Published in 1915, Mariano Azuela's book "The Underdogs" is regarded as the most influential account of the Mexican Revolution. The brief book succeeds in capturing the compelling trials of Demetrio Macias, an Indian peasant leader who struggles on his journey and typifies the general difficulties that people in the Mexican Revolution encountered. Mariano successfully conveys the characteristics of Villismo, which were crucial in influencing the revolution's action, throughout the entire book.
Villismo fostered a variety of people in the neighborhood based on the socioeconomic structure, and both of these groups were crucial in influencing the course of the Mexican revolution. There existed a small band group of rebels, who lived in the mountains and were hardened by the hardship of life in Villismo. The group lived in an abandoned setup, and this condition allowed them to fight the government forces thus sparking the Mexican revolution (Azuela, 34). There also existed a group of learned individuals that gained knowledge in various fields such as medicine, and their skills were applied during the revolution. For instance, when Demetrio fled from town and joined the band in the mountains, he was shot while trying to fight the government soldiers and was shot in the leg. A woman named Camilla, who learnt the skill of medicine in Villismo was the one who treated Demetrio.
Furthermore, Azuela also illustrates the revolutionary nature of Villismo through depicting the scenes of the military life and the battles that occurred during this period. It is evident that Villismo was revolutionary in propagating the social transformation through accommodating different war groups and battles that resulted in the revolutionary war.
Based on the geographical structure, Villismo was made up of a valley that was used to create two contrasting periods of time. During the journey of Demetrio to Juchipila, he passed through the valley, which took him two days to move across it (Azuela, 43). The days that Demetrio took to go across the valley provided him a backdrop of the difficulties that the Mexicans were going through during the revolutionary period. The novel also mentions Azuela’s passage through the valley, which enabled him to construct different periods where the people and the valley itself represented the future course of events. In addition, Villismo was a fertile land that allowed Demetrio to practice farming in his early years of life. Based on its fertility, Villismo provided a source of food for the Mexicans and provided them with the strength to fight for the revolution.
The setup of Villismo created a world composed of uncivilized and natural individual that managed to coexist in the same locality. The contrasting set of groups casually identified through the band and the local individuals managed to create different military forces that collided in reasoning. The band soldiers were segregated in the community and aimed at fighting the government soldiers with the aim of overthrowing the government. The villa soldiers could also be used as a basis for judging the General Villa in this novel. Since the villa soldiers encompassed a logic of violence, the overall society could, therefore, be assumed to possess the radical military mythology and culture. Through the soldiers, we can identify a culture of war that triggered the Mexican revolution. In addition, the culture of war will also be integrated in future to refer the Mexicans with the war culture.
Works Cited
Azuela, M. The Underdogs. Mexican publisher, 1915, pp. 1-149.
