3

MARIANO AZUELA

MARIANO AZUELA

Before Revolution

A son of don Evaristo Azuela and dona Paulina Gonzalez,

Mariano Azuela was born on 1 January 1873 in Lagos de

Moreno, state of Jalisco in Mexico. With the help of 300

pesos as loan from some wealthy brother, don Evaristo Azuela

opened a grocery store "EL Tigre" in Lagos where the child

Mariano Azuela started taking his first lessons from the

encounters of his own life with the reality as well as from

those of the common people which were to prove powerful raw

material for his novels. His father was a dynamic person who

expanded his buisness and also bought a ranch (EL Ixtle) .

That is how he could afford to send his son to study

medicine. The childhood adventurous stories narrated to him

by his muleteer maternal grandfather, don Jose Maria

Gonzalez1, not only educated him on still existent colonial

structure raised on injustice and exploitation, but also

left deep psychological mark on his personality to be

reflected with the highest degree of· perfection in his most

celebrated literary work, Los de abajo (The Underdogs).

He began his primary education attending the Liceo de

Padre Guerra at Lagos and later entered the Liceo de Varones

at Guadalajara. Azuela himself describes his childhood days:

1 Salvador Azuela,"De la vida y pensamiento de Mariano Azuela", Universidad {Mexico City), 16 June 1952.

68

As soon as I finished the course of Morals and Religion, I deserted the seminary. The sacerdotal career never interested me and my stay in that establishment was merely accidental. I enrolled in the Boy's Liceo of the State, revalidated the courses that I had taken in Lagos and finished my preparatory studies. When 1 left the seminary, my father suggested that 1 should take a room in the home of Dr Alvarado, where the environment was the same, as the majority of the boarders were theology students .... The next year 1 moved to another boarding house on Belen street very close to the Alameda, at a short distance from the School of Medicine and the General Hospital. Then. 1 began to know Guadalajara, ••• another locale, naturally there were other men and other books - Jorge lsaac's Maria, Gil Blas de Santillana, the horseman D' Artagnan, and the sweet Margarita Gautier.2

It was in Guadalajara as a student that Azuela

developed a strong desire for literature and he dedicated

himself to the literary activities. He started visiting very

frequently the places where the writers like Jose Lopez-

Portillo y Rojas and Victoriano Salado Alvarez used to talk

over a cup of coffee. Here he studied lot of novels with

special interest of French writers. like Daudet, Goncourt,

Zola, etc, Zola had greatly influenced Mariano Azuela. A

literary group of poets called Farautes (Herald) was

increasing its literary activities in many cities of the

province. They were holding regular monthly meetings in

which the members of the group used to present their

writings and hold discussions. Occasionally a magazine

called Calendas was also published. Mariano Azuela was

keenly participating in all these literary activities.

2 Mariano Azuela, Pagias autoiograficas (Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1974), pp. 189-91.

69

It gives us fairly good idea about the circumstances in

which Azuela did his schooling and finished his medicdl

studies in 1899. He began practising as a medical doctor at

Lagos de Moreno in 1909 and, the following year, married

Carmen Rivera, the niece of the famous historian, Father

Agustin Rivera. From Sra Carmen Rivera, Azuela had five sons

and five daughters.

Since 1908, Azuela has become a strong supporter of

Francisco I. Madero. He was also a regular reader of

opposition's magazine Mexico Nuevo. During the election

campaign in 1910, he was one of the most important

campaigners of Madero. When Madero was imprisoned in the

summer of 1910, Azuela sent him a manifesto of solidarity.

After Diaz's victory in the election, he hung Madero's

portrait on his window for which he had to go underground

for some time. His clinic was a regular meeting place for

the supporters of the Revolution where they used to discuss

day-to-day political developments and plan their strategies

accordingly. Subsequently, the Maxio Serdan club was also

formed. After Diaz 's surrender in May 1911, Azuela along

with several citizens of Lagos gave a warm civic reception

to Madero. In the city-hall, he gave an emotional speech and

severely attacked the opportunists of Diaz regime and

cautioned the people not to let them rise to power any more

and corrupt the revolutionary movement heading for country's

70

renovation. He had become conscious of the fact that he was

to dedicate himself to the cause of Malero whom he had been

admiring since 1908.

In 1911, just for one_month, Azuela also served as jefe

politico in Canton de Lagos. Until 1914, he served smoothly

as a practising doctor when Villa and Carranza jumped into

fray to snatch the power from Huerta's hands. "Once 1

determined to be a part of the revolutionary movement that

Francisco I. Madero initiated, I ·entered it. I was never

interested in or has sympathy with politics of force, but in

the action against the ancient regime of Porfirio Diaz my

heart dominated my mind. I do not regret it nor have I ever

regretted it",3 said Azuela. In 1911, he was designated as

director of public education for the State of Jalisco. After

Madero was assassinated on 22 February 1913, he joined

Pancho Villa's army as doctor and went to Guadalajara. When

the Convention of rebel forces taking place at

Aguascalientes was denounced by Carranza, Azuela along with

the troops of Julian Medina, the governor of Jalisco, went

to Lagos and remained there until May 1915. When that year

they met with an attack from Carranza's forces, they had to

retreat to Aguascalientes and Guadalajara. Azuela was

attending on the wounded at Chihuahua in October 1915 when

Carrancistas reached Ciudad Juarez and he had to cross the

3 Ibid., p. 107.

71

border to El Paso, Texas "with a bunch of papers under my

rough cotton shirt". 4 It was this process of closely

observing and experiencing the Revolution that Mariano

Azuela was able to give the whole episode a novelistic shape

in the form of_ Los de abajo by publishing it in series first

in El Paso del Norte's issues from October to December 1915.

This effort of his earned him only twenty dollars. "My

defeat was two-fold: I had lost economically as well; all my

savings for the past ten years went up in smoke and without

indeals, full of disenchantment 1 had to face the reality

and perform my immediate and pressing duty--the maintenance

of my family"5, Said the author himself.

Withdrawing completely from the active political life,

Azuela had to return to his medical profession to support

himself as well as his family. In 1916, he brought his

family to Mexico City and talked to a drugstore to send him

patients looking for a doctor. Somehow few patients started

reaching him. His wife, dona Carmen,gives us some idea about

Azuela's routine life in Mexico City:

A little before six in the morning, he began to work at his typewriter. Usually he wrote a page every day if he was not correcting proofs for his editor, Andres Botas. · He was a generous man, full of kindness. From the very moment he started to practice medicine, he preferred the poor patient whom he never abandoned even though he did not pay his doctor's bill. He also took care of the

4 Ibid., p. 128.

5 Ibid., p. 138.

72

bullies and 'tough-guys' {whose patois is found in his novels) . More than once these petty-gangsters would steal his handkerchief, hat and even money in his office.6

Azuela' s literary taste developed when he was still

studying at the Convent of the Capuchines at Lagos. "In

between the boxes of soap I hid well some of the novels,

such as The Count of Montecristo, economic editions editted

in Barcelona .... When my father used to snore during his

siesta comfortably lying on a bed, I hid myself in the attic

to enjoy the forbidden book"7 , later wrote Azuela. These

literary lessons learnt at his father's grocery store took a

"first literary triumph" when he wrote a long letter to his

family members. Azuela himself gives a description of it:

If during my childhood the execution of my grandfather had made an impression on me, the assassination of don Ramon Corona, the Governor of the state, gave me a similar reaction -- though now in such a manner that I could transform it into my first literary triumph. I wrote a long letter to the members of his family relating to them the details of that important event. Perhaps I added many exaggerations and even lies because I found out that the neighbours of my village passed the account from one to another.B

From the beginning of the independence movement upto

around 1880, there was hardly any difference between the

6 Carmen Rivera, quoted in Mariano Azuela, Two Novels of Mexico, Lesley Byrd Simpson, trans. {Berkeley, University of California Press, 1957), p.xix.

7 Azuela, n.2, p. 188.

8 Azuela, quoted in Mariano Azuela, Two Novels of Mexico, Lesley Byrd Simpson, Trans. (Berkely, University of California Press, 1957), p. XV.

73

literature in the capital and in the provinces. There was an

organic unity between the capital and the provinces and the

literature that was created during that period looked after

the whole nation's interest. It was only with the beginning

of imperialistic design that the capital was gradually

converted into the seat of 'order and progress'. Thus, the

conflict sharpened with the opening of foreign banks,

industries, other commercial enterprises and new rail lines.

This 'order and progress' that was the outcome of the

Porfirian dictatorship and imitation of alien culture was

being visibly noticed in the Mexican literature. Adalbert

Dessau puts this situation is this way "This relation

between the capital and the interior was of fundamental

significance for the national renovation of the Mexican

literature that followed the Revolution."9

This changing socio-political scene gave birth to

modernism and the so-called realist and naturalist novel ..

But this literature was not representing the whole nation.

