The Underdogs: Book Review

Jake Mozena

HST 368-001

Dr. Mehl

March 25, 2015

The Underdogs: Book Review

        This novel, more than others, can easily be placed within the social timeline of the Mexican Revolution. The author Mariano Azuela, was a rather educated man that grew up on a small farm with his father. He practiced medicine and after receiving his masters went to work in his field of study, but because of his humble beginnings, Azuela preferred to doctor the poor populations. I am glad that I had read some background information about the author regarding his life and what some of his experiences were prior to writing the Underdogs, which was only one of about twenty novels that he had written regarding the Mexican Revolution. I believe that the Underdogs has been his most successful book because it related to his own experience, quite literally in some instances throughout the book. I believe that in order to make the fictional novel much more realistic and closer to home, Azuela placed himself within the novel as Luis Cervantes because he himself was educated and also practiced medicine, oddly similar to Mariano Azuela’s position.^[1] This novel is particularly important within the body of literature about the Mexican Revolution because it gives an accurate first-hand account of the experiences that the revolutionary fighters endured and conquered.

        Azuela goes into detail about the social life in Mexico but also the social interactions among the revolutionary fighters, this particular group fighting in the north for Pancho Villa just as Mariano had done himself during the years leading up to the Underdogs. The doctor even mentions multiple women throughout the novel who had evident effects on the men as well as the relations within the group, examples being Camila and War Paint.^[2] The main protagonist, Demetrio Macías was an Aztec Indian who had an identity crisis during the novel with made him disillusioned, just as Azuela became after serving for the Mexican Revolution, and as a result his band of rebels became disorderly and lacked a clear goal.^[3] This is why the book ended with Demetrio aiming his rifle at Federales, spending his last moments fighting for a revolution that he sees no end to.^[4]