{"product_id":"the-underdogs-isbn-9780143105275","title":"The Underdogs","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution, in a brilliant new translation by an award-winning translator\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is the first great novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century. Demetrio Macias, a poor, illiterate Indian, must join the rebels to save his family. Courageous and charismatic, he earns a generalship in Pancho Villa’s army, only to become discouraged with the cause after it becomes hopelessly factionalized. At once a spare, moving depiction of the limits of political idealism, an authentic representation of Mexico’s peasant life, and a timeless portrait of revolution, \u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is an iconic novel of the Latin American experience and a powerful novel about the disillusionment of war.“Mariano Azuela, more than any other novelist of the Mexican Revolution, lifts the  heavy stone of history to see what there is underneath it.” —\u003cb\u003eCarlos Fuentes, from the Foreword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is not only a novel of the Mexican Revolution, but also of our own contemporary madness, and Sergio Waisman’s translation captures its full force and fervor.” —\u003cb\u003eSandra Cisneros\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An essential book for Mexico, about the first revolution of the twentieth century. Mariano Azuela’s pen is a warm gun, and Sergio Waisman’s translation, introduction, and notes are as vivid, well aimed, and sharp as the gunshots in the battle.” —\u003cb\u003eElena Poniatowska\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMariano Azuela \u003c\/b\u003e(1873–1952) studied medicine in Guadalajara and served during the revolution as a doctor with the forces of Pancho Villa, which gave him firsthand exposure to the events and characters that appear in \u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSergio Waisman \u003c\/b\u003e(translator, notes) is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Award and is a professor of Spanish at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eCarlos Fuentes\u003c\/b\u003e (1928–2012, foreword) is the author of more than twenty books and the recipient of many awards, including Mexico’s National Prize in Literature, the Cervantes Prize, and the inaugural Latin Civilization Award. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTitle Page\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCopyright Page\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eForeword\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePART 1\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXIV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXVI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXVII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXVIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXIX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXXI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePART 2\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eX\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXIV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePART 3\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eV\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVI\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVII\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePENGUIN CLASSICS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE UNDERDOGS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMARIANO AZUELA (1873-1952), the most prolific novelist of the Mexican Revolution and the author of its most important novel, was born in a small city in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. He studied medicine in Guadalajara and served during the revolution as a doctor with the forces of Pancho Villa, which gave him firsthand exposure to the events and characters that appear in\u003ci\u003e The Underdogs.\u003c\/i\u003e Azuela is buried in the Rotonda de Hombres Ilustres, Mexico’s equivalent of Westminster Abbey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSERGIO WAISMAN has translated Ricardo Piglia’s\u003ci\u003e The Absent City,\u003c\/i\u003e for which he received a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Award, and three books for Oxford University Press’s Library of Latin America series. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e Borges and Translation: The Irreverence of the Periphery\u003c\/i\u003e and the novel\u003ci\u003e Leaving,\u003c\/i\u003e and is an associate professor of Spanish at The George Washington University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCARLOS FUENTES is the author of more than twenty books, including \u003ci\u003eThis I Believe, The Death of Artemio Cruz,\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e The Old Gringo.\u003c\/i\u003e His many awards include the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, the National Prize in Literature (Mexico’s highest literary award), the Cervantes Prize, and the inaugural Latin Civilization Award. He served as Mexico’s ambassador to France from 1975 to 1977 and currently divides his time between Mexico City and London.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePENGUIN BOOKS\u003cbr\u003ePublished by the Penguin Group\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,\u003cbr\u003eOntario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,\u003cbr\u003eVictoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre,\u003cbr\u003ePanchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand\u003cbr\u003e(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,\u003cbr\u003eRosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:\u003cbr\u003e80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis translation first published in Penguin Books 2008\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTranslation copyright © Sergio Waisman, 2008 Foreword copyright © Carlos Fuentes, 2008 All rights reserved\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos de abajo\u003c\/i\u003e published in the United States of America in 1915.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN : 978-1-4406-3852-7\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCIP data available\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means\u003cbr\u003ewithout the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only\u003cbr\u003eauthorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy\u003cbr\u003eof copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eForeword\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Revolutions begin fighting tyranny and end fighting themselves. ” So said Saint-Just, the French revolutionary who in 1794 was guillotined in the combat between the factions once united against the monarchy. Is this the fate of all revolutionary movements? It does seem to be the case: Russia, China, Cuba. The United States completed its exclusive 1776 revolution and faced Shays’ Rebellion only through civil war and battles over civil rights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Mexican Revolution (1910-20 in its armed phase) began as a united movement against the three decades of authoritarian rule of General Porfirio Díaz. Its democratic leader, Francisco Madero, came to power in 1911 and was overthrown and murdered in 1913 by the ruthless general Victoriano Huerta, who promptly restored the dictatorship and was opposed by the united forces of Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, and Francisco “Pancho” Villa in the north and those of the agrarian leader Emiliano Zapata in the south. But when Huerta, defeated, fled in 1915, the revolution broke up into rival factions. Zapata and Villa came to represent popular forces, agrarian and