In fact, during the Porfirian period, it was the provincial

literature that was closer to the people. However, the

provincial themes of Emilio Rabasa, Heriberto Frias and Jose

L6pez-Portillo y Rojas were noteworthy. But it was not until

the emergence of Mariano Azuela that the Mexican novel

9 Adalbert Dessau, La novela de la Revoluci6n mexicana, Juan Jose Utrilla, trans. (Maxico City, Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1980), p. 130.

74

identified itself completely with the provincial people and

opposed the dictatorial regime vehemently. Zapata's peasant

movement was though based in Morelos, another powerful

centre of revolutionary activities was in the northern

provinces of Coahuila, Chihuahua and Sonora. The movement

that was continuing in Puebla and Veracruz was more

political than military. The states of Central Plateau-­

Jalisco, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Michoacan

-- were developing the important literary scene.

The renovation of the Mexican literature was being

carried out by two movements-~one operating in the capital

city and the other in the Central Plateau. The literary

movement in the capital was centred around the Ateneo de la

Juventud and was considered by its propagators the only-·

movement of universal approach. In the Central Plateau,

there were various literary groups that kept themselves well

informed not only of the literary activities taking place in

the capital but also of France and other foreign countries.

The principal protagonists of the Central Plateau literary

movement were advocate Manuel Jose Othon (1858-1906) of San

Luis Patosi, Guadalajara's doctor Enrique Gonzalez Martinez

(1871-1952), Jerez's advocate and professor of literature-­

Ramon Lopez Velarde (1888-1921), and Lagos de Moreno's

chemist--Francisco Gonzalez Leon (1862-1945). They were all

poets, but Lagos de Moreno's doctor Mariano Azuela (1873-

1952) was a novelist. All of them struggled hard for

75

fulfilling their literary aspirations and the renovation of

the Mexican literature got matured in the literary works of

Mariano Azuela.

After Azuela returned to Lagos in 1899 and opened his

clinic, his evenings were generally spent at Antonio Moreno

y Oviedo's place. There he used to find solace away from the

monotonous work of a doctor. At the same time, he continued

his literary activities and kept himself abreast of the

literary happenings. In 1903, along with his two friends and

with considerable difficulties, he was able to organise the

first Juegos Florales (poetry competition). Here his De mi

tierra was given an award. Although this activity was purely

literary for the farautes, it was related to the common

people and Azuela 1 s characters were presenting socio­

political problems of the nation.

The formal and real process of Azuela 1 s literary

writings had begun during his college years when, in 1896,

he wrote Registro, Paginas intimas and impresiones de un

estudiante that were published in a weekly Gil Bias C6mico

of Mexico city. Esbozo was published in 1897. In fact, about

seventeen pages of Registro had already been written in 1889

when Azuela was barely sixteen years old. these costumbrista

writings also depicted the concern Azuela felt for the poor

and the humble. Whatever he wrote during those days, born

with irony and good humor. Form De mi tierra and Pinceladas,

76

both appearing in 1903, Azuela broke with the costumbrista

style of objective writing and started depicting the misery

of the Indian who was being used as a pawn to enrich his

hacendado. What he learnt as a student in Guadalajara,

attending patients in a public hospital, observing other

students' activites, found vent in Maria Luisa published in

1907. Luis Leal considers Maria Luisa more a long story than

a nove1.10

For his style, Azuela's works are generally divided in

two groups. In the first group fall his themes of diverse

social nature. In Pinceladas the religious story of some

devout widows is narrated, while in De mi tierra a hacendado

seduces the fniancee of a peasant. In Victimas de la

opulencia (1904) a nanny lets her own son die for the cause

of her master's son. This is Azuela' s first work where

scathing social protest is registered. Here, he not only

attacks the upper class for committing injustice, but also

states that having sumbitted herself to injustice, the

mother was also responsible for her son's death. In En

derrota . ( 1904) , Camilla is peasant Juan's fniancee whom a

ranchero's son abducts on the wedding night. Juan cannot

bear this shock and commits suicide. Lo que se esfuma (1907)

is a story of a craftman' s son Per ico and a butcher's

daughter Lupe. Perico goes to study in Mexico City and when

10 Luis Leal, Mariano Azuela :Vida y obra (Mexico City, Ediciones de Andrea, 1961), p. 37.

77

comes back home for a vacation, refuses to recognise his old

friends for rich people's sons. He even speaks bad of his

old girlfriend Lupe. Perico treacherously kills Lupe' s new

boyfriend--Andres. Lupe gets married to an old but rich man.

She becomes a rich lady after her husband dies. In the last

episode, Perico and Lupe are shown to be getting married. In

his work Azuela exposes the valueless life -style of the

upper class.

Avichuelos negros (1909} narrates the story of a young

unmarried couple. The young man is a textile worker and

contracts tuberculosis. He is separated from the young girl

and dies in isolation. This work differs from the previous

ones for it has wider social canvas. While exposing the

terrible unhealthy conditions of the workers, Azuela also

underlines the need to take care of the sicks.

The second group of Azuel' s works mainly consists of

poetic descriptions of atmosphere, nature, scenery, etc.

Nochistongo was written in 1905. The poetical description of

Mexico's landscapes travelling in a train that passes

through steep hills and plains is splendid. The writer also

paints the shiver of fear when the train crosses over the

steep cliffs. Loco appeared in 1907. This is a sketch of a

musician beggar in the street who is laughed at foolishly by

some onlookers. The human sensibility of the writer in this

way finds poetic expression of a situation that agitates his

78

heart and mind. Among other poetic sketches of different

social colours and environments that appeared in 1908 are

Brochazos, De paso and Del arroyo.

In Brochazos Azuela paints the profound peace of a

fertile mother's dusk and in De paso tries to peep into the

heart of a blonde who is a telegraph operator and whom he

finds sad and pensive. Del arroyo describes the lonely noon

of a beggar who is the tragic incarnation of isolation and

social hatered for the writer. Azuela becomes his spokesman

and makes a scathing attack on the society. The atmospheric

poetic sketches of Azuela seem to be closer to the lyrics of

Baudelaire and Parnaso. It was a typical contribution mainly

of provincial writers to the Mexican literature.

In "Maria Luisa" Azuela gives a literary account bf the

real seduction and abandonment of a daughter of his boarding

house proprietress by one of his friends. One day, he finds

her on a death bed in a public hospital where Azuela was

serving his internship. Maria Luisa falls in love with a

silly boy. She leaves her mother's house in order to live

with her lover. After a short enjoyment, Pancho, her lover,

leaves her and falls for another girl Esther. Maria Luisa

tries to take shelter in alcohol and takes to prostitution

for about three years. Finally, she finds way to a

sanatorium to die miserably. Ernest R. Moore analyses Maria

Luisa as follows:

79

The poverty of images, the overworking of contrasts and retrospection, the abruptness of transition from chapter to chapter, the occasional outright conde­mnation of a character, among the defects found in this novel, can be ascribed to Azuela's inexperience. Better novelists have done worse in their first works. To his credit is the excellent analysis of Maria Luisa's thoughts as she makes the momentous decision to run off with Pancho and again when she realizes that she has lost him to her rival, Esther. Some pages equal in descriptive beauty any of the writings being done at this time in Mexico, and chapter VI represents Azuela near his best in technique, in elegance of lanfuage, and in realistic reproduction of mind and milieu. 1

Maria Luisa is a novel on the pattern of a naturalist

Mexican school that was under the influence of the French

novelists of the period. "My humble Maria Luisa was the

blood sister of Mini Pinson, of Margarita Gautier, of

Mussatan12, remarked the novelist. What happened to Maria

Luisa was not any creation of the writer to condemn a

character of that kind from the point of view of a religious

morality, it was his commentary on the society and the

people at larger that made her suffer:

On awakening to her senses, she tells us that she was not able to resist the influence of her race, degenerated and stultified until then by deficiencies of education; finding the remedy for her pains in alcohol; once a step taken, nothing or nobody would be capable of stopping that; dragged by the damned inheritance, she would remain sunk for ever.13

11 Ernest R. Moore,"Novelists of The Mexican Revolution: Mariano Azuela", Mexican Life (Mexico City), vol. 16, no. 8, August 1940, p.22.

12 Azuela, quoted in Ernest R, Moore, "Novelists of the Mexican Revolution", Mexican Life , vol. 16, no. 8, August 1940, p.23.

