Bilingual Press / Editorial Bilingüe

Race and Social Class in Azuela's Characterization of the Bandido

Author(s): Santiago Daydí-Tolson
Source: Bilingual Review / La Revista Bilingüe, Vol. 29, No. 2/3, GOOD BANDITS, WARRIOR
WOMEN, AND REVOLUTIONARIES IN HISPANIC CULTURE (MAY-DECEMBER 2008-2009), pp.
75-80
Published by: Bilingual Press / Editorial Bilingüe
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41377799
Accessed: 05-11-2018 19:24 UTC

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 Santiago Day dí-T oison
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

observes that Mariano Azuela's The Underdogs was seen by most Mexi-
In observes his article that "La Mariano novela Azuela's mexicana The frente Underdogs al porfirismo" was seen John by most Brushwood Mexi-
cans as a novel that, having captured the essence of the revolutionary
commotion that followed the fall of Porfirio Díaz, had the function to define the
Mexican nation. ["Cuando los mexicanos se dieron cuenta de que Mariano Azue-
la había captado en Los de abajo la esencia de las conmociones revolucionarias
que siguieron a la caída de Porfirio Díaz, la novela comenzó a desempeñar con
plena seguridad su función de intérprete de la nación mexicana" (Brushwood 7).]
A document that virtually antecedes the journalistic and graphic reports of con-
temporary wars, The Underdogs was conceived and presented as "Pictures and
Scenes of the Present Revolution" ["Cuadros y escenas de la revolución actual"
(Robe 123)], that is, as a realist depiction of what was happening in Mexico at
the time. The novel narrated the same events that were being reported and com-
mented on in the pages of El Paso del Norte , the Spanish-language newspaper in
El Paso, Texas, that published the novel in folletín form in 1915. As such, The
Underdogs gave a fairly true account of the social forces that were the cause, in
part, of what for the author had turned out to be a failed revolution.
Disenchantment with politics and revolution is the essential thematic ele-
ment of The Underdogs , and that can be seen in its three-part narrative struc-
ture that represents in its development Azuela's own intellectual experience
with the revolution: his initial idealized optimism, followed by the sobering
experience of his direct involvement in the military action and, finally, the sense
of disillusionment and doom that took hold of him when he faced the political
reality and the human egotistical interests behind the revolution. In order to
express his loss of faith in what he had thought was a revolutionary movement
for the betterment of the Mexican underdogs, Azuela had to weave the story of
an ideal betrayed by the practical ways of the world: a literary representation
of his own intellectual and moral story of a mistaken revolutionary, someone
who fought not for himself but for the others, his people, the ones he knew had
lost all hope of a change for the better. Azuela "observed at first hand the wild
excitement, the bewilderment, the brutality, the hopes, the frustrations of the
people of the sierras, of the underdogs" (Hendricks xvii) and depicted them as
realistically and directly as he knew how to do, being the experienced realist
writer he was: a keen observer of his society.

75

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7 6 SANTIAGO DAYDÍ-TOLSON

Basically, in The Underdog

classical story of the hero, t
who naively confronts the e
society of men, only to be d
in power, are disdainful of j
pragmatics of politics pract
1266), as he calls them, always
for social justice. Faced with t
the cultural constructs respo
the issues of class and race th
when independent Mexico, a c
racial groups, was fighting vi
Almost half of the 15 million
to the illiterate population, th
majority of them must have b
proportion among the 40 perc
self belonged to the 20 percen
them educated Creoles, but he
as a medical doctor. He migh
gested by Stanley Robe when
at the time he joined the revol
tall and stockily built, with li
(13). His clientele in his hom
practiced general medicine un
October 1914, were mostly me
mestizos and Indians. Azuela k
Azuela's practice was that of a
the townspeople and the farm
He had long shown a person
people, most of whom were
From his earliest years Azue
origins were modest, springi
and he was comfortable whe

In his novel Azuela depicts th

the lower classes, some of th
not to generalize or stereotyp
them are different, individua
of characters.

He evidences a strong feeling of sympathetic understanding for the

countrymen of Jalisco and Zacatecas "whose eyes were those of
children and whose hearts were wide open" as a consequence of his
having shared with them "many of their joys, many of their longings,
and much of their bitterness." Years later when all of them had disap-
peared, he expressed the wish to pay homage to "each indomitable
member of the indigenous race, generous and uncomprehending ..."

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RACE AND SOCIAL CLASS IN AZUELA'S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BANDIDO 77

