Critical Review of Mariano Azuela’s The Underdogs
Mariano Azuela’s Los de Abajo, The Underdogs is one of the earliest fictional accounts of the Latin American revolutions. His account is that of an insider having served as a military doctor with the Pancho Villa Boys. This account tells the story of pessimism of the Los de Abajo from the very beginning of the Mexican Revolution. A people have been oppressed for generations and a time just came when they wanted to fight back. The host of all the other characters as used by Azuela are just but a pointer to the themes of the revolution more so the illusion as well as disillusionment that the people were exposed to. The dark side of human beings is equally explored very deeply.
The story revolves around the main protagonist Demetrio and the rest of the rebel group. Demetrio is compelled to join the rebels because he wants to save his family. After becoming a successful soldier, he gets a sizeable group of soldiers who become his friends and together they fight the government forces (Azuela & Pellon 107). They have a sole aim of liberating themselves from the brutality of the rulers yet they use the same brutality themselves but the bottom line is, they are out to fight for the rights of the people. They join in the revolution because they are angered by the cruelty of the policies of the Federales. It does not matter to the peasants that they may be used but it is clear that their anger for the brutality and cruelty of the government is what leads them into the revolution
The aggrieved party in this case is that of the brotherhood whose sole intention is to revenge against the Federales and Huerta. The brotherhood, who are the underdogs are led by the likes of Demetrio Macias, who want to find hope and peace that they have been robbed for very many years. Together with the peasants, there are he likes of Pancho Villa and Zapata who are the main opposition forces that are out to fight the Huerta government. The underdogs, stage a guerrilla revolt against the government and its armies. The fight in this case is between the aggrieve persons who have been mistreated by the government that is supposed take care of them and their needs. It is without a doubt that these people have hopes of using revolutionary tactics to win in order to raise the hopes of finding peace after a war. The likes of Demetrio cannot be cowed by the sergeant and lieutenant and therefore stands to be counted as one of the few men who would later on attack the army and the government. This notwithstanding, the common man found himself at crossroads. They are the ones who found themselves below because at every point of the whole situation, they are under someone no matter who runs the country. Even Demetrio and the rest of the rebels can be said to be the underdogs because they belong to the lowly class in the society.
Azuela has a way of using some of the characters in order to show how the revolution was like. One of the characters that he uses is Blondie, a skilled soldier who tries so much to befriend Demetrio. Blondie is a very cruel soldier and he is nasty to everyone around him. He even goes as far as torturing a man who had been ill treated by Demetrio’s men, he ends up killing him. This notwithstanding, he at least shows his human nature when he feels bad when War Paint’s is not faithful. Honestly, Azuela has a way of showing emotional conflict brought about by the use of such a character like Blondie. One would imagine that he is so unemotional, yet, just like the army and the government, they may be having an ounce of humanity just like him (Linhard 178).
One other character that Azuela uses very well maybe to depict his own position during the revolution is the medical student cum journalist turned revolutionary called Luis Cervantes. He is clearly the stand in for Azuela himself. He joined Demetrio’s group because he claims that he was offended while serving in the Federale army. Maybe the author used him to paint his own story. He had been beaten by the same government that he served and out of bitterness leaves to join Demetrio’s camp. After being exposed to the decay and rot within the revolution, he got disillusioned and chose to fly out of the country to the United States. This is typical of Azuela who left the county to go America at one point in his life. On his part, Cervantes gets an invitation to leave the country and he honors it. Just like Azuela left at some point, he also had to leave and go to the United States
Women were not left behind during the revolution. Even if they were directly involve by participating in the revolution or by merely existing in the minds and thoughts of the rebels. When comparison is done between them and women from other countries, they were active and played quite a number of roles in helping the revolutionaries (Tabea 177). A good example is that of La Pintada. She was a very ruthless fighter who behaved just like men. She fought alongside the men and was treated just like a man. She goes about drinking, smoking and killing people. She posses some attributes which are a bit masculine. Also, women were related to religion too as seen through the example of the Virgin Mother. This therefore shows how important women were during the revolution
At one point, the revolutionaries under Demetrio lose their focus on the real reason why they were involved in the revolution. There are many occasions when Demetrio’s men look up to him and ask for advice but sadly, he has nothing to offer. But the young doctor cum journalist articulates the problems that they have so well and gives them the right answers. Having served in the army and experienced how ruthless the army was, he knew exactly who they were up against and what they wanted out of the war. Cervantes provides the rebels the ambition and purpose of their actions. He encourages the men to continue fighting but yet again, leads to the end of the war by leaving. He gets a business invitation outside Mexico and when he is about to leave, he advices his friend Demetrio to join Juchipila. He served as the voice of reason for not only to Demetrio but also to the other rebels and his departure insinuated that without him, the sanity of the rebel group may have come to an end.
Works Cited
Azuela, Mariano. The Underdogs. Fairfield: 1st World Publishing. 2004
Azuela, Mariano & Pellon, Gustavo. The Underdogs and Related Stories. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishers. 2006
Linhard, Tabea, A. Fearless Women in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. Columbia: University of Missouri. 2005