13 Azuela, Maria Luisa y otros cuentos (Mexico city, Ediciones Botas, 1938), p. 102.

80

Luis Leal, the most famous critic of the novels of the

Mexican Revolution, has also touched upon this fact: "His

( Azuela' s) interest is found in the social protest, in

trying to avoid a situation in which girls like Maria Luisa

are perverted by the rogues of the society, by the fine

gentlemen.n14 The author tries to philosophize Maria's

condition:

Who was Maria Luisa? One of so many flowers open on the dunghill which rise slender, humid and perfumed, which seem to be launching into the sky and which in short, very briefly, twist the ardent rays of the eternal sun of life, separating their withered petals and scattering their putrid seed on the same dunghill that watched it budding.15

This may be discarded as a fatalistic approach to the

problem, yet it is a powerful artistic commentary on the

'dunghill' of the entire social system. The types of

characters woven in the plot of his "short novel are of

today, of yesterday and of always" .16 Therefore, Mariano

Azuela does not seem to be lacking the insight one needs to

depict the social reality with concern in his very first

novel. Maria Luisa "is not read, however, so much for its

literary value as for its historical value, since we find in

that the seeds out of which he is to become the greatest

novelist of the Revolution",17puts his biographer, Luis

14 Leal, n.10, p. 36.

15 Azuela, n. 12, pp. 21-22.

16 Azuela, n.2, p.45.

17 Leal, n.10, p.37.

81

Leal, in a nutshell. There are "technical deficiencies

certainly more noticeable" in Maria Luisa, but it "is

written taking characters and environment from the actual

moment I was then living"18. And that is one of the most

important elements of honest historic value one has to keep

in mind while analysing Azuela's first novel.

"Los fracasados can be considered as the first work of

Azuela in the genre"19, writes Luis Leal. It was though

written in Lagos de Moreno in 1906, could only be published

in 1908. Azuela himself accepted: "With Los fracasados my

novelistic writing ended me with a decision to cultivate the

genre formally".20

The young lawyer, Resendez, after finishing his studies

in Guadalajara reaches Alamos with great enthusiasm thinking

to put his legal studies, that he learnt from his respected

teachers, into practice. He occupies the post of secretary

in the Ayuntamiento (Town Council). The reality around him

opens his eyes. It doensn't take him mtich time to realize

that justice means what suits to the vested interest of the

jefe politico {political chief), the curate, the hacendados.

A priest provokes the people for taking a procession against

the local authorities. The procession does take place, but

18 Azuela, n.2, p.77.

19 Leal, n.lo, p.37.

20 Azuela, n.2, p.91.

82

the priest is apprehended by the police at night. On the

coming Sunday arwther priest agitates people in the mass to

rescue the apprehended priest from the prison. When the

people went into action, the police opened fire on them

resulting one dead and half a dozen wounded. In the evening

calm prevailed on the town. The police commanQant cooly took

out the prisoner in the evening; put him on a train to

Guadalajara for starting there further penal proceedings

against him. The political chief put entire blame on his

secretary and washed his hands of any responsibility in the

matter. As a consequence, the secretary becomes the target

of the people's fury. An attempt is also made on his life

which makes him and his girl-friend, Consuelo, to leave the

town.

The protagonist, Resendez, comes to the conclusion that

"supremacy of intelligence is not the gateway to prosperity,

that victory in life corresponds to mediocrities and even to

incompetence, because one reaches the highest posts neither

through talent nor through knowledge, but through audacity,

intrigue, vileness, shamefulness and madness 11 .21

This was the Porfiriato that Mariano Azuela depicts in

Los fracasados, Even the father Cabezudo of the novel, who

throughout his life condemned the liberals, is shown to have

21 Azuela, Obras completas (Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1958).vol.l, p.80.

83

realized at the end that the real enemy· was not the

liberalism, but "the imbecility and the eternal human

wickednessn22. The protagonist has been modelled on the life

of the novelist's poet friend, Jose Becerral, who gave him

"abundant material not only for Los fracasados but for many

posterior novels .... n23

"The most celeberated of the three pre-revolutionary

novels is Mala yerba", 24 comments Adalbert Dessau. This

novel was published in 1909. In this, the plot is wov.en

around the misdeeds of a Latifundista, Julian Andrade, who

courts with a peasant couple's daughter, Marcela. Julian

Andrade out of jealousy kills his rival, a cowboy. He gets

away unpunished even after committing that murder as Marcela

does not say anything against him before the judge. However,

she abandons him. The stable boy, Gertrudis falls in love

with Marcela but she does not respond favourably. She runs

off to a nearby city with an American engineer, who was

working on Julian's hacienda. Gertrud is and Marcela again

meet each other and start living together for some time.

Julian Andrade cannot digest Gertrudis living happily with

Marcela and plans to get rid of him for ever. He promises

him good job and makes him to come to his hacienda where he

is coolly assassinated by Julian's informer, Tio Marcelino,

22 Ibid., p.l51.

23 Azuela, n.2, p. 86.

24 Dessau, n.9, p. 184.

84

in reward of a fine horse. Julian also murders Tio Marcelino

and silences any possible witness against him. Subsequently,

he meets Marcela. When Marcela comes to know about his

crime, she thinks of taking revenge on him. But she suffers

from a fit bout and Julian Andrade assassinates Marcela

while she was unconscious. In the absence of sufficient

proof, the authorities close the file and the latifundista

again goes unpunished.

"Mala yerba is frequently considered as direct

precursor of the novel of the Revolution or as its literary

'pioneer'", says Adalbert Dessau.25 The whole effort is to

unravel the bare truth of hacienda life. Marcela states to

her female neighbours that she did not say anything against

Julian Andrade for the consideration of her family. Azuela

exposes the real intricacies of day-to-day life of a lower

middle class family. The moral values are surrendered for

existence. However, all this does riot make us believe that

Mariano Azuela was in any way wishing to have social

revolution at that historical juncture. The distinct quality

of the novel .lies in the fact that three important elements

--naturalism, comstumbrismo and "mass protagonist"--were

used with literary skill. Azuela did not attack Diaz regime

by painting different atrocities committed by haves on have-

nots. He has rather thrown some hints that matters could

have been much worse without Diaz in power. What he attacked

25 b"d I 1 . , p. 187.

85

were long traditions and customs full of ills that Mexico

inherited from its colonial past.

Sin amor like Los fracasados is a tale of provincial

bourgeois society. The protagonist, Ana Maria Romero, is a

daughter of a Mexican middle class. Her mother's ambitions

are to socialise with rich people in the city and get her

daughter married to one of the rich persons. She tries to

persuade her daughter to marry a rich young bachelor, Ramon

Torralba. Ana Maria resists her mother's offer for quite

some time. Finally, she accepts the offer and marries him

for economic considerations. She gets mo~ey and so-called

social status but without love.

Azuela seems to have considerably matured his thoughts

and literary skill in this novel. The plot of Sin amor is

much more relevant to the Mexican society than that of Los

fracasados. The middle class dilemma is exposed through Ana

Maria's character. She initially resists her mother's

overtures to get her married to a wealthy latifundista, but

after some time succumbs to the glitter of the upper class.

Azuela, at the same time, comments on the realization of

emerging Mexican attitude towards foreign rule and ideas

through one of his characters in a conversation in Sin amor:

"Mexico has always been for the foreigners and not for the

Mexicans. We would enjoy freedom of worship ... "26

26 Azuela, n.21, p. 313.

86

During Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a turning point in Azuela's

life in general and his literary works in particular. He was

quite clear about the kind of change Mexico required when he

said, 11 ••• The most urgent need of the country was not the

change of a man by another, but of an old, prostituted and

dirty regime by a new, honourable and clean one .... 11 27

Azuela had also seen big latifundistas crossing the

fence and joining the revolutionary movement. They were

conveniently doing it to keep their hegemony intact. After

Madero's assassination, Azuela became pessimistic. However,

whatever he could analyse and understand of this whole

process, he narrated in Andres Perez, maderista:

The Justice is a word, and what else? The electricity till yesterday was lightning that kills and now it is the faithful, obedient servant of this poor naked game. In order to master the electricity, many hundreds of centuries have been necessary; for making something effective of the word Justice, there may be perhaps many millions of centuries •... What I am working for an ideal of justice, it is not important for me to know whether within a hundred or a million of centuries the matter will be over for which I am working. And since people have been able to think so, we have been able to reach a stage superior to the stone age ••• 28

Andres Perez, maderista is considered the first novel

of the Revolution. It is a short novel that was published in

27 Azuela, quoted by A. Leal Cortes Mariano Azuela 11 , Filosofia y Letras 53, 1954, p. 255.

28 Azuela, n. 21, vol. 2, p. 793.

87

in 11 Elog io de (Mexico) , vol.

1911. Andres Perez is a young journalist of Mexico City who

is invited by one of his former classmates, Antonio Reyes,

to visit him and his wife, Maria, at their ranch. Andres

Perez resigns his job and reaches Antonio Reyes's ranch.

Antonio is eager to know about the revolutionary activities

and wants to know everything about them. Andres tells him

whatever he could about the possible revolution. However, he

also states that he is least interested in revolutionary

activities. After some time, when the Revolution breaks out,

Andres decides to go back to Mexico City. Antonio does not

like Andres's behaviour and gets somewhat disillusioned with

his non-seriousness about the Revolution. At the same time,

the district political leader sends for his arrest for

inciting people in the hacienda and working as Francisco I.

Madero's agent. Even Andres perez's friend, Antonio Reyes,

believes him to be an undercover revolutionary agent.

Everyone around takes Andres Perez to be a genuine

revolutionary and a thousand pesos is collected and handed

over to him for the revolutionary cause. While trying to

flee from the town to go to the states for few months, he is

caught by the police on his way to the railway station.

