SOURCE: Dulsey, Bernard. “The Mexican Revolution as Mirrored in the Novels of Mariano Azuela.” Modern Language Journal 35, no. 5 (May 1951): 382-86.

In the following essay, Dulsey traces Azuela's use of historical events in his novels, contending that the drama in his works stems from real events, and that his novels chart the course of the Mexican revolution.

In the novels of one man, Mariano Azuela, the Mexican revolution becomes a warmly pulsing segment of history. Azuela, who is primarily known as the author of Los de Abajo, has lived through the entire revolution—the social and economic upheaval as well as the military—and has recorded much of what he has lived. His plots are not furthered by taking liberties with historical data; rather the historically significant data serve him as a foundation on which to erect his novels.

Mexican history furthermore, from 1810 to the present years, is reflected...