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.

“Mariano Azuela, more than any other novelist of the Mexican Revolution, lifts the heavy stone of history to see what there is underneath it.” —Carlos Fuentes

 
Born in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico, in 1873, Mario Azuela trained as a doctor in Guadalajara and returned to Lagos in 1909 to begin his practice. After the Revolution, in which he participated, he emigrated to El Paso, where he wrote The Underdogs. He is the author of number of other novels in which he continued to explore the theme of the revolution’s impact on Mexican society and to express his passion for social justice, such as The Bosses, The Flies, and The Trials of a Respectable Family.

Ilán Stavans is a professor of Spanish at Amherst College, and author of On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language, The Hispanic Condition, as well as the editor of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories, among others. He has been a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize.

Beth Jörgensen is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Rochester. She has published The Writings of Elena Poniatowska: Engaging Dialogues and articles on Poniatowska, Margo Glantz and Benita Galeana.