The Underdogs Sparknotes

The Underdogs, by Mariano Azuela, is a 1915 novel on the Mexican revolution, which was still ongoing at the time of book’s publication. The novel follows a group of anti-government rebels under the leadership of the peasant Demetrio Macías during the early years of the revolution. The experiences, backgrounds and fates of Macías and the other characters parallel those of the various groups that composed the various pro-government and anti-government factions in Mexico throughout its revolution. Throughout the novel, Azuela tells the story of a country that is in truly dire straits. Mexico is a very lawless country and the people who live in it reflect that. The government forces, known as “Federales”, and the revolutionaries constantly use

violence to act as they please with little or no consequences for their actions. The only people shown to be blameless are the working Mexicans who take no part in the war and yet are still constantly abused the most by both factions.

It should be clear that the novel is not a particularly happy one, while the tone and interactions between the characters is usually very casual and even lighthearted at times; their actions tend to range from shortsighted cruelty to almost comical levels of evil. Few, if any, of the characters are portrayed as sympathetically. While Macías and a few of his companions have good reasons to be upset with the government, the atrocities that they commit during the revolution are rarely in pursuit of the noble goals of the revolution that they fight for. The book’s portrayal of Mexico and its people could easily be seen as critical or even bigoted if not for its author’s own personal experiences in the Mexican revolution. Instead, The Underdogs paints a truthful, if harsh, image of the Mexican revolution, and the people who were responsible for

it.
The story itself is a long overarching allegory for the Mexican revolution. Throughout the book, we start with a small underequipped but very motivated group of peasants fighting the government who eventually grow in size and power to become the dominant force in Mexico until suffering their own fall from power. The real depth comes from the characters that represent the various types of people who made up the revolution. The main character, Demetrio Macías, represents the typical Mexican peasants were abused by the government and formed the backbone of the revolutionary movement as a result of these abuses. The parallel is made obvious when Macías explains how he was made a fugitive from the law for simply spitting on the beard of Don Monico, a local leader or “cacique”, and joined the revolution as a result . While he gains much for himself, Macías’ never makes any lasting achievements and ends book dying with nothing, no more successful in the long-term than any of the other countless peasants who fought in the revolution. In contrast to Macías is his fellow revolutionary Luis Cervantes, an educated defector from the military who represents the Mexican intellectuals who formed the ideology of revolution and fought because they personally believed in it. Cervantes joins the revolutionaries to support their cause but often acts greedy and cowardly, lacking the strength to follow through on his ideology. Like many other intellectuals and upper class leaders in the revolution, Cervantes manages to escape reprisal by moving to another country and even plans on establishing a restaurant in the United States . Camila, a young woman who accompanies the revolutionaries for much of the story, has a role that could easily be overlooked. She represents many of the women who supported the revolution in non-combat roles. Camila is generally portrayed as sympathetic, if a bit uneducated, and helps cooking and tending to several injured characters, common roles that where assumed by women in the Mexican revolution and many other countries in wartime. Despite her good nature, Camila is constantly abused by the other revolutionaries and receives little sympathy from anyone . Like many other women in the revolution, her contributions are ignored and she dies in a pointless manner at the hands of another of Macías’ troops over a matter of petty jealousy, showcasing the plight that many women faced in the revolution . The characters help the story draw parallels with the revolution, but it would be mistaken to assume that they are shown sympathetic and romanticized freedom fighters.
With few exceptions, the characters of the book are portrayed as very unlikable.

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

part in looting and jealously hide a pair of diamonds when looting a house . Cervantes is the author’s way of showing that even many of the leaders and intellectuals behind the revolution could be easily swayed by their more base desires, assuming that they were not using the revolution for their benefit from the very beginning. The lack of sympathy that a reader will feel towards the characters is completely intentional; the characters are a part of Mariano Azuela’s attempts to create a tone that truly captures the darker elements of the Mexican revolution.
Much of the novel is dedicated to painting how dark Mexico has become as a result of the revolution and questioning whether or not it is truly for the better of the country. Little hope for the future of the nation is shown, while there is no shortage of fighting for a better future, no one is seen to be actually doing the necessary state-building and development that the country needs. In an early moment of dramatic irony one of the revolutionaries states exactly how “the so-called revolutionaries were nothing more than a bunch of bandits grouped together under a magnificent pretext just to satiate their thirst for gold and blood” then immediately discards the notion without giving it so much as a second thought . Another revolutionary, Solis a friend of Cervantes, briefly muses how the revolution, like most other uprisings, is ultimately a very chaotic thing; more like a force of nature or a natural disaster than a certain change for the better . Ultimately, the novel argues that revolution is not necessarily a good thing; it’s not necessarily a bad thing either but the chaos and uncertainty inherent in it makes it so that the revolution is not necessarily something to be readily embraced.
Overall, The Underdogs is a truthful telling of the Mexican revolution with some good analysis woven throughout it by the author. The characters provide a solid analogy for the people who fought in the revolution, their motives and their eventual fates. At the same time, they are not romanticized in the slightest and their actions are not presented as morally justified, all the ugly and morally questionable acts of the revolution are laid bare to the reader. Mariano Azuela’s work does not restrain itself in its look at the Mexican revolution, providing a clear and truthful view that is easily accessible to its readers.