Andres Perez's imprisonment makes him even a greater hero.

Antonio Reyes organizes and leads a revolutionary uprising

at the local level, but unfortunately gets killed. His place

is taken by his administrator, Vicente. After the rebels

take over the local administration and Viecente becomes head

88

of the district, Andres Perez is released from the jail.

Andres Perez watches the whole episode and finds himself

alone to the conclusion that there is hardly any revolution

but only change of heads. At the end, he again takes the

route to the railway station and happens to pass Maria's

doorway. Maria was attracted by Andres since they knew each

other. Perhaps this makes him ~ealize when Maria has become

widow and enters her house.

What Azuela thought of the Revolution is to give

guarantee of social justice to all and healing of the

people's wounds caused by the dictatorship. Azuela is shaken

by noticing that many so-called revolutionaries were

opportunists and were basically counter-revolutionaries.

They did not change their attitude about the suffering

masses. one of the most corrupt characters in Andres Perez,

maderista, colonel Hernandez, incites the peasants to kill

Vicente and states about them: "They were born slaves ... ,

still slaves, slaves till they die .... Eternally slaves! n29

He but becomes general

The importance of Andres Perez, maderista lies not in

the ultimate analysis of the existing socio-political

equations but in painting the objective reality of the

society. While exposing the supporters of the Diaz regime,

those corrupting the revolutionary masses and other lumpen

29 b.d I 1 • , p. 800.

89

elements, Azuela also makes his harsh commentary on

opportunist intellectual like Andres Perez who is the

protagonist of the novel. The political opportunism that was

almost becoming a profession, was to some extent responsible

for undermining the national cause.

Los caciques had been written by the .end of June 1914

but could be published only in 1917. Like in Mala yerba,

here also Azuela narrates the attrocities committed by the

feudal lords of the haciendas in the interior regions of the

province. Azuela finished writing Los caciques when

Zacatecas was taken over by Pancho Villa. The methods used

for the exploitation of the . people by these lords are

revealed in the novel. It is a bit different from Mala yerba

because here exploitation of the middle class is focused.

There is hardly any plot, nor a protagonist in the strict

sense of the term. Juanito Vinas is a small middle class

trader and has wife Elena and daughter Esperanza. With many

hardships, he manages to collect some twenty thousand pesos.

On the advice of the Del Llano brothers, he spends his

capital in the construction of some houses. He hopes to rent

out some eighty houses and collect a hefty amount. Not being

able to complete the construction of the houses, he

mortgages his property to Ignacio Del Llano. Nobody in the

whole city dares to lend him money for fear of Del Llano.

Del Llano pays him a paltry sum and appropriates his entire

90

property. The submissive and confident Juanito Vinas is

completely shattered and dies after some time in distress.

Del Llano family is a big trader of grains. The head of

the family is don Ignacio who is a hardened cacique (boss).

His younger brother, Jermias, is a parish priest who is

venal and lewd and uses his religious position to the

benefit of the family. Their sister, Teresa, is seen in all

charitable meetings.

Another middle class character is Rodriguez· who is a

clerk with the "La Continental". He is a friend of Juanito's

daughter, Esperanza. He is an idealist, sympathiser of the

common people and takes part in all people's movements. He

being a non-conformist neither liked by the revolutionaries

nor by the caciques. In fact, after Madero's assassination,

the members of the 'Del Llano family get him murdered. The

novel ends with the occupation of the city by the

revolutionary forces. When the hacienda is attacked,

Juanito's wife and daughter are shown to set fire throwing

petrol on the new house of the Del Llan family. The question

posed by the idealist middle class character, Rodriguez, in

reality, tells us the author's reaction to the situation.

Azuela also seems to have advanced from his old liberal

ideas .

. . . The Madrismo is now the Revolution, and whole revolution ... carries with itself an inspiration of justice.... supposing the Maderismo triumphs, the Maderismo will commit suicide by converting itself into

91

government--well, the government is nothing but the regulated injustice that all rascals carry in the heart .... It is illogical to be Maderista today and anti-Maderista tomorrow?30

Los de abajo (The Underdogs), the first and greatest of

the novels of the Revolution, has already appeared in more

than twenty languages across the world. It has also been

claimed to be the first of its kind that stimulated the

creation of the subsequent novels of the Revolution in the

literary history of Mexico. Venustiano Carranza gaining the

upper hand in the struggle by the end of 1914, forced the

Villista forces, to which Mariano Azuela was attached as a

medical officer, to withdraw to the northern border of

Mexico by 1915. Forced by the unfavourable circumstances,

Azuela had to cross over the northern border in May 1915. By

October, he reached El Paso with two-thirds of..~the novel

already written. Reaching El Paso only ten dollars in his

pocket, he had to accept a proposal of a Spainsh language

newspaper, El Paso del Norte, to fin ish the rest of his

novel and publish it in that newspaper for only three

dollars a week. The weekly publication of his novel's

chapters lasted from October to December 1915. It was later

published in a book form in 1916. Though it aroused little

notice then, after Azuela started practising as a doctor in

Mexico City, in 1917, Los de abajo was printed twice--first

in the El Mundo de Tampico, a daily newspaper, and later in

a book form by the same publisher.

30 Ibid., p. 812.

92

Even after writing eleven novels and various other

literary pieces, Mariano Azuela was yet to see fame of a

modern novelist with recognised outstanding literary genius.

It was only in December 1924 when Julio Jimenez Rueda

generated a debate by writing an article entiled "El

afeminamiento en la literatura mexicana" (The Effeminacy in

the Mexican Literature). He put a question to the Mexican

writers why "there has not appeared the poetical, narrative

or tragical work which is compendium and summary of the

people's agitations during this whole period of bloody civil

war, impassioned conflict of interests". 31 In response to

this, Francisco Monterde--who also wrote later the prologue

to Azuela's Obras completas (1958-60) published in three

volumes by the Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica--defended the

existence of a Mexican literature and in support of his

argument quoted Mariano Azuela: "I could point out Mariano

Azuela among other novelists hardly known--and who deserve

to be so. Whoever is searching the faithful reflexion of our

last revolutions' blaze has to have recourse to his

pagesn32. This polemics reached such a height that many

illustrious writers like Federico Gamboa, Jose Vasconcelos

and Salvador Novo, in a weekly, El Universal Ilustrado,

31 Julio Jimenez Rueda, "El afeminamiento en la literatura mexicana", El Universal (Maxico City), 20 December 1924.

32 Francisco Monterde, "iEXiste una literatura mexicana viril?", El Universal, 25 December 1924.

93

responded to the question: "l Existe una literatura mexicana

moderna?" (Does a Modern Mexican Literature Exist?). As a

result, El Universal published Los de abajo on 27 December

1924 with an editorial commentary: "Los de abajo--Una

Creaci6n Palpitante de Nuestra Vida--E1 Universal Ilustrado

Ofrece la Unica Novela de la Revoluci6n"33 (The Underdogs--A

Throbbing Creation of Our Life--E1 Universal Ilustrado

presents the Unique Novel of the Revolution) .

That is how Los de abajo came to limelight, and it

still remains one of the most written about novels· in the

history of Spanish American letters. Azuela duly deserves it

whose literary genius "marked the end of one century of the

Mexican novel and introduced a new era. His influence has

been so deep that not even the authors still following the

realist school of the previous century"34 could escape that.

"Los de abajo is Mexico, as Dona Barbara is Venezuela.

Reading Los de abajo we know Mexico: its people, its

landscape, its problems, its aspirations, its defects. The

entire novel reveals the spirit of inconformity of its

author and his desires of seeing Mexico ruled by a state of

major equity and social justice", 35 rightly remarks Luis

Leal.

33 El Universal Ilustrado (Mexico City), 27 December 1924.

34 Pedro Manuel Gonzalez, Trayectoria de la novel a en Mexico (Mexico City, Ediciones Botas, 1951) p. 144.

35 Luis Leal,n. 10, p. 49.

94

The Revolution itself is said to be the protagonist of

Los de abajo. There is some justification in the argument

but Azuela would not make an abstract protagonist. Demetrio

Macias is the principal character, although he may not

fulfil all the conditions for a classical protagonist. He is

an illiterate peasant who does not become revolutionary o~t

of any conviction but because of some sharp contradictions

developed with his patron, don Monico. He is not

intellectually sound to understand and appreciate any

revolutionary theory or ideals.

