Theu.s. Mariano Azuela s The Underdogs ( Los De Abajo )

Mexicans opened the twentieth century with the most drastic action that citizens can take against their government: revolution. The open rebellion against the military dictator Porfirio Dà ­az began in 1910 and led to ten years of violent and destructive warfare within Mexico. When the fighting finally ended, many Mexicans were disillusioned about the revolution as the small political and economic changes that were finally implemented was not worth the senseless violence that wracked Mexico. Mariano Azuela, in his novel The Underdogs (Los de abajo), examines this notable problem of the Mexican Revolution through the narrative of a band of rebel soldiers. Their leader is a poor, illiterate, Indian Demetrio Marcà ­as, with his trusted aide the educated, city-boy, journalist Luis Cervantes. As displayed in The Underdogs, the disillusionment with the revolution resulted from the lack of a clear purpose for the fighting, a charismatic and powerful leader that could unify the rebels, and the lack of major societal change resulting from it. The Mexican Revolution, unlike the French or American Revolution, created disillusionment because there was never a common motive for the various rebel factions to unify under and for average Mexicans to understand why a revolution was necessary. This absence is a notable issue in Azuela’s The Underdogs, where the lack of purpose is evident in Marcà ­as’ band of rebels. After Luis Cervantes is captured by Marcà ­as’ men, he introduces himself as a