Mariano Azuela’s novel “Los de Abajo” Essay

Mariano Azuelas fiction Los de Abajo, titled The Underdogs by Enrique Mungua Jr., in his English translation, has been hailed as the fable of the Mexican revolution. In this refreshing Azuela creates characters representative of the two factions that are at variance, the revolutionaries and the federalists. The refreshing is divided into three parts and severally part subdivided into chapters, the beginning part being the longest and the third being the shortest. Enrique Munguas translation is or so 140 pages in length and many sacrifice noned that this novel is one of Azuelas shortest.The novel is, however, quite kindise and it maintains the reviewers 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 description of the Mexican revolution from the perspe ctive of people who were directly unnatural by and involved in the extremist process.Literally the title of the novel in Spanish Los de Abajo translates to mean those from or at the bottom. This I take is a very appropriate title and in itself captures Azuelas primary coil 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, virtuous decadence and kill so mercilessly that it is no wonder that the rowing of the title Los de Abajo is used in the novel to refer to both the rebels and the federalists. betimes in Part I chapter three when Demetrio led his men into the start-off ambush of the government troops he instructs his men to Get those advance up from under Los de Abajo Get the underdogs be screamed. Later on in chapter 6 t he 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 crank farmer, Demetrio Macias who, after having suffered at the hands of the federalists, decides to join Pancho Villas revolutionary army.A defector of the government army, Luis Cervantes elite and educated, joins Demetrios 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 combat based on ideologies the reader gets an understanding of Azuelas perspective. He, like Cervantes, discard the defend and migrated to the United States after having worked along with Pancho Villa as a armed services doctor beli eving his ideals to have been betrayed.One of the main lessons that Azuela delivers here is germane(predicate) in so many areas of life. His major argument in presenting his novel is that without purpose, focus, planning and proper management, even the most worth age efforts will stir to be futile.The most positive aspect of Azuelas novel is that it was scripted while the struggles in the revolution were still going on. Beginning in 1914 the novel began to be published as a series in a Texas newspaper in installments though it was not until 1925 that it began to gain oecumenic attention.This novel details the differences in the Mexican revolution from the perspective of the germ who himself was a witness of these very events. Prior to moving to Texas, Azuela supported the revolutionary movement by offering his medical services to Pancho Villas army. In such a smirch he was exposed to the ills of the revolutionary battle, to a greater extent so from the perspective of the revol utionaries. Azuela was wherefore in a fitting position to discuss the Mexican revolution because he too had been very about involved in the process.However, while this novel bears relevance to the themes that were facing the Mexicans at the time when they were most involved in the revolution, it fails to give a masterly picture of the revolutionary process. The problem with the novel is precisely because it was written so close to the actual events. This prevents the reader from having a total picture of the in advance, the during and the after of the revolution.In the same way that Demetrios eyes endure leveled in an eternal glance at the end of the novel, so does the battle between the revolutionaries and the federalists give the impression that it will last eternally without fortitude or victory for either side. The tone of Azuelas novel therefore comes off as being very pessimistic. Failure and doom is the unless outcome of the revolutionary struggle and no one seems to b e winning. Azuelas conclusion here seems to be rather generalized.Authors who have written about the revolution subsequent to Azuela have had the benefit of seeing the long-term results of the struggle which revealed much more positive effects than what were immediately obvious while the struggles were still going on.REFERENCESAzuela, Mariano (1963). The Underdogs (Enrique Mungua Jr. Trans.). The U.S.A. Penguin Group. (Original work published 1916).