Gustavo Pellon’s translation of Mariano Azuela's The Underdogs is a fictional story of the Mexican Revolution that occurred from 1910-1915. The story takes place in small villages and cities of Mexico. The main character, Demetrio Macias, is an Indian peasant who becomes a rebel against the corrupt government that is under the rule of Victoriano Huerta. Macias abandoned his family when the soldiers come after him in his home.
He joins a rebel army led by Pancho Villa and he eventually becomes a general. They are just one of the few armies rebelling against the Huerta government. They demonstrate compassion for the peasant people not only by defending them, but provide basic needs, even by the means of taking from the rich to give to the poor. Luis Cervantes joins the rebel army after deserting the government because he sympathizes with the peasants. His
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actions are much less violent and he focuses more on stealing from the rich. The rebels cause Huerta to seek exile where he ends up in Spain and the rebellions move into Mexico City.
Conflict begins to arise between the Villa and Carranza armies. The rebels begin to act much like the soldiers they had fought. They began excessive drinking, became violent to their own men and even killed their own men.
They may have defeated the government, but a different war began among the rebellion armies. During this time, Macias loses Camilla, his lover who he met after a battle with the government as she nursed his injury. He returns to be with his family with weakening hope for peace and he ends up dying at the very same place he began to his fight.
Although fictional, The Underdogs depict the hard truth of the Mexican Revolution in a country that to this day is experiencing corruption and tragedy. Azuelo was one of the first authors to write about the chaos and corruption in Mexico. His experience as a doctor within the army of Julian Medina, Villa’s general, helped him to describe the madness within the country. It is just too bad that his work only described the situation and didn’t change
it. Azuelo brings readers into the scary world of Mexico’s wars and corruption, but it this did not compare to Caleb Carr’s "The Alienist". A fictional story about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychiatrist, who analyzes murders in a way no other investigator had done before. The story takes place in New York City during 1896. Brutal murders of young immigrant boys are occurring. It is apparent there is a serial killer roaming the streets. Kreizler had studied psychological and forensic profiling and was eager to apply them to the cases. During this time, the police department wasn’t too keen on his theories and how he viewed the mentally ill. Kreizler didn’t approve of the way the New York Police department conducted their investigations by falsifying past crime reports. However, it Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt that requests his college classmates, Kreizler and John Moore, a New York Times reporter, to investigate. Kreizler and Moore work to collect evidence and analyze crime scene evidence with their new techniques. The story gets scarier as Kreizler begins to make progress in his profiling. He realizes that the suspect is not only disturbed but smart. It’s apparent that the suspect is watching them because he manages to stay a step ahead of them. The NYPD still conducted their investigation but Roosevelt kept this separate from Kreizler and Moore’s work. Sara Howard, a police department secretary, servce as as a liaison between both investigations. Kreizler's intimidating black manservant, Cyrus, and a street urchin who he's reforming, Stevie.
Starting with the first chapter, Deverell examines the racial and ethnic violence that took place in the wake of American defeat. In no more than thirty years or so, ethnic relations had appeased and the Mexican people were outnumbered quickly (as well as economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised), as the second chapter discloses. The author examines a variety of topics to further his case but the most compelling and captivating sections of the book come into the third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter focuses its attention
The Underdogs is an amazing book about kids overcoming many challenges during their football season. Will Tyler, one of the best running backs for his age, is truly passionate about football. He tries to make a football team after the city he lives in, Forbes, says they can’t fit a 12 year old football team and equipment into the budget. This is only one example of the many conflicts that Will Tyler overcomes.
...e live seem to be too dangerous for them to fell happy. However, they are against the evil and violence, ignorance and lie. Corchado is quite unsure about the future of Mexico, but he also sees that these people are strong willed and they have chance to make some change in the way they live. He doesn’t pay attention to politics, instead of that he relies solely on people, their courage and strong will. We should all be so strong enough to change, what we want to change, and preserve what we need to preserve. Alfredo Corchado showed us the example of how brave hearted a person should be and how much we should all love our motherland. After reading this book, you won’t remain ignorant about Mexico and the journalism in general.
Mr. Singletary has been remarkably successful, despite the brevity of his book, in describing with important details the Mexican War. The book can be break into two main parts. The first part gives background which explains different reasons that played a decisive role for the break out of the war, and it relates the different campaigns that allowed the invasion of northern Mexico and the city of Mexico. The second half of the book deals with the way politician and generals behave during the war, and the book ends touching the role played by diplomacy in this war.
Death of course by assassination planned by El Jeffe’s forces that was skillfully carried out to make it look like a tragic accident. Of course it was no coincidence to anyone, it was meant by Trujillo to intimidate potential followers of the ever rising rebellion. Their fight to the end showed how they were proud and willing to fight for the better life and brake the chains of living in oppression. They proved they would not tolerate living miserably under an unjust government and this was truly inspiring. This is a genuine and desirable trait that they held strongly, and it gained them due respect and honor.