The plot of the novel begins with the intrusion of the

federal soldiers to Demetrio's house in El Limon. Just when

an official tries to outrage the modesty of his wife, he

arrives on the scene and expel~ all the soldiers from his

house. Then, Demetrio leaves his wife and little son back

home and leads a band of twenty-five men. They attack the

enemy troops in a narrow steep valley causing extensive

damage to the federal force. Demetrio is also seriously

wounded. He takes shelter along with his men in a small

village in the mountains. He is treated there by Venancio, a

barber, but best educated and most intelligent of Demetrio's

men. Camilla, a village girl serves Demetrio as nurse. He

starts liking the girl but she falls in love with Luis

Cervantes. Cervantes had studied some medicine and had

worked as a journalist. He had heard that Villa would pay to

his men in silver. He, therefore, decided to join the

95

revolutionaries in search of fortune. When he was caught, he

was presented as a prisoner before Demetrio. Cervantes cures

Demetrio's wounded foot and gains his confidence. Some

muleteers tell him that, in Fresnillo, General Panfilo

Natera is planning to attack Huerta's last bastion,

Zacatecas. Cervantes immediately advises Demetrio to allign

himself with the revolutionary forces. They march on leaving

behind camilla in her. village. Increasing his strength on

his way to hundred men, Demetrio Macias meets General

Panfilo Natera in F~esnillo when he was advancing to attack

Zacatecas. Demetrio is made colonel. At this point, Demetrio

recognizes his old acquaintance, captain Solis, under

general Natera' s command. When · Zacatecas is attacked,

Demetrio is promoted as general and the first part of the

novel ends.

The second part of the novel contains events since June

-to October 1914 when the Convenci6n de Aguascalientes was

held. The Revolution has succeeded. Worst excesses are

committed in the plunder. Demetrio does not indulge in that

plunder. Cervantes advises him to go abroad which he does

not accept. Demetrio's brigade reaches Moyahua where the

house of a cacique is set on fire because earlier he had

denounced Demetrio as Maderista. Here, Demetrio remembers

Camilla whose village was not far from Moyahua. He wants

Camilla to be with him. Cervantes is ready to oblige him and

goes to fetch Camilla. He gives her impression that he came

96

to take her along. That is how Cervantes abducts Camilla

taking advantage of her passion for him. Later Pintada kills

camilla out of jealousy. Afterwards, Demetrio Macias

receives order to reach Aguascalientes in order to

participate in the Convention. The second part ends with

their journey in train where they talk about their earnings

in the plunders they had the opportunity to commit.

Luis Cervantes with the fortune he amassed in the loots

goes to the United States and writes from there to Venancio

about his prosperity and also invites him to join him. After

Pancho Villa's defeat in the battle of Celaya_, the tide

turns and in the Demetrio's brigade pessimism creeps in.

They have to move back to the north and the villages earlier

welcomed them now show unconcern. The strength of Demetrio's

men gradually declines and he is barely left with few more

than with which he started his revolutionary activities. one

day he returns to his place, El Limon, where his wife tries

to stop him from going further to continue his fight and

puts a question to him: "Why do you keep on fighting,

Demetrio?" He throws a stone down the valley and answers her

question, "See that stone, how it can not stop .... n36 He

then takes leave of her and continues his march with his few

men. They are at the Canon de Juchipila where two years ago

Demetrio had, for the first time, fought federal troops and

had given them a crushing defeat. They are now ambushed by

36 Azuela, n.21, p. 416.

97

Carranza's troops and whole brigade is destroyed. Demetrio

is also killed: "And at the foot of a crevice as enormous

and sumptuous as the portico of an old cathedral, Demetrio

Macias, with his eyes fixed for ever, keeps aiming with the

barrel of his rifle".37

The uprising springing from centuries of exploitation

offered an opportunity to settle scores with the hacendados,

masters and people in power. That is why poor illiterate

peasantry was in the centre of the game and an illiterate

peasant, Demetrio Macias becomes Azuela's protagonist.

In the 1920s, the government of Mexico was ready to

encourage and publish the realistic, socially oriented

works. it was then that at the end of 1924 Los de abajo came

into limelight. "Evidence of a growth of interest--largely

government-directed, as has been seen--at the end of 1924 in

the problem of a truly national literature, with special

reference to the novel, can be found in the pages of

newspapers and periodicals of the time", 38 comments John

Rutherford. The poet Rafael L6pez had mentioned first time

in an interview with Gregorio Ortega that Los de abajo was

the best Mexican novel and later ortega, under the pen name

Jose Corral Rigan, also claimed the same. However,

37 Ibid. I p. 418.

38 John Rutherford, Mexican Society during the Revolution (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 58.

98

participating in a national debate 'Does a modern Mexican

literature exist?', it was Francisco Monterde who in January

1925 centred his arguments mainly on Los de abajo and its

literary qualities. Mariano Azuela was a celebrated author

overnight. El Universal Ilustrado republished Los de abajo

and which was followed by a Madrid edition in 1927 with

Gregorio Ortega's prologue. Mariano Azuela gives full credit

for his success to his friend Ortega: "I don't know what

would have come of all this if Ortega had not taken with him

to Spain thirty copies with which El Universal Ilustrado

paid me". 39 About the events and the characters of Los de

abajo, Azuela clarifies some points:

Most of the events I relate were not witnessed by me: they were constructed, or reconstructed, out o.f various partial visions of people and events. Those who call Los de abajo a report are only revealing their ignorance, if by that they mean that I wrote it in the manner of a chronicler or journalist.... Many events are recounted quite differently from how I witnessed them.40

Pintada was modeled on a girl with some general in the

Juchipila valley. similarly, Gtiero Margarita is a model of a

restaurant, 'Delmonico' of Ciudad Juarez. 41 But Gi.iero is

presented little more complicated giving him some

characteristics of a bad-tempered colonel who worked as an

escort with general Median and used to fire with his pistol

39 Azuela,"El novelista y su ambiente", Obras completas, n.21, p. 1174.

40 Azuela, n. 21, vol. 3, pp. 1082 and 1086.

41 Ibid., pp. 1083-4.

99

on unaware clients in the restaurant or bar. Demetrio Macias

somewhat represents Genral Julian Median who jumps in the

Revolution just to take revenge against his patron, don

Monico: "Before the revolution, I had my land all ploughed,

see, and just right for sowing and if it hadn't been for a

little quarrel with don Monico, the boss of my town,

Moyahua, I'd be there in a jiffy getting the oxen ready for

the sowing, see?"42 ·

This protagonist of Azuela is a poor illiterate peasant

who often fights with the law and order machinery, and who

along with other sufferers of his class gets into the

revolutionary struggle without any clear cut perspective in

mind. It is Luis Cervantes, a city-based intellectual, who

gives Demetrio an idea about the goals of the Revolutioll and

his role to achieve them:

You are a modest man without ambitions, you do not wish to realize the exceedingly important role you are destined to play in the revolution. It is not true that you took up arms simply because of Senor Monico. You are under arms to protest against the evils of all the caciques who are over-running the whole nation. We are the elements of a social movement which will .not rest until it has enlarged the destinies of our motherland. We are the tools Destiny makes use :>f to reclaim the sacred rights of the people. We are not fighting aginst tyranny itself. What moves us it what men call ideals; our action is what men call fighting for a principle. A principle! That's why Villa and Natera and Carranza are fighting; that is why we, every man of us, are fighting.43

42 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 345.

43 Ibid., p. 348.

100

Even after this explanation of the Revolution, the

guerrillas are neither able to comprehend any theory of

revolution nor seem to be interested in doing so. They are

there "for if a man has a rifle in his hands and a belt full

of cartridges, surely he should use them. That means

fighting. Against whom? For whom? That is scarcely a matter

of importance".44

In the beginning they are full of hatred for the

caciques and the federal troops, ·but soon their main goal

becomes collecting of booty. T~e following conversation is

noteworthy in this respect:

It's fun fighting this way", Manteca cried, spicing every other word with an oath. 'You know why the hell you're risking your hide'. In the same hand with which he held the reins, he clutched a shining ornament that he had torn from one of the holy statues.45

After Zacatecas battle, they only once fought a battle.

But they were all indulging in stealing food, drink and

looking for women from the poor as well as the rancheros or

hacendados with sadistic brutality. This even created

hostility and bitterness among the suffering masses.

Demetrio Macias also indulged in immoral acts and did not

make any effort to discipline his followers.

Luis Cervantes, the curro (a Mexical colloquial word

which, with derogatory overtones, is translated as 'young

44 Ibid., p. 407.

45 Ibid., p. 390.

101

gentleman'), pretends to be revolutionary and proves to be

an opportunist. After he wins the confidence of Demetrio, he

becomes his secretary until he leaves his command and to

become more prosperous goes to the United States. Luis

Cervantes represents the intellectual class and takes full

advantage of his position for self gain. he is very clever

and acts smartly as a revolutionary as well as an

opportunist. He is talented -and uses his persuasive

agruments to entice Demetrio Macias:

When the revolution is over, everything is over. Too bad that so many men have been killed, too bad there are so many widows and orphans; too bad there was so much bloodshed. Of course, you are not selfish; you say to yourself: 'All I want to do is go back home'. But I ask you, is it fair to deprive your wife and kids of a fortune which God Himself places within reach of your hand? Is it fair to abandon your motherland in this solemn moment when she most needs the self-sacrifice of her sons, when she most needs her humble sons to save her from falling again in the clutches of her eternal oppressors, executioners, and caciques? You most not forget that the thing a man holds most sacred on earth is his motherland.46

An old acquaintance of Luis Cervantes, Capt. Solis,

meets him when they join General Natera' s command at

Fresnillo. He is surprised to see him fighting on the

revolutionary side

I can't understand how a man who was correspondent of a Government newspaper during the Madero regime, and later editorial writer on a conservative journal, who denounced us as bandits in the most fierry articles, is now fighting on our side.

