Mariano Azuela – författare

Hailed as the greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution, The Underdogs recounts the story of an illiterate but charismatic Indian peasant farmer’s part in the rebellion against Porfirio Díaz, and his subsequent loss of belief in the cause when the revolutionary alliance becomes factionalized. Azuela’s masterpiece is a timeless, authentic portrayal of peasant life, revolutionary zeal, and political disillusionment.

Two Novels of Mexico: The Flies / The Bosses by Mariano Azuela translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson brings the founding novelist of the Mexican Revolution back to the scenes that forged his art: panic, opportunism, and moral reckoning in a society unmade by war. Written by a physician who served in Pancho Villa’s army and later chronicled its collapse, these paired novellas distill Azuela’s incomparable witness. The Flies captures, with staccato velocity and dark humor, a single night of flight from Mexico City as politicians, ex-federals, and hangers-on scramble into a hospital car, rehearsing alibis and switching loyalties as Obregón’s troops approach. The Bosses turns somber and incandescent, anatomizing caciquismo—the entrenched rule of merchant-landlord “bosses”—through the Del Llano clan’s predations and the fragile idealism of small-town victims whose lives are shattered in the wake of Madero’s murder and Huerta’s reaction. Together, the novellas map the Revolution’s moral topography: not battlefield heroics, but the everyday bargains, betrayals, and moments of courage that determine who survives and at what cost.Simpson’s agile translation revives Azuela’s tonal range—telegraphic banter, caustic caricature, and lyrical tenderness—while clarifying the political and historical stakes for contemporary readers. In The Flies, opportunists cycle through regimes—Díaz, Madero, Huerta, Villa, Carranza—with comic ferocity; in The Bosses, Azuela’s most moving creation, the solitary intellectual Rodríguez, confronts a town owned by its parasites, and a love story flickers against encroaching catastrophe. Long overshadowed by The Underdogs, these “novels of Mexico” reward renewed attention as precise social documents and audacious works of art. They speak to enduring questions—how civic fear corrodes character, how local power deforms justice, how revolutions are lived from below—making this volume essential for readers of Latin American literature, history, and anyone seeking the human textures behind political upheaval.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1956.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1956.

Two Novels of Mexico: The Flies / The Bosses by Mariano Azuela translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson brings the founding novelist of the Mexican Revolution back to the scenes that forged his art: panic, opportunism, and moral reckoning in a society unmade by war. Written by a physician who served in Pancho Villa’s army and later chronicled its collapse, these paired novellas distill Azuela’s incomparable witness. The Flies captures, with staccato velocity and dark humor, a single night of flight from Mexico City as politicians, ex-federals, and hangers-on scramble into a hospital car, rehearsing alibis and switching loyalties as Obregón’s troops approach. The Bosses turns somber and incandescent, anatomizing caciquismo—the entrenched rule of merchant-landlord “bosses”—through the Del Llano clan’s predations and the fragile idealism of small-town victims whose lives are shattered in the wake of Madero’s murder and Huerta’s reaction. Together, the novellas map the Revolution’s moral topography: not battlefield heroics, but the everyday bargains, betrayals, and moments of courage that determine who survives and at what cost.Simpson’s agile translation revives Azuela’s tonal range—telegraphic banter, caustic caricature, and lyrical tenderness—while clarifying the political and historical stakes for contemporary readers. In The Flies, opportunists cycle through regimes—Díaz, Madero, Huerta, Villa, Carranza—with comic ferocity; in The Bosses, Azuela’s most moving creation, the solitary intellectual Rodríguez, confronts a town owned by its parasites, and a love story flickers against encroaching catastrophe. Long overshadowed by The Underdogs, these “novels of Mexico” reward renewed attention as precise social documents and audacious works of art. They speak to enduring questions—how civic fear corrodes character, how local power deforms justice, how revolutions are lived from below—making this volume essential for readers of Latin American literature, history, and anyone seeking the human textures behind political upheaval.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1956.

In addition to a fresh translation of Los de Abajo, Azuela's classic novel of the Mexican Revolution, this volume offers both a general Introduction to the work and an extensive appendix setting the novel in its historical, literary, and political context. Related texts include contemporary reviews of Azuela's book, an excerpt from Anita Brenner's Idols Behind Altars (1929), and selections from John Reed's Insurgent Mexico (1914).

In addition to a fresh translation of Los de Abajo, Azuela's classic novel of the Mexican Revolution, this volume offers both a general Introduction to the work and an extensive appendix setting the novel in its historical, literary, and political context. Related texts include contemporary reviews of Azuela's book, an excerpt from Anita Brenner's Idols Behind Altars (1929), and selections from John Reed's Insurgent Mexico (1914).

Hailed as the greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution, The Underdogs recounts the story of an illiterate but charismatic Indian peasant farmer’s part in the rebellion against Porfirio Díaz, and his subsequent loss of belief in the cause when the revolutionary alliance becomes factionalized. Azuela’s masterpiece is a timeless, authentic portrayal of peasant life, revolutionary zeal, and political disillusionment.

The book tells us the story of peasant Demetrio Macías, who becomes the enemy of a local cacique in his town, and so has to abandon his family when the government soldiers come looking for him. He escapes to the mountains, and forms a group of rebels who support the Mexican Revolution.

The book tells us the story of peasant Demetrio Macías, who becomes the enemy of a local cacique in his town, and so has to abandon his family when the government soldiers come looking for him. He escapes to the mountains, and forms a group of rebels who support the Mexican Revolution.

Este libro es un clásico de la literatura mundial y posee el mérito histórico de haber iniciado la novela sobre la Revolución Mexicana de 1910; la obra muestra desde dentro las fuerzas de lo que entonces se llamó "la bola": los desposeídos levantados para la revuelta. La novela arranca con el grupo armado de Juchipila, un poblado al sur de Zacatecas, y cierra, como epílogo de la narración y un símil de la suerte misma de la Revolución, cuando la ciudad es tomada por las tropas carrancistas.

La presente redición de Los de abajo, a manos de Víctor Díaz Arciniega, recupera la edición de 1920 establecida por el propio Mariano Azuela e impresa por Tipografía Razaster. Incluye además una introducción y un aparato crítico del editor en el que se estipulan los cambios que se llevaron a cabo en la edición de 1958.

Este libro es un clásico de la literatura mundial y posee el mérito histórico de haber iniciado la novela sobre la Revolución Mexicana de 1910; la obra muestra desde dentro las fuerzas de lo que entonces se llamó "la bola": los desposeídos levantados para la revuelta. La novela arranca con el grupo armado de Juchipila, un poblado al sur de Zacatecas, y cierra, como epílogo de la narración y un símil de la suerte misma de la Revolución, cuando la ciudad es tomada por las tropas carrancistas.

Víctimas de la opulencia es de un realismo estrujante, por duro y por vigente; un vívido retrato del México prerrevolucionario que describe la pobreza y la desigualdad que privaba y que la Revolución trató de revertir. Éste, como todos los cuentos de Mariano Azuela, es a la vez denuncia y sátira, una mirada profunda sobre la condición humana y sus circunstancias. "Víctimas de la opulencia", "La lección que no aprendí en las aulas", "Lo que se esfuma", "Avichuelos negros", "El caso López Romero" y "Un rebelde", seis relatos para visitar el México de inicios del siglo XX, del campo o la metrópoli, en el Porfiriato, la Revolución y el México posrevolucionario, son muestra de las amplias miras de la inclinación artística de Azuela: su narrativa de la Revolución, la proletaria, la realista, la urbana y la vanguardista.