Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
One of the first things Juan Preciado notices about Comala is that it's hot. He tries to complain about it with his guide, Abundio, but Abundio basically tells him to quit being a wimp, that it could get a lot worse.
In case we have any trouble figuring out what all the heat imagery alludes to, Abundio spells it out for us:
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. (2.31-33)
The idea of hell—with all the poor souls wandering around, the despair, the heat—is totally linked to the location of Comala in this novel. Comala isn't hell: It's worse than hell. Even the name Comala itself is a hot name—the comal is the pan used for heating up tortillas, and its inhabitants are like hotcakes frying over hell.