46 b"d I 1 ., p. 348.

102

I tell you honestly: I have been converted, filled the glasses, they drank.

What about you? Are you tired of the revolution? asked Cervantes sharply.

Tired? My dear fellow, I am twenty-five years old and I'm fit as a fiddle! But am I disappointed? Perhaps! ... I hoped to find a meadow at the end of the road, I found a swamp. Facts are bitter; so are men. That bitterness eats your heart out; it is poison, dry, rot. Enthusiasm, hope, ideals, happiness --vain dreams, vain dreams .... When that is over, you have a choice. Either you turn bandit, like the rest, or the time servers

'11 47 w1 swamp you .....

These two intellectuals reveal enough about the

revolutionary process of Azuela's critical observations. But

it does not mean that Azuela condemned the Revolution. He

never doubted the spirit of the Revolution. What he disliked

and vehemently opposed was the shameless acts of the ·

opportunists that derailed the real revolutionary process.

Basically he was a moralist. He witnessed that, on one hand,

the Revolution fought against injustice, on the other, it

failed to stop the opportunists from entering the

revolutionary forces and contaminating the revolutionary

path. The bitterness of Azuela's facts and fiction was his

concern for the nation. Azuela himself says:

I can be accused of everything except of having distorted truth .... One of the fundamental objectives of most of my novels has been to give a transcription of the medium and the moment which I have lived: that one might find in a couple of hundred pages what he could otherwise get by drowning himself in a sea of printed papers.48

47 Ibid., p. 361.

48 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 1098.

103

Whatever limitations one may find in Los de abajo,

Azuela cannot be rejected for being anti-revolutionary.

Azuela might have had his prejudices and might have failed

in comprehending the dialectics of the Mexican Revolution,

but he had all sympathy for it. The revelation of the

neglected backwater of the Revolution itself is a positive

attitude. Azuela himself was a party to the Revolution and

his passion for it is shown by Valderrrama in the third

chapter of the Los de abajo:

... I love the revolution like a volcano in erruption; I love the volcano because it's a volcano, the revolution because it's the revolution! What do I care about the stones left above or below after the cataclysm? What are they to me?49

Las moscas, Domi tilo quiere ser diputado, and Las

tribulacLones de una familia decente were published in 1918.

Las tribulaciones de una familia decente is the longest and

strongest of all the three novels. The other two are so

short that they barely fall in the category of novels.

After the fall of Huerta, Alvaro Obregon's forces

entered Mexico city but were forced to retreat by the forces

of Pancho Villa and Zapata. However, Villa was subsequently

defeated by Obregon and he had to run towards the north.

This retreat of Villa to the north was given a novelistic

shape by Azuela in Las moscas.

49 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 406.

104

After Villa's defeat in the battle of Celaya, his men

and the moscas (files} are shown to be interested in every

possible event of enjoyment for being associated with Villa

and jump to the other side at the first opportunity. The

first part begins with a station located in the provincial

capital. The second part deals with lively and humorous

scenes of a train journey of Villa's forces. The scenes are

varied, rebellious and harsh. The principal characters are

of the Reyes Tellez family: mother Marta, her children--

librarian Matilde, typist Rosita and Professor Ruben. Ruben

is residing with a Carranza supporter friend in Irapuato to

manage to unite with Obregon. The three ladies follow

Villa's retreat waiting for the final decision. There is

hardly any plot or any protagonist. Different characters

appear and disappear in no time. An ordinary revolutionary--

Malacara, a Porfirian judge--Senor Rios, government

employees, director of school--Neftali, unemployed teachers-

-Raquel and Aurora, a former Porfirian--don Sinforso, and

even flirtatious women--Cachucha and Manuela. Azuela takes

them for flies looking for food. Of course, finally they

have an eye over their employment: "One of them says--we

are defending what is ours, our jobs. Our only party is

food.n50

Neftali Sancho Peredo de la Garza, an anti-

revolutionary from Mexico City, a law student with poetic

50 b'd I 1 • I VO 1. 2 I p. 913 •

105

pre tens ions, be longs to a group of bureaucrats and

represents the intellectual class. He sides with the forces

of Villa and hopes to get employment in the event of their

victory. He is otherwise unconcerned with the Revolution:

"You will know that I live shut away in my ivory tower, that

my spirit soars over mountain peaks with their eternal snows

of serenity, and that it will have nothing to do with all

this wretchedness they call revolution.n51

Las moscas is full of scenic beauty. Azuela in this

novel is close to painting. It may not be a great novel, but

its penetrating satire and brilliant paintings of the events

during the Revolution are superb. However, the novel cannot

be considered as realistic. Azuela also expresses the

feelings of the people thinking of the servitude of the

ordinary employees and functionaries by the new "senores":

"Those of us who had never lived on the payrolls of the

government felt unsurmountable repugnance at that show that

was appearing to us of abjection and misery. n52 Here, one

realizes that Azuela fails to mark a difference clearly

between the small and the powerful. To treat them all as

"moscas" does not justify Azuela's position and rather makes

his case weak.

51 b.d I 1 ., vol. 3, p. 1091.

52 b.d I 1 . , vo 1. 2 , p. 9 4 0.

106

Domitilo quiere ser diputado, which, in fact, is more a

long story than a novel, was also written in 1918. Don

Serapio Alvaradejo, a municipal treasurer of Peron, has

amassed big fortune and wants his son, Domitilo, to be a

ciputado (congressman). A Carrancista general, Xicotencatl

was named after two most important Aztec members, who fought

against Hernari Cortes. Domitilo, therefore, thinks that the

general will help him in becoming a congressman. Don Serapio

invents a way to amass more money by way of asking the rich

people to pay extra taxes in the name of the Carrancista

general. .Don Serapio' s philosophy is "Living is to adapt

oneself to the means.n53 An anonymous letter reaches Serapio

warning him either to reduce the taxes to a one-fourth or

the matter will be reported to the general. Knowing that in

the coming days he along with the general will have to leave

the place, Serapio tries to pacify the rich community and

says: " ... With the business of the poor we will solve the

business problems of the rich. n54 However, the telegram

stating the misdeeds of Serapio reaches the general. On

reading the telegram, the general bursts out laughing and

tells don Serapio who is frozen by terror: " ..• But how

stupid are your compatriots, don Serapio! ... But what would

these terrible fools say if they know that I also served

Huerta and when there was Porfirio, I was a policeman in the

53 b'd I 1 ., p. 937.

54 Ibid.

107

department of public prosecutor .... u55 It clearly shows the

hypocritical radicalism of General Cebollino. The radical

posture he shows is noteworthy:

We who bear the glorious ensign of Constitucionalism are on the point of undertaking the Holy crusade .... We are going to carry out the great work of cleansing Mexico of the leprosy of clericalism. We are astounding our brothers in South America with our portentous work of social renovation; we are asserting ourselves against the insolent Yankee. We shall, yet again, be a guiding light for senile Europe; yet again we shall strike terror into crowned heads. Reactionaries should either be left naked, or strung up from the nearest telegraphy pole, or both •... 56

Don Serapio' s daughter, Antoni ta, who is also less

virtuous like her brother Domitilo, ends the story eloping

with her father's clerk. The caricature of the events is

explained by the novelist himself:

... In these three brief works is reflected all my passion, bitterness and resentment of defeat. It was not only my hard economic condition that afflicted me, but the complete defeat of my Quixotism; the exploitation of the humble class continued as before and only the foremen had changed.57

Las tribulaciones de una familia decente is considered

as the end of the cycle of· the Revolution. The novel is

divided into two parts. This is the story of a hacendado

family of Zacatecas who, after constitucionalistas came into

55 Ibid., p. 948.

56 Ibid., pp. 928 and 936.

57 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 1093.

108

power, fled to Mexico City in June 1914. The hardships of

Vazquez Prado well-to-do landowner family increased after

the fall of the Porfirian regime. They move to the capital

in the hope of maintaining their social status. The mother,

Agustinita, is the dominating figure in the family being the

principal source of the family's wealth. Procopio, the

father, became part of the family by virtue of having got

married to Senora Augstinita. He was educated abroad and had

a different outlook. Perhaps that made him a little

different from the rest of the hacendados. It was reflected

in his human behaviour with the farm labourers and his love

for books. But for Agustinita he is no more than an insecure

henpecked husband. He did not have that ancestoral

background of

looked upon

aristocracy that his wife had. So he was

and often reminded of his poor family

background. He was the administrator in his would be father­

in-law's hacienda. He. impressed Senor Prado, his master, so

much that he was allowed to marry his daughter, Augstinita.

He, therefore, tried his best to adopt the aristocratic

ways of life, but he could not integrate himself with it

fully. Perhaps this was the reason that he could realize the

effects of the unavoidable changed circumstances caused by

the Revolution on the Vazquez Prado family.