These men had returned with the news of a Spanish outpost with the name Las Guasimas. By afternoon of the same day the Rough Riders had been order to head out to the location of Las Guasimas and eliminate all opposition and secure the surrounding area, the men would camp outside the outpost then attack the next morning. For started, the Rough Riders were at a disadvantage, they were not accustom to the dense jungles of Cuba in which they were fighting in, and did not know the jungles trails like the Spanish did. Yet the next morning the attack commenced, with General Young, commander of the cavalry and regulars, attacked the outpost straight on.
By April of 1915, Villa had set out to destroy Carranzista forces in the Battle of Celaya. The battle was said to be fought with sheer hatred in mind rather than military strategy, resulting in amass loss of the Division del Norte. In October of 1915, after much worry about foreign investments, in the midst of struggles for power, the U.S. recognized Carranza as President of Mexico. When Pancho Vill...
The character of Demetrio Macias proves to be quite ironic. One facet of his character reveals his determination to find Pancho Villa’s army, while the other side of his character parallels the extraordinary qualities Pancho Villa had as a hero. People viewed Pancho Villa as a revered hero who pushed out foreign "proprietors" and fought for the common man. On one hand, there is the compassionate man who helped those in need and rescued orphans providing them with food, education, and a home. On the other hand, there was the ferocious general who destroyed villages and killed innocent victims. Villa was generous and helpful to his followers, of which he insisted on loyalty and trust, but to those who violated his trust and authority, he was merciless and cruel. We can clearly see the similarities of these two leaders when we analyze their noble actions. Demetrio’s reluctance to stop ...
Again, this is not a particularly positive book. Sometimes this is a result of their rather uncouth personalities, but their actions speak much more loudly about how repugnant they can be. It should be noted that this is not a story of corruption; characters show disconcerting behavior very early on in the book, when they still have relatively little power. When Luis Cervantes first defects, Macías decides to test his innocence by threatening to kill him and having one of his men rob a priest to steal his clothing so as to trick Luis into confessing if his defection is genuine . Macías is under no duress when he makes this decision, has no limit on the amount of time to think and could have made any number of other decisions but instead chooses immediately resort to crime to solve his problems. One of his later companions in the revolution, Towhead Margarito, is portrayed as criminally insane. He captures a random government solider with the intent of using him as a personal slave and tortures him by dragging him by a noose across a desert and eventually killing him by refusing to give him food or water . Azuela uses Macías and Margarito to show how many of the participants in the Mexican revolution where ultimately little more than bandits using the revolution for their own amusement. Even Luis Cervantes, who supposedly joined the revolution for purely ideological reasons, is shown to take
In 1910, the first social upheaval of the 20th century was unleashed in Mexico. Known as the Mexican Revolution, its historical importance and impact inspired an abundance of internationally renowned South American authors. Mariano Azuela is one of these, whose novel, "The Underdogs" is often described as a classic of modern Hispanic literature. Having served as a doctor under Pancho Villa, a revolutionary leader of the era, Azuela's experience in the Revolution provides The Underdogs with incomparable authenticity of the political and social tendencies of the era between 1910 and 1920. The Underdogs recounts the living conditions of the Mexican peasants, the corruption of the government troops, and the revolutionary zeal behind the inspiring causes of the revolution. In vivid detail and honest truth, Azuela reveals the actuality of the extent of turmoil that plagued Mexico and its people during the revolution. However, before one can acknowledge The Underdogs as a reflection of the Mexican Revolution one must have an understanding the political state of Mexico prior to the Revolution and the presidents who reigned during it.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...
Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. Print.
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
As the second part of this assay, I want to focus on gypsies since they construct an other culture other than the inhabitants of Macondo. To find out the importance of this distinct, nomadic gypsy culture will enable the reader to make a comparison between gypsies and their contact with civilization, and Buendia family and their failure within their solitude. In other words, by comparing gypsies and Buendias, the reader will be able to get some important clues about Buendias' failure. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the Nobel Prize wining author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" of 1982.
Fuentes makes this book interesting by having a dying man, Artemio Cruz, reflect on his life during the revolution. This book provided me with many new insights during this time period. It showed me that racism and hatred still exist when Regina was killed. This book also shows me how the different sides of the revolution acted. The two commanders, Carranza and Huerta differed while Cruz was following or fighting them. The federates were more ruthless than Carranza and the Constitutionalist. The historical problem raised is the revolution. Fuentes’ representation of the date was semi-accurate. He provided some useful details, such as stating Herta was the opponent and he killed Madero. Other than that information, Fuentes fictionalial representation was not useful or accurate. He lacked to state vital information about both the sides fighting and research on the topic was needed to understand what was going on. Fuentes also made up people who were suppose to represent generals and leaders and made it hard to understand. Fuentes did a good job in the creativity aspect of this book, but lacked crucial information for this book to make sense. I would recommend this book to individuals interested in this time period. I would not recommend this book to people uninterested in this topic, because it would leave them bored and confuzed. In short, Carlos Fuentes is a deceased Mexican novelist and essayist, who has received many awards for his writing including this one. Fuentes didn’t really have a political party; although, he has being described as a moderate liberal. Fuentes believed in justice and basic human rights, regardless of political parties (Depalma). He mostly criticized all the different types of parties. He criticized the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which was the government form for most of his life.