Megan Colvin

DP History

Book Review for The Underdogs a Novel of the Mexican Revolution

 The Underdogs a Novel of the Mexican Revolution, was written by Mariano Azuela.

Published in New York, in the year 2008 and consisting of 134 pages.

The Underdogs is considered by some to be “the greatest novel of the Mexican

revolution.” This novel tells the story of a poor, illiterate, modest and peace-loving Indian names

Demetrio Macias who was forced to side with rebels the save his family. He had to show that he

was courageous and earning in order for him to gain a generalship in Pancho Villa’s army. This

is a novel that properly depicts the peasant life style of Mexicans and the limits of political

idealism. Azuela tastefully puts the reader in that time period and tells and engaging story.

Azuela writes about Demetrio Macias who is an Indian forced to be in Pancho Villa’s

army. He is in charge of leading an army to fight against the federal forces of Victoriano Huerta.

Macias is a peace-lover and so when he was leading the group of men through the villages and

they were burning down houses, and stealing property as well as wives was a hard ordeal for

Macias to endure. At the beginning of the novel he fights to change his country, but by the end of

the book he can’t recollect the reason of why he was fighting in the first place. The novel uses a

metaphor of Macias comparing his life to a pebble and throwing it into a canyon. This

symbolizes that he lost sight of his purpose. In the beginning he was fighting to change
injustices. But during his journey Azuela shows that the Revolution did overall improve and got

rid of some inequalities, but it also created new ones.

In my opinion the book is biased to an extent. The author shows compassion for Macias

in the beginning however by the end of the book she is telling the story of how she saw it.

Macias didn’t become any better than the people that he became no better than the people he was

leading and he lost sight of his true purpose which was to fight against inequality. “Look at the

stone, How it keeps going.” The stone falling into what it seemed a bottomless canyon is

referring to the fate of the Mexican Revolution. However, Azuela introduces Macias as a

character who strongly depicts him as a hero to the Mexican Revolution. He seems to have the

same ideals as the enemy, but is hunting down the army of Pancho Villa. He was a man of

power that fueled the Mexican Revolution. Azuela discusses the ideals shared for a new and

better Mexico and also the brutal realities of life and the fact that the Revolution and the violence

becomes harder to contain. The revolution is hard to understand because sometimes it is trying to

better Mexico but at other times when you are part of the war, life at war gradually eats away at

the ideals of the revolution and it’s easy to be sidetracked and forget what it was one was

fighting for in the first place. For example the violence of Macias and his men become ever more

difficult to restrain. And the revolution that people thought was a good thing starts to become

something dark.

This novel was a difficult text for me to get through. It wasn’t catching my attention like

some books have. Azuela did do an excellent job at balancing his own firsthand experiences of

the revolution and the story of Macias. This book is not a memoir or a completely biased

political tract. He depicted the dark and ugly sides as well as the compassionate and bold

political sides. The reader can tell that the author had a lot of passion towards this subject and
depicts truth in the political spectrum. However, 150 pages or so seemed to be a lot to get

through en with the charismatic characters, I just wasn’t able to get into it.

Taking into consideration that the author, Mariano Azuela was in fact a doctor in the

revolutionary army of Julian Medina, one of Pancho Villa’s generals he provided evidence that

the revolution wasn’t what he thought it was going to be. It was dark and vicious. I never knew

much about the Mexican Revolution and this book helped me see the political realism of trying

to make a better Mexico. I haven’t learned much on this subject so just further reading would

help me better understand the true history of the Revolution, the pros and the cons of this time

period.

This book was interesting but wouldn’t have been one of my first choices. It was a nice

story and did resemble truth to the Revolution. The reader could see some of the deepest fears of

people involved in the revolution, and the hope of when the people were promised a radical

political change that occurred during the Mexican Revolution. It was great to hear about heroes

in the Revolution and read about how leaders felt about leading armies through the Revolution,

for example Macias said it was like the stone being thrown into the bottomless canyon.