The Underdogs By Marians Azuela Summary

In The Underdogs, Mariano Azuela alludes to the immediate motivations and long-term causes of the Mexican Revolution. Introducing readers to a motley crew of rebels, the novel characterizes the protracted struggle as a fight between “the poor” and the avaricious Mexican elites who transformed the “blood, sweat and tears” of the masses into “gold.” While Azuela intended to provide a mere subjective account, his description here is largely corroborated among the greater historical literature. The precipitous growth of the Mexican Revolution began once President Porfirio Diaz declared his victory at the polls, despite previously promising not to seek reelection. However, while Diaz’s decision was the catalyst for the revolution, Mexicans seized

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mexicans at the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company were paid far less than their American counterparts who disproportionately occupied managerial roles. Meanwhile, textile workers in Orizaba, many of them children, were “poorly paid” and put through exhausting twelve-hour shifts. Similar to their agrarian countrymen, these industrial workers often received credit for food at the company store. Effectively, this system allowed the company owners, who were often foreigners, to steal back a portion of the crummy wages they had already paid the Mexican laborers. Naturally, these inequitable economic relations culminated in a series of uprisings. Deploying rurales who indiscriminately shot and killed protesting workers, Diaz proved himself unwilling to address the pervasive issues throughout the country. Diaz’s refusal to address the foreign ownership of domestic industry and the abysmal labor conditions, would result in a mounting desire for a new national

Not only did Mexican workers receive “silver pesos” as American laborers received “gold dollars,” but their government welcomed the foreign investment in Mexican industry that exacerbated this problem. Effectively surrendering national autonomy, Diaz allowed foreign countries to represent “97% of investment in mining, 98% in rubber, and 90% in oil.” The regime’s policy, resulted in a mounting desire for a reassertion of Mexican identity and sovereignty. Revolutionaries like Jose Vasconcelos wrote impassioned, nationalistic rebukes of liberalism, using language vaguely reminiscent of the language employed by Jose Morelos a century earlier. Arguing that new Mexican institutions should be based on “our blood, our language, and our people,” Vasconcelos argued for the same form of “sovereignty” as Morelos, one that “emanate[d] directly from the People.” According to Octavio Paz, Vasconcelos believed that post-Diaz Mexico should render all painters, writers, teachers, and architects part of a singular nation. Moreover, while intellectuals like Vasconcelos envisioned a strong Mexican identity, Francisco Madero sought to remove the chains of foreign investment which hindered the autonomy of the nation. As the son of a wealthy northern rancher, Madero argued that Diaz’s concessions to foreign companies “translated into direct losses