Lulu and Berta are the two daughters in the family.

Lulu proposed to marry Archibaldo but the aristocracy came

in the way for he was from low background. Berta, a

109

headstrong and ambitious girl, married to Pascual who was

very clever ·and had managed to get a high post in the

Carrancista government. This was a ray of hope for the

entire family. But Pascual's opportunistic tendencies and

hyprocricy did not last long. His downfall virtually brought

the Vazquez Prado family to bankruptcy. The elder son,

Francisco Jose,· hardly has any role in the novel. He aspires

to be a poet of art for art category and takes to aspirins

in any critical situation. The youngest son in the family,

Cesar, narrates the entire story of the family in the first

part of the novel. When they first arrived in the Mexico

city, Cesar's reaction was:.

Where is the gloved hand raised courteously to greet us with affection as we pass? Where is there a single head bared respectfully or humbly bowed on seeing us? Glacial, disdainful, indifferent, insolent faces. That's all. How odious is the metropolis! Here, we are no more than a tiny drop of water in the immensity of the oceans.58

After the ·aristocratic way of life met an untimely

tragic end, the question of survival arose. Procopio,· for

the first time in his life, was no more under the money

power of the Vazquez Prado family. In order to save the

family from starvation, he found a job of a cashier for

himself with a business organization. This was unheard of an

aristocratic family member. So the following comments were

not unexpected:

58 Ibid., vol.1, p.433.

110

Who can any longer doubt that Procopio is set on being the dishonour of our forebears? He is dragging the immaculate name of our house through the mud!

He has descended to the condition of a wage-earner!

And he obliges his family to follow him in such an ignominious fall. I can't do that, I can't: I could sooner die! I hear the voice of the General Prado protesting in their cold tombs.59

When tradition~lism was no longer a way of life for the

distinguished Prado family, its hypocrisy could not be any

assurance of happiness. Las tribulationes de una familia

decente sketches the process of decline of an obstinate

aristocracy and Azuela portrays his revulsion for the same.

Procopio invites Archibaldo, who was earlier humiliated for

not belonging to aristocracy, and gives him his daughter

Lulu's hand. That is how Procopio, his daughter Lulu and her

erstwhile suitor, Archibaldo, overcome the difficult

situation of the family and start living a new lease of life

with dignity of labour.

After Revolution

Although by the end of 1918, Azuela had published ten

novels and novelettes, he was hardly known to large number

of readers. Principally, it was the moral obligation of the

critics to bring Azuela's creative world in the open in

which they miserably failed. Naturally, it was a great

59 Ibid., p. 556.

111

discouragement for the writer. Perhaps that was the reason

Mariano Azuela could not give a new novel until 1923. Walter

M. Langford clearly puts blame on the critics for their lack

of vision:

In their eyes his revolutionary theme and style represented a disturbing departure from the comfortable norm they had known and cultivated. They felt threatened by this new novelist and since they did not have Azuela's vision, nor had they shared his involvement in the epochal events of the Revolution, they completely ignored him.60

Realizing that he was not being recognized by the

critics, Azuela switched over to the European cubist style

and published three novels: La Malhora (1923), El desquite

(1925) and La luciernaga (written in 1927, but fully

published for the first time in 1932).

La malhora is a story of a fifteen years old prostitute

called Altagracia. This was also the story of the people of

Tepito living in utter poverty and who used to take to

pulque in order to try to forget their miseries. In fact,

the writer himself lived in Tepito and observed the people's

life through his creative eyes. Altagracia trying to take

revenge ·of her father's assassination gets injured. In the

hospital, she happens to know a doctorYs wife who takes her

in her charge: Al tagracia goes to doctor's house who is

neurotic and believer of theosophy. By receiving good

60 Walter M. Langford, The Mexican Novel Comes of Age, (Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1972), p.26.

112

treatment and by getting impressed by the theosophical

doctrine of general forgiveness, she believes to have been

salvaged. She then goes to the service of Las Gutierro --the

three devout ladies--who had reached Mexico City from

Irapuato after they had lost there everything during the

Revolution. They used to make their living by stiching

dresses. Altagracia is impressed so much by their devotion

that she also starts participating in their religious

activities. Everything went on smoothly for five years, but

then, on a Sunday, in front of the Church, Altagracia met

with her old prostitute enemy, Tapatia, and had a quarrel

with her in full public view. The three old ladies left her

on the street, and Altagracia was again left to return to

her old way. However, she tried to 1 i ve with honour and

found a job of a maidservant in the house of a Porfirian

general. But the ambiguity of her life forced her to take to

alchol. After a month, for her indecent behaviour, she was

chucked out of the house. She was left with no option than

to go for her old profession. Burning with anger to take

revenge on Tapatia and her lover Marcelo, she attacked them

to kill. But with first blow when she saw Tapatia's false

teeth falling down, she left the idea of stabbing her and

gave her a rosary to pray for her life.

After general's house, when Altagracia is shown second

time in the hospital, the doctors tell her that she is not

bodily ill: "Your ailment is concerned with the industries,

113

and not with the medical science, bred without salary. n61

Azuela drives his point home by suggesting that social evils

cannot be cured by medicines. Since the writer himself was a

doctor, he knew the weaknesses of the profession very well

and thus utilised the opportunity to criticise the unethical

doctors, not devoted to their profession: "These doctors--

tells one of the nurses of the hospital--the only thing they

know well is to make love to us.n62

Walter M. Langford rightly states about Azuela's this

creative work:

It is one of the earliest of the Mexican novels to depict with stark realism and shattering pessimism the subhuman existence of degraded individuals in the poorest part of Mexico City ..•. Here, there is generous use of confused and unexpected images, elliptical sentences, tricky metaphors, single word expected to do the work of many. Yet the author's most significant innovation lies in his enterinJ! the subconscious thoughts of one of his characters. 3

This new literary style was later perfected by Agustin

Yanez in his most celebrated novel, A1 filo del agua and by

Carlos Fuentes in La region mas transparente. The end of the

novel remained a puzzle for the critics as well as for the

readers as it was not clear whether Altagracia killed her

enemies--Tapatia and her lover Marcelo. Some of the critics

61 Azuela, n. 21, vol. 2, p. 974.

62 Ibid., p. 976.

63 Langford, n. 60, p. 27.

114

even interpreted the end by concluding that they were killed

by La malhora. However, this mystery was later clarified by

the author himself. La malhora "saw clearly the true

situation of her enemies, now old and beaten down by life,

and she forgave them with the most profound contempt. She

did not kill either la Tapatia or Marcelo. Her vengeance was

in scorning them."64

El desquite, published in 1925, used a modern narrative

style. It is indirectly narrated by a doctor who interviewed

various p.ersons, and their versions finally took .a

novelistic shape. Here also, like in Sin amor, Lupe was

married by her mother, Lenita, out of greed to a rich man,

Blas, nicknamed as Huachichile that denotes indigenous

ascendency. His father was once a muleteer and who succeeded

in building his high status. Lupe then broke with her lover,

Martin, and married unwillingly to Blas. And, as a

consequence, they always remained on bad terms and without

any son or daughter. Blas then adopted a child of one of his

relations. Child Ricardo, after some years, becomes a grown

up young man and conceives an idea of descrediting Lupe and

inherit the entire property of Blas. With this objective in

mind, he plans to seduce his adopted mother in a garden

after fixing there some witnesses. As this plan of Ricardo

fails, he sends some anonymous letters to Blas accusing Lupe

64 Azuela, quoted in Bernard M. Dulsey, "Azuela Revisited" 1 Hispania 1 vol. 35, 1952, p. 332.

115

of having illicit relation with the writer of the letters.

Lupe is a dominating type of lady. When Blas asks her about

her illicit relations as per those anonymous let:_ers, she

convinces him of her innocence. Both of them then go the

their ranch where after few weeks Blas dies. Blas, in fact,

became alcoholic that Lupe encouraged. After Blas' s death,

the rumour goes around that Lupe poisoned him. Lupe's old

lover Martin comes to defend her case and manages to get her

acquitted of the blame. Martin married his old lover Lupe,

but could not succeed in getting her rid of her guilty

conscience. Lupe suffers from the hallucination. Lupe sees

Blas's two eyes following her all the time which she cannot

resist and goes mad.

In this novel, Azuela attempted to use new narrative

style. Azuela seems to be influenced by the modern European

literary currents. But Azuela's narrative originality

developed in his earlier novels does appear at many places

in the novel. For example, the description of a train

journey in which the youth days of Martin and Lupe are

shown. The surrealistic style is reflected in the events.

But the novel cannot be considered as one of the major works

of Azuela. He is not able to build up the sensational terror

that Lupe should have experienced on seeing Blas' s

persecuting eyes. One does not really know why Ricardito

has not been questioned for Blas's death. There are many

other questions that remain unanswered and that make this

116

novel weak. Whether Blas retaliates (desquite) for Lupe

could not give him a child or for having been poisioned is

difficult to say. Azuela tries to harmonize the modernist

style with his narrative technique. Except for some changes

here and there, the theme has already been dealt by Azuela

in his earlier novels.

