Los De Abajo Analysis

Los de Abajo, the realistic portrayal of those involved in the Mexican Revolution? After only reaching a small audience with serialised publications of Los de Abajo, the importance of the novel and author, Mariano Azuela, only became apparent in the 1920’s. The rugged nature of the narrative in the novel proved to be something different to the norm of the romanticised literature that had been published regarding the revolution. A testimonial view provided by an eyewitness account offered ‘mexicanidad’ and a realistic snapshot of life in that era. Azuela writes all from memory and draws from his real life witnessing of the Mexican revolution, thus all the characters are somewhat an indication to the people that were involved. Therefore it is

Kumaraswami (2007) identifies that the females presented are stereotypical in their nature; this is to say that they either exist in the domestic atmosphere or that they have lost their purity due to being forced into the revolution. Although Camila and Pintada are complete opposites, the similarity lays in the fact that they both fit different parts of society at that time: “En combinación, forman una síntesis de dos extremos irreconciliables que se le presentan a la mujer mexicana y entre los cuales tiene que escoger” (Clark, 1980). In this sense, the mexican women were in two different situations, those who wished to remain traditionalistic and those who sought self-advancement through the likes of previously considered male characteristics. One can see the traditional character through Camila, Azuela has ensured that initially Camila would fit the traditional role of the female, caring, weak, and doting to the men’s needs. Thus Camila seems to be a flat stereotypical character that is expected to appear in novels of this era if women were to appear at all. Nevertheless, the character of Camila becomes more dynamic as Los de Abajo develops, thus she becomes more of an indication as to how women involved in the revolution did not remain ‘sana y buena’. On the contrary, the almost paradoxical characteristics of Pintada seem to confuse Azuela. Pintada is an emasculated character but only in the sense of

This was likely due to the confusion of power that these ladies could have: ‘a reflection of military thinking, which seeks to use women when necessary but yet keeps them marginal in what is essentially a male preserve’ (Salas, 1990). The main two labels for female ‘revolucionarias’ that appear within the Mexican Revolution are: ‘soldadera’ and ‘soldada’. The differences between these indicate the corresponding respect that the labelled female maintained. Therefore, “Camila is the epitome of the benign soldadera: a helpmate and companion to Demetrio. In contrast, Pintada embodies the active and malevolent soldada” (Baker, 2012). These two given labels show how each of these characters and stereotypes were viewed in this period. Camila, is only a helper to the revolution, not taking part in any of the actual activites and just aiding the male. On the other hand, Pintada takes an active role within the fighting, looting and other activities giving her the respect of being a soldier and not just a carer, which previously most females had been. However, often this respect that Pintada carried was not maintained. When many of the Mexican intellectuals revised these texts after the revolution the fighting was romanticised, thus overtime the thought of women involved in the revolution has become heavily idealised. This idea has led to the label of an ‘Adelita’