The Underdogs

Just as Los Cipreses Creen en Dios personalizes the Spanish Civil War by presenting it through the daily life of the Alvear family of Gerona, Spain, Los de Abajo intensely captures the feeling of the Mexican Revolution by letting us live it through the experiences of Demetrio Macías and his family. I have lived in Mexico, was raised in New Mexico, am very fluent in Spanish, and am part Cherokee. This helps me evaluate the degree to which Azuela grasps the sentiments of the characters he portrays. In my opinion, he does a masterful job on all levels. Even the relative simplicity with which he describes historical and social factors communicates authenticity, in that intelligent but uneducated peasants such as Demetrio did not comprehend the sociological complexity that underlay the Revolution. This is a novel that so deeply moved me that I still recall its last sentence even though I last saw it twenty years ago: "Y Demetrio Macías, sus ojos fijos para siempre, sigue apuntando por el cañon de su fusil." This, in sum, is a very memorable novel.

You have to know something about the Mexican Revolution and, specifically the early period from 1913-1915 to understand this book, because it is aimed at readers who are very familiar with that time period. It explains more clearly than any other book of the time what went wrong with the Mexican Revolution and why it turned out the way it did. The writing style is very innovative for the period in which it's written. It's experimental because it breaks with traditional narrative patterns and is very minimalist at times because it skips over details and presents only little glimpses of what's going on. Azuela chose that style because it conveys the chaos of being in the middle of a revolution, and it also shows the confusion of the characters. Demetrio represents a new trend in fictional characters, because he's got both good and bad qualities. He's not a traditional hero, but he's not a villain either. He's just a confused man who doesn't know what he's fighting for. There is a tragic quality to the story, because people are trapped in patterns they can't break. If you want to understand modern Mexico, this is essential reading. It's not a book you would just sit down and read for fun, but it's worth the effort to read and understand it because it will give you a good feel for what it was like to live in Mexico in the war years.

I do not agree with you teh review given by Vince Cabrera. First of all, although the Laberynth of Solitude is indeed a great book. I consider that Octavio Paz enhanced Los de Abajo. Tell me if I am wrong, but many folkloric characteristics of mexicans are brightly depicted in Los de Abajo. For instance, you may see that macho man behavior in every protagonist of the story; the fact that for many people the mexican revolution was a disoriented fight, and even the bad words that are used... I think this is a very good book. However, I do not recommend it to everyone because understanding it, fully, requires a little bit of mexican cultural immersion to know more deeply what they are talking about. Oh yeah, and interest fact is that one of the protagonist of the story has a MANY similarities compared to Mariano Azuela, many people that this book was something lik eis autobiography. (although he does not explicitely says so)

This is a marvelous book, especially for Gringos who want to understand a major element of the psyche of Mexico. But first, some background. In 1810, when Fr. Hidalgo issued his immortal `Grito del Dolores' that launched Mexico's War of Independence from Spain, the average Mexican was better off than most Americans. The American Revolution, then the French Revolution, ignited the fires of freedom throughout the Americas. Mexico was one of the first to raise the proud banner of freedom. Conservatives fought back, as they did in the 13 Colonies, and turned Mexico into a savage battleground. In the United States, successful Revolutionaries exiled defeated "United Empire Loyalists" to Canada, the Caribbean and England; in Mexico, in one form or another, both factions fought for a century. More than half of Mexico, what is now the US Southwest and California, was lost. The continuous war, plus an invasion by France, plundered Mexico of its wealth. In 1876, Porfirio Diaz imposed order; by 1910, after 34 years of the increasingly brutal Porfiriato despotism, the "underdogs" were ready to explode. In one form or another, Revolution lasted until 1929. Peace finally came to Mexico when the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI) organized a national government and held power until the year 2000, when the presidency was won by Vincente Fox Queseda of the National Action Party (PAN). Los de Abajo, printed in 1915 as a serial in an El Paso newspaper, was the first novel of the Revolution of 1910. It is still the finest description of the mood of people who made the revolution; a blunt description of the sheer joy of total destruction by people who had been crushed until all hope was lost. "Peace is respect for the rights of others," President Benito Juarez had said in the 1860's. The lack of respect for the Underdogs produced the Revolution; no respect, no peace. The central character, Demetrio Macias, when asked by his wife why he fights, tossed a pebble into a ravine and watched it roll to the bottom. Alberto Solis, often regarded as Azuela's spokesman in the book, compared the revolution to a hurricane, "The man who surrenders to it is no longer a man but a miserable dry leaf tossed about by the storm." Azuela writes about the futility of the conflict. A doctor, he served with Francisco Villa's famed Division of the North, "Los Dorados," but he criticizes the folly and brutality of the Underdogs as well as the cynicism and venality of Los Ricos. Once you understand this nihilism, it becomes clear why Mexicans accepted one-party rule and corruption from 1929 until 2000. It also explains why so much hope is now placed on the PAN presidency. Prosperity is a product of freedom; but, there is no freedom without law. Before 1910, the Diaz tyranny was the law; the Revolution forever smashed the laws of tyranny. It takes time to build a new society -- too long and too self-serving for the PRI,

This novel based on Mexican revolution takes you to the start of this century and allows you to live some revolutionary scenes and gives an idea of the way the fight was