The Underdogs by Marizno Azuela. Provides a personal view of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through the eyes of Francisco Villa's personal physician.

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The Underdogs provides a personal view of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The author, Mariano Azuela, served as a doctor with Francisco Villa's famed Division of the North, "Los Dorados." He criticizes the folly and brutality of the Underdogs as well as the cynicism and venality of Los Ricos. With this insight, he incorporates his firsthand knowledge of the revolution into this story. The novel is made up of two main characters, Demetrio Macias and Luis Cervantes, that represent differing views of the revolution itself. These two main characters represent Azuela's own feelings for the revolution. As the novel progresses, the reader is able to acquire a sense of what a revolution does to a person or group of people involved in it.

Macias and his band of revolutionaries at once attract and repulse you until, at the novel's end, the reader understands how bitterly disillusioned Azuela had become with the likes of the generals and foot soldiers who turned their noble cause into a pretext for their own personal gain.

Thus, the revolution implodes upon the idealists who gave her birth and, in the end, the generals and foot soldiers of the revolution become consumed by the same base impulses that once fueled their enemies. Alberto Solis, often regarded as Azuela's spokesman in the book, compared the revolution to a hurricane, stating "if you're in it, you're not a man...you're a leaf, a dead leaf, blown by the wind."

Cervantes exclaimed that, "The revolution benefits the poor, the ignorant, all the unhappy people who do not even suspect that they are poor because...the rich who rule them, change their sweat and blood into tears and gold...." This passage is valuable because it gives the reader a clear picture of the ideals that Cervantes represents. Cervantes has...