The Underdogs

THE UNDERDOGS (Los de Abajo

By Mariano Azuela

NOVEMBER 2006

Mariano Azuela 's novel Los de Abajo , titled The Underdogs ' by Enrique Munguna Jr , in his English translation , has been hailed as the novel of the Mexican revolution . In this novel Azuela creates characters representative of the two factions that are at variance , the revolutionaries and the federalists . The novel is divided into three parts and each part subdivided into chapters , the first part being the longest and the third being the shortest . Enrique Munguna 's translation is about 140

pages in length and many have noted that this novel is one of Azuela 's shortest . The novel is , however , quite entertaining and it maintains the readers ' attention throughout . For anyone interested in a serious study of Mexican history , this is an essential novel to read as it gives a perspective into the social aspects of the revolution that few textbooks can capture . The book has historical significance because it gives a of the Mexican revolution from the perspective of people who were directly affected by and involved in the revolutionary process

Literally the title of the novel in Spanish Los de Abajo ' translates to mean those from or at the bottom . This I believe is a very appropriate title and in itself captures Azuela 's primary argument that he maintains throughout the novel . The revolutionaries and the federalists are constantly juxtaposed against each other in the novel but Azuela , through the eyes of Luis Cervantes , allows the reader to see that the two groups are not that dissimilar . Both factions display distrust , treachery , moral decadence and kill so mercilessly that it is no wonder that the words of the title Los de Abajo ' is used in the novel to refer to both the rebels and the federalists . Early in Part I chapter three when Demetrio led his men into the first ambush of the government troops he instructs his men to "Get those coming up from under ! Los de Abajo ! Get the underdogs " be screamed . Later on in chapter 6 the narrator reflects of Luis Cervantes , on the first night of his joining the revolutionaries , that Did not the sufferings of the underdogs , of the disinherited masses , move him to the core . the subjugated , the beaten and baffled

The events in the novel mirror the Mexican revolution of 1910 . The main plot of the story is that of a peasant farmer , Demetrio Macias who after having suffered at the hands of the federalists , decides to join Pancho Villa 's revolutionary army . A defector of the government army Luis Cervantes - elite and educated , joins Demetrio 's troop because of his support of the ideals he believed the revolutionaries espoused Azuela , however , uses this character as his mouthpiece and , in his disillusionment that the revolutionaries were not fighting based on ideologies the reader gets an understanding of Azuela 's perspective He , like Cervantes , abandoned the struggle and migrated to the United States after having worked along with Pancho Villa as...