SOURCE: Review of The Underdogs, by Mariano Azuela. Publishers Weekly 249, no. 37 (16 September 2002): 52.

In the following positive review of The Underdogs, the critic notes how the novel is memorable due to its portrayal of the protagonist as an archetype of Mexico's national character.

First published in 1915, Azuela's ground-breaking novel [The Underdogs] about a Mexican peasant who becomes a revolutionary leader is now being issued in a revised translation with a set of illuminating footnotes (notes and revisions by Beth E. Jörgensen). Demetrio Macías is the protagonist who joins the rebels in their efforts to overthrow Mexico's corrupt dictator, Porfirio Díaz, and Macías's brash approach to military tactics speeds his rise through the ranks. His background is articulated by journalist Luis Cervantes, who abandons the government to aid the rebels as he provides background on Macías in the early chapters. While the new general's forces...