The Underdogs: With Related Texts Book

A novella set in Mexico during the Revolution of the early 20th century. I didn't know anything about the author before reading the book, but seemingly he had been a military doctor with the rebel army of "Pancho" Villa, and during rest periods he made notes about incidents he had witnessed. I assume some of these were incorporated into the novel.

The two main characters are Demetrio Macías, initially the leader of a group of about 20 bandits, who later becomes a general in one of the revolutionary armies; and Luis Cervantes, a young doctor who has deserted from the Federal army. Macías is an Indian peasant - the author calls him an "Aztec". Cervantes pretends to be a convert to the revolutionary cause, although in reality he deserted the government army for personal reasons. Demetrio is completely uneducated but ferocious in battle and skilled in tactics.

One of the main themes of the book is that Demetrio's band do not become revolutionaries out of political conviction. Mostly they became outlaws almost by accident - by getting drunk and fighting with a policeman, or arguing with a landowner, and so on. Becoming a revolutionary allows each man to take back his pride. Early on the author describes the band riding to a new mission:

"The men threw out their chests as if to breathe the widening horizon, the immensity of the sky, the blue from the mountains and the fresh air, redolent with the various odors of the sierra. They spurred their horses to a gallop as if in that mad race they laid claims of possession to the earth. What man among them now remembered the stern chief of police, the growling policeman, or the conceited cacique? What man remembered his pitiful hut where he slaved away, always under the eyes of the owner or the ruthless and sullen foreman, always forced to rise before dawn, and to take up his shovel, basket, or goad, wearing himself out to earn a mere pitcher of atole and a handful of beans?"

On the other hand, the bandits/revolutionaries have the traditional hatred of the peasant for educated "city men". Whenever the group captures a town, they take great delight in robbing, beating, humiliating and murdering the inhabitants. They loot everything they can and destroy everything they can't. If they have a philosophy it's simply one of revenge against the rich, the educated, and the town dwellers. They seek to live simply by plunder.

It's a compelling novel, but I should warn the reader that it's full of descriptions of cruelty and sadism. The author gives us a vision of a sort of Hobbesian anarchy, where the only laws are those of the gun and the fist, and where the most violent people in society are free to do whatever they want. It's a nightmarish vision, but I don't doubt its accuracy. After all, Azuela was there.