The participation of López y Fuentes in the Revolution was more limited than that of Azuela or Guzmán but sufficiently committing to give him enough first-hand experience to assimilate its physical details and movement as well as its idealistic and ironical under- and overtones. Moreover, as a native of the state of Veracruz with roots deep in the psychology and customs of Indians and mestizos, as one of the unsuccessful defenders of Veracruz against the U.S. occupying force of 1914, and as an adherent to the Carranza faction, he acquired a set of experiences and perspectives that differed somewhat from those of [other writers]….

The geographical proximity of the state of Veracruz to the state of Morelos facilitated the opportunities of López y Fuentes to study and to understand the rôle of the most pure in motive of the revolutionary figures. Emiliano Zapata, in...