small town, while Carranza and Obregón were seen as leaders of the rising middle class that Díaz had suffocated under the patrimonialist regime of huge haciendas using low-paid peon labor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMariano Azuela (1873-1952) was a country doctor who joined first Carranza, then Villa. In 1915, right in the middle of the war, he sat down and wrote a disenchanted tale of revolution sprung from one man’s experience. A chronicle, a novel, a testimony,\u003ci\u003e The Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is all of this, but above all it is a degraded epic, a barefoot\u003ci\u003e Iliad\u003c\/i\u003e sung by men and women rising from under the weight of history, like insects from beneath a heavy stone. Moving in circles, blinded by the sun, without a moral or political compass, they come out of darkness, abandoning their homes, migrating from hearth to revolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe people of Mexico are “the armies of the night” in Azuela’s book. They give the reader the impression of a violent, spontaneous eruption. But be warned. The immediacy that Azuela brings to the people is a result of the long mediacy of oppression: half a millennium of authoritarian rule by Aztec, colonial, and republican powers. If this weight of the past at least partly explains the brutality of the present, it applies not only to the mass of the people but also to the protagonists, the leaders, the individuals that Azuela thrusts forward: the revolutionary general Demetrio Macías and the revolutionary intellectual “Curro” Cervantes, accompanied by a host of supporting players. Like the people, Macías and Cervantes are heirs to a history of authoritarian power and submission. But if the rebellious mass is moving, however blindly,\u003ci\u003e against\u003c\/i\u003e the past, Macías and Cervantes are\u003ci\u003e repeating\u003c\/i\u003e the past. They are rehearsing the role of the Indian, Spanish, and republican oppressor, Macías on the active front and Cervantes on the intellectual side. They both see Mexico as their personal patrimony. They want to be fathers, judges, teachers, protectors, jailers, and, if need be, executioners of the people, but always in the name of the people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e thus presents us with a wide view of the social, political, and historical traits of Mexico and, by extension, of Latin America: it is a degraded epic but also a chronicle of political failure and of aspiring nationhood. There are no Latin American novels prior to independence in the 1820s. I might say that it is the nation that demands its narration, but also that narration needs a nation to narrate. This, indeed, links the origins of both the North American and Latin American novel. Whatever they actually are, they first appeared along with “the birth of the nation.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe novel is a critical event. Religion demands faith, logic demands reason, politics demands ideology. The novel demands criticism: critique of the world, along with a critique of itself. While literature and the imagination are deemed superfluous (especially) in satisfied societies, the first thing a dictatorship does is to censor writing, burn books, and exile, imprison, or murder writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDo we need authoritarian repression to demonstrate the importance of literature, the critical freedom of words and the imagination? I cannot separate Azuela’s moral and literary significance from the fact that he drew a critical portrait of the Mexican revolutionary movement as it was happening, setting a standard of critical freedom that has prevailed in my country in spite of seven decades of authoritarian rule by a single party. There has been repression in Mexico—of political parties, individuals, unions, agrarian movements, journalists—but writers have maintained a high degree of critical independence. This is thanks to a very early exercise of this independence by Mariano Azuela and\u003ci\u003e The Underdogs,\u003c\/i\u003e followed by the critical chronicles of Martín Luis Guzmán, José Vasconcelos, and Rafael Muñoz.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis critical tradition against all odds should be compared with the silence imposed on Soviet writers by Stalinism, the exile of German writers from Nazi Germany, or the persecution of North American authors during the McCarthy era. The margin of critical and creative freedom, menaced by the political powers—always, everywhere—was maintained in Mexico thanks, in great measure, to the stakes planted by Mariano Azuela.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAzuela began his writing career with a Zolaesque naturalist novel,\u003ci\u003e María Luisa\u003c\/i\u003e (1907), and went on to register the foibles of politics (\u003ci\u003eAndrés Pérez, maderista,\u003c\/i\u003e 1911), political bosses (\u003ci\u003eLos caciques,\u003c\/i\u003e 1917), the middle classes (\u003ci\u003eTribulaciones de una familia decente,\u003c\/i\u003e 1918) and the labor movement (\u003ci\u003eEl camarada Pantoja,\u003c\/i\u003e 1937).\u003ci\u003e The Underdogs (Los de abajo),\u003c\/i\u003e nevertheless, remains his signature book, and its universal import is well taken as he describes human conduct that has the troubling quality of repeating itself everywhere and in all historical periods. The forces of social ascent and corruption: “Now we are the swells,” the grotesque camp follower\u003ci\u003e La Pintada\u003c\/i\u003e [War Paint] says as she assumes the heritage of the former proprietors.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCorruption unites the best and the worst. In one of the greatest scenes of the novel, several characters, pretending to sleep, see the others in the act of stealing. A common language of dishonesty, cover-up, and government by kleptocracy is born. It is a thieves’ pact of worldwide resonance. This is, indeed, a disenchanted epic, in which fatality engenders bitterness and bitterness enhances fatality, both illustrated by the scene where General Macías rolls a stone down a hill, murmuring: “Look at this stone, how it cannot stop.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd yet, perhaps this epic of failures (or failed epic) is a great novel because, for all its realism, even in spite of its cynicism, it is\u003ci\u003e astonished\u003c\/i\u003e by a world it no longer understands. And it is this wonderful sense of surprise that gives \u003ci\u003eLos de abajo\u003c\/i\u003e its lasting wonder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—CARLOS FUENTES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution. In its pages, we follow the actions of a band of revolutionaries—led by the protagonist, Demetrio Macías— at the height of the revolution’s armed phase, from 1913 to 1915. The novel works mainly with realism to portray many of the harsh details and effects of the revolution, indirectly drawing our attention to the possible motivations that drive Demetrio Macías and his men to fight. The novel is written in fragmentary prose, and although it is interspersed with moments of beautiful description, it is driven primarily by the dialogue of the protagonists and the surrounding characters themselves. This, combined with frequent, jarring narrative changes—such as alterations in verb tense; choppy, staccato exchanges in the dialogue; and temporal and spatial jumps—serves to reflect the jarring experiences that the characters encounter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302021550309,"sku":"NP9780143105275","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143105275.jpg?v=1767741981","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-underdogs-isbn-9780143105275","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}