THE UNDERDOGS

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela

Mariano Azuela knew firsthand the materials of this novel, for he had served as a military doctor with Pancho Villa's Golden Boys. His vivid account of revolutionary Mexico was first published serially in a small El Paso newspaper. Almost forgotten, it was revived in 1924 and won immediate fame for its author. Pessimism marks this story of “those below”—los de abajo—at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. This is no overall picture of the struggle, but a blending of excitement, cruelty, and beauty as seen through the eyes of a man practically pushed into the struggle, a soldier who fought because the enemy was in front of him. Best known of Azuela's sixteen novels, The Underdogs has appeared in dozens of Spanish editions and has been translated into many languages (Rutherford, 2006).

This favorite story about the Mexican Revolution still merits its international fame. It has literary and sociological worth. Azuela's honesty glitters in it, because he does not overly caricature the Porfirista enemy even while lampooning him. Neither does Azuela spare the hypocrisies of his own side. His characterization is true to life, and his action scenes are fast and clear. Violence, pathos, beauty, and tragedy are etched against Jalisco's night-blackened hills, so that the reader receives an indelible image of revolutionary pageantry with its women soldaderas, bandoliered rebels, uniformed federales, and greedy nouveau riche who muddy the pond of revolutionary ideals. While painting only local vignettes of a nationwide holocaust, The Underdogs presents both the seedy and the inspiring aspects of the entire event (Brushwood, 2005).

The genuine worth of this novel was not recognized until almost a decade after its publication. By the mid-1920's, however, it had been translated into various languages and was considered both a Latin American ...