region, the priests agreed, taste “bitter” (79) despite the fertility of the land. These days, Renteria says, everything in Comala has stopped growing. This is due to the wickedness of Pedro, the priest from Contla says. They disagree on whether this is God’s will in action.

Returning to Comala, Renteria talks to Ana. He tells her that he is “a bad man” (80), before leaving for Media Luna to talk to Pedro about Miguel’s death. That evening, he listens to the women’s confessions. Dorotea confesses to him that she drank alcohol and that she “rounded up women” (82) for Miguel. She cannot forgive herself; Renteria agrees, telling her that her sins cannot be pardoned. She will not go to heaven. Renteria listens to the other confessions but grows dizzy. He feels sick, so he delays the remainder of the confessions until the next day.