Novel
The Underdogs
Los de abajo
Mariano Azuela · 1915
Synopsis
Near Juchipila, in Zacatecas, the peasant Demetrio Macías has fallen out with the local cacique; attacked by federal troops, he takes up arms and forms a small band of revolutionaries. Luis Cervantes, a medical student and deserter from the federal army, joins them and tells them about the cause they would be serving. Camila, a young peasant woman, falls in love with Cervantes, and the band becomes caught up in the fighting of the revolution.
Context
The novel first appears as a serial, from October to December 1915, in El Paso del Norte, a newspaper of El Paso, where its author had taken refuge. Revised and expanded, it was published in book form in Mexico City in 1920, then reappeared in 1925 in El Universal Ilustrado, which gave it a wide audience. It is divided into three unequal parts, of twenty-one, fourteen and seven chapters. It has been regarded since 1924 as the novel of the Mexican Revolution.
Who it is for
A short novel in brief chapters, to be read in one sitting; available in French under the title Ceux d'en bas.
Prizes and reception
The reference novel on the revolution of 1910, translated into English as early as 1929 and then into several other languages.
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