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Dolores Preciado (Juan’s Mother)
Abundio is an arriero (burro or donkey driver) and illegitimate son of Pedro Páramo who appears twice in the novel, once near the very beginning and once near the very end. At the beginning, Abundio is the first person Juan Preciado meets on the way to Comala. Abundio gives him some essential background information: Comala is abandoned and “sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell,” and Pedro Páramo has been dead for years. Eduviges Dyada later tells Juan that Abundio is deaf, but this did not appear to be the case when Juan met him. Abundio is, however, clearly dead—Juan meets Abundio’s ghost, not the man himself. At the end of the book, agonizing over the death of his beloved wife Refugio, Abundio buys alcohol from Inés and Gamaliel Villalpando. He then wanders to the Media Luna Ranch, where he begs Pedro Páramo for money for Refugio’s funeral and gets in a bloody confrontation with both Pedro and Damiana Cisneros (who’s taking care of Pedro). Abundio appears to kill both Pedro and Damiana, but there are many contradictory ways to interpret this passage—for instance, Damiana may or may not survive, and Pedro appears to die a totally unrelated death in the novel’s next and last fragment. Despite appearing very little in the novel, Abundio is an incredibly important character: he not only slays the novel’s principal villain and guides Juan into the underworld of Comala, but he also serves as a character foil for both Juan and Pedro. Like Juan, Abundio is Pedro’s illegitimate son, seeking a kind of inheritance or recognition from the father who abandoned him. After his wife’s death, Abundio kills Pedro out of despair and fury: he loves his wife so much that he cannot bear the fact that Pedro, who is incapable of genuine love, has ruined everything in Comala and denied him the means to give his wife a decent burial.
Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) Quotes in Pedro Páramo
The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) or refer to Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Fragments 1-12, Pages 3-24
Quotes
“It’s hot here,” I said.
“You might say. But this is nothing,” my companion replied. “Try to take it easy. You’ll feel it even more when we get to Comala. That town sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell. They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket.”
“Do you know Pedro Páramo?” I asked.
I felt I could ask because I had seen a glimmer of goodwill in his eyes.
“Who is he?” I pressed him.
“Living bile,” was his reply.
And he lowered his stick against the burros for no reason at all, because they had been far ahead of us, guided by the descending trail.
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Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124
Quotes
“I need money to bury my wife,” he said. “Can you help me?”
Damiana Cisneros prayed: “Deliver us, O God, from the snares of the Devil.” And she thrust her hands toward Abundio, making the sign of the cross.
Abundio Martinez saw a frightened woman standing before him, making a cross; he shuddered. He was afraid that the Devil might have followed him there, and he looked back, expecting to see Satan in some terrible guise.
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Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) Quotes in Pedro Páramo
The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) or refer to Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Fragments 1-12, Pages 3-24
Quotes
“It’s hot here,” I said.
“You might say. But this is nothing,” my companion replied. “Try to take it easy. You’ll feel it even more when we get to Comala. That town sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell. They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket.”
“Do you know Pedro Páramo?” I asked.
I felt I could ask because I had seen a glimmer of goodwill in his eyes.
“Who is he?” I pressed him.
“Living bile,” was his reply.
And he lowered his stick against the burros for no reason at all, because they had been far ahead of us, guided by the descending trail.
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Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124
Quotes
“I need money to bury my wife,” he said. “Can you help me?”
Damiana Cisneros prayed: “Deliver us, O God, from the snares of the Devil.” And she thrust her hands toward Abundio, making the sign of the cross.
Abundio Martinez saw a frightened woman standing before him, making a cross; he shuddered. He was afraid that the Devil might have followed him there, and he looked back, expecting to see Satan in some terrible guise.
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