Walter M. Langford remarks that " ... La luciernaga ranks

high among his total output. In fact, it probably stands,

along with Los de abajo and Las tribulaciones de una familia

decente, as one of Azuela's three best works.n65 Similarly,

Luis Leal says: "Without any doubt, La luciernaga is, after

Los de abajo, the best novel of Azuela. "66 In this case,

action does not simply pass from a village to capital or

from capital to a village, but from central character

Dionisio's heart to his brother Jose Maria's heart.

Although Azuela had been 'discovered' for his great

contribution to the Mexican literature by april 1925, it was

only in 1932 that La luciernaga was published in Spain. Luis

Leal, however, claims that this novel was written around·

1926.67 It is, therefore. a gap of seven years between the

publication of El desquite in 1925 and that cf La luciernaqa

in 1932 that speaks about Azuela's discontent with the

65 Langford, n. 60, p. 28.

66 Leal, n. 10, p. 61.

67 Ib'd 57 1 • , p. .

117

Mexican literary critics. When La luciernaga appeared in

1932, Azuela had already reached the peak of his popularity,

but he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura only in

1949 when he was seventy-six. It is quite unfortunate that

many lesser important writers had already been awarded this

prize much earlier.

La luciernaga is divided into four parts. It is a sad

story of a Mexican family that abandons its native town

Cieneguilla during the Revolution and goes to the capital

for more comforts and better education to its children. The

family gradually loses its money and the head of the family,

Dionisio, becomes alcoholic. Azuela knits al"l these events

in the process of Mexico's so-called socio-political

development that were, in fact, undoing the course of the

Revolution. The first two parts of the novel deal with

repercussions of the Revolution whereas the remaining two

parts describe the first few years of the Plutarco Elias

Calles's regime. Calles has assumed presidency in December

1924. La luciernaga is a social account of this period and

critically illustrates the changing social environment of

the capital as well as of the countryside. It is noteworthy

here that Azuela's return to the Mexican society's burning

problems is seen after he was well recognized for his

literary genius and Los de abajo was talk of the town.

118

Don Bartolo, a well to do man of Cieneguilla leaves

behind a fortune for his two sons-- Jose Maria and Dionisio.

On the advice of shrewd Jose Maria, the division of don

Bartolo's property is made in such a way that Dionisio is

given fifteen thousand pesos in cash and rest of the

property is retained by Jose Maria . Dionisio thought that

that much money would be sufficient for him to start a

business. He, therefore, goes to the capital with his wife,

Conchita, and four children. His plans of making lot of

money in the capital and giving good education to his

children which was not possible in a small town proved to be

wrong. What he did not know was that the trustworthy and

secure atmosphere of the interior was not to be seen

anywhere in the capital and that there everybody was waiting

to get rich on the expenses of others. His fifteen thousand

pesos were good enough to attract hotel and restaurant

owners to present him hefty bills. The same way he was quite

an attraction for his compatriots who were ever ready to

'help' him in his new venture. So he fell p:ey to all these

city slickers and was soon penniless. Dionisio not only

became weak economically, he had also become weak physically

and morally. Whatever money was left with him, he bought a

second-hand bus. Under the influence of alcohol, he hit with

his bus a tram with full of passengers killing some of them.

He escapes unhurt and unnoticed but he was completely

destroyed. Dionisio's family got to know about the accident

119

when the report of the accident was published in the

newspapers. With this accident scene unfolds the story of La

luc_iernaga. The reader gradually comes to know that Dionisio

was fed up of miserable life and, in order to get rid of it,

he had deliberately hit his bus with the tram. As he could

not kill himself in that accident, he was more sad and felt

guilty of the crime. The real theme is of Dionisio's

"total eclipse of his intelligence and will power"68 and the

growing misery of his family.

Dionisio is introduced to narcotic business and

gradually he gets involved in the underworld. The whole

family now starts living on his daughter, Maria Cristina's

earnings as a prostitute. In Cieneguilla, Jose Maria

receives one letter from Dionisio seeking his financial

help. Then he receives a telegram threatening to commit

suicide if no help is received. Jose Maria just ignores

them, but on reading in a newspaper about the assassination

of Maria Cristina in a wild night of orgy, he legates to his

brother 2578.12 pesos that he had swindled of him. Jose

Maria also dies of tuberculosis. He had survived the ups and

downs of the Revolution and had managed to become rich. With

the money inherited from his brother Jose Maria, Dionisio

opens a shop. But he had to close his shop as the corrupt

inspectors of the Calles regime either fined him or

68 Azuela, n. 21, vol. 1, p. 594.

120

confiscated things from his shop in

this rule or that rule. They even

the garb of violating

fined Dionisio for

keeping a petrol can in the shop just to contain water in

it. They argued that the presence of can was sufficient

proof for illegal sale of petrol.

This was a sad commentary that Azuela made on the

corrupt government of Calles. During that incident, Dionisio

happens to meet La Genrala, who suggests him to open a

Pulqueria (pulque bar). He agrees to it and makes investment

in a cheap tavern called La Noche Buena. La Generala takes

charge of the bar as authorities do not come to trouble her.

The business picks up, but La Generlas very cleverly

introduces Dionisio to some underworld figures. Dionisio no

more remains master of his acts. The circumstances create a

distance between him and his family. He is no more capable

of taking care of his family . His son, Sebastian, becomes

seriously ill and the boy dies. Conchita could not resist

this situation any more. She was completely shaken and

could not depend on Dionisio any.more for the upbringing of

l)er remaining two children. In order to save her two

children from the physical and moral dangers in the. capital,

Conchite quietly leaves for Cieneguilla without even

informing Dionisio. During the same year, on the Christmas

day, his partner La Generala opens the cash box and flees

carrying all the money. This was the last blow on Dionisio

121 77-1-4 89~

as he was left to his miseries all alone with no family and

no friends around.

The last part of the novel begins with Conchita in

cieneguilla somehow able to work and maintain her family.

She sends her two children to study in the Catholic school.

This is also the period of fanatic agitations. It helps

Conchita to restore her normal life as fanatics take her as

their ally in the fight against the government's anti-

religious policies. But Conchita finds herself neither side.

She had fled from a system that forced her teen- aged

daughter to take to prostitution and who was ultimately

assassinated. She had also lost her adolscent son who had

also got mixed with a band of misled boys of the capital.

She would not lose her two children any more even at the

cost of her own life. For Azuela Conchita represents the

best in Mexican motherhood. Conchita is undoubtedly the

strongest female character in all the novels of Azuela. The

message that Azuela conveys through La luciernaga is the

character of Conchita:

She is not just a mother; a mother can be a she wolf, a hyena, a snake. She is the Christian wife who follows her companion, even if he is beset by sickness, by misery, by vice, or by crime itself. If the mission of the firefly is to make the night blacker with its tiny light, the firefly, by twinkling, fulfils its mission.69

Conchita comes to know through the newspaper that

Dionisio has been gravely injured while committing some

69 Azuela, n. 21, p. 663.

122

crime. She cannot resist herself and decides to go to see

Dionisio • She sells her things to buy tickets for reaching

Mexico City. They meet each other when Dionisio comes out of

the hospital. Dionisio ends the story by saying, "I had a

hunch ·you would have to come back.n70

Azuela was deeply disturbed by the deteriorating social

values even after the Revolution. The degrading human values

make the writer to comment: "Here honesty to the whole world

is quoted in hard cash. n71 Azuela takes up without any

hinderance the cause of the common people. the underdogs who

were living the same sub- human·life that they lived under

the Spanish colonial rule and during the porfirian regime.

He, therefore, decides to attack all sorts of corruption,

opportunism and anti-people bureaucratic structure that were

out to undermine the gains of the Revolution. In fact, it

would not be exaggerating Azuela if it is said that he gave

the Mexican novel a sense of purpose and a new direction.

Only Agustin Yanez and Carlos Fuentes can be considered at

par with Mariano Azuela as far. as the question of Mexican

novel is concerned. Azuela' s greatness was to make the

uprooted, the downtrodden and the exploited peon th~ central

character of his creative world and the topic of discussion

at all intellectual fora. It is this factor that brought the

national question to the focus.

/0 b'd I 1 . , p. 667.

71 Ibid., p. 580.

123

The point of take off for Azuela's literary works was

the criticism of then existing social panorama and

circumstances that were injust, absurd, and devoid of human

values and national consciousness. Reforma's slogans of

truth, liberty, justice and progress that were the outcome

of liberal rationalism and that demanded to break with the

feudal past being protected by the Latifundistas and the

Church, had deep influence on Azuela's creativity. Azuela's

liberalism was impregnated with humanitarianism that was

against man's exploitation by man. That is why while

defending the liberal ideology, he could not support the

economic goals of the force aspiring to achieve capitalistic

exploitation. Azuela was not only demanding authentic and

socially conscious art and literature but also national

identity and pride even to his Los de abajo.

124