writes Hendricks (xix), translating Azuela's own comments about his huma
interest in the ranchers he served as a doctor: "Compartí con aquellos rancheros
de Jalisco, Zacatecas - ojos de niño y corazones abiertos - muchas de las alegrías,
muchos de los anhelos y muchas de sus amarguras . . . quiero dedicar estos ren
glones a esa casta indómita, generosa e incomprendida" (OC III, 1268).
His own social group he also knows well, of course, and represents it mostly
through two distinctly opposite types of individuals: Luis Cervantes, "el seudo-
rrevolucionario y logrero" (OC III, 1081), the one specifically described as white,
is the figure of the tejón, the "badger," or political opportunist, as Azuela refers
to this type of person later in his retrospective writings (Robe 7), while Alberto
Solis, the disillusioned officer, obviously from the middle class and supposedl
white, could be seen as the idealist who is doomed to succumb to the forces o
pragmatism and political expediency. In fact, this character represents Azuela's
own disenchantment with the revolution: "[M]i situación fue entonces," says the
novelist in one of his commentaries about the composition of The Underdogs
"la de Solis en mi novela" (OC III, 1081).
Solis, though, was not the character Azuela needed to narrate the story o
his disillusionment. Although the young army officer was an idealist and Azue-
la's literary alter ego, he did not serve the novelist as well as other character
would to depict the violent and pointless actions of the revolution as Azue
experienced them. The disenchanted white army officer lacked the class and
race markings and the revolutionary motivation and zeal to be a war leade
In his cynical view of the political situation Solis speaks better for Azuela him-
self, who had abandoned politics even before serving the revolution as medic
officer and director of public education. "Disillusion follows," comments Hen
dricks about Azuela's experience, "expressed in the words of the officer Alberto
Solis who reflects Azuela's own situation at the time he wrote the novel" (xx
Solis is neither the opportunistic tejón , nor is he the enraged man of action wh
takes up arms in the name of justice.
In spite of the fact that traditionally and historically the bandit has been
a white or mestizo from the middle class, Azuela opted for a different charac
terization, turning his attention to the actual fighters as he knew them from
direct experience. He centered, then, the action of his novel on a character that
encompassed in his persona all the qualities of a rebel as seen in real life and
in the popular literary traditions. Demetrio Macias, his hero, a noble band
of sorts, the true revolutionary, is not a representative from the middle class,
nor is he a white man or a mestizo; he is an Indian, a true underdog from th
lowest class and the "inferior" race. Azuela explains at length how the different
characters of his novel are taken from real individuals (OC III, 1082-1086), bu
he also observes that "los mejores personajes de una novela serán aquellos que
más lejos estén del modelo" (OC III, 1082).
That is the case with Demetrio Macias, who is a composite of real individuals
and literary characters. It has been said that Azuela chose General Julián Medina,
for whom he served as medical officer, as the model for his protagonist. "Julián
Medina me dio la impresión de ser un revolucionario por convicción y de sana

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78 SANTIAGO DAYDt-TOLSON

tendencias," Azuela explains,

tive of the type of hero he
genuino de ranchero de Jalis
1079), not unlike Demetrio
Azuela insists on the literary
taken from the real person
manejar con amplia liberta
The type he created, Dem
real life, also a member of
unos veinte años, alto, flac
Julián Medina en la sustit
becomes a true literary fig
Luis Leal, "Azuela combine
General Julián Medina and
adds the racial characterizati
ily taken from reality, as ne
that ethnic group.
From the first scenes in th
ure of the man from the lan
of the novel he is shown a
(Three Novels 163); a few
"the dark opening of the d
to what has been described
rough white cloth" (Three
the textile mill in Lagos de M
the rancheros and those of
bermeja, sin pelo de barba,
de soyate y guaraches" (I, I,
direct reference to Demetr
that revealed his purely in
Novels 195) ["en sus mejilla
la sangre roja y caliente" (I
The characterization of Dem
tive beyond those three re
was not being historically co
whom Azuela served as chief
took as partial models for
la on another occasion desc
exactly the same words he u
of ruddy complexion, his ey
hair" (Robe 14). In his dress,
simple white muslin shirt an
and a deerskin jacket trim
more akin to the garments
having an olive-hued skin an

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RACE AND SOCIAL CLASS IN AZUELA'S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BANDIDO 79

his not being a mestizo instead of an Indian. The fact that the American consul
in Guadalajara at the time of Villa's triumphal entrance in the city identifie
Medina as an Indian is not proof of Medina's race, either. In a letter reporting hi
visit to Medina, who had been installed as governor, the consul writes: "General
Medina looks the Indian - General Medina acts the Indian - General Medina is
an Indian - and, worst of all, an untutored Indian" (Robe 21). In his description
of the revolutionary general the consul is basically following the stereotype of the
Mexican commonly held in those days in the United States (Evans 69-75).
A possible explanation for Azuela's characterization of Demetrio Macias as
a pure Indian could be suggested by looking at other Mexican novels dealing
with bandits and sociopolitical turmoil in previous periods of revolutionary
upheavals. Very briefly one could compare how in El periquillo Sarniento the
bandits are all Creole mestizos, "consistent with Lizardi's social hierarchy in
which indigenous people are too degraded to be men of action" (Frazer 103-
4), while years later, at another period of revolutionary fighting, in El Zar co ,
by Ignacio Altamirano, class and race are much of the essence in this novel's
proposal of a national new order. The mestizo, in this case, is the negative char-
acter, while the Indian appears as the forceful defender of justice. The bandit, El
Zarco, is, as his own given name indicates, a blue-eyed white man or a mestizo,
as suggested in his physical description by the "blanco impuro" of his skin:
El joven no tenía mala figura: su color blanco impuro, sus ojos de ese
color azul claro que el vulgo llama zarco , sus cabellos de un rubio
pálido y su cuerpo esbelto y vigoroso, le daban una apariencia venta-
josa; pero su ceño adusto, su lenguaje agresivo y brutal, su risa aguda y
forzada, tal vez le habían hecho poco simpático a las mujeres. (25)

To his physical aspect are added some elements of his character, "Su organización
grosera y sensual, acostumbrada desde la juventud al vicio . . ." (24), that make
of him a negative figure, the opposite of the heroic bandit.
In contrast with this white bandido, the figure of the Indian Nicolás appears
as the personification of virtue:

era un joven trigueño, con el tipo indígena bien marcado, pero de cuerpo
alto y esbelto, de formas hercúleas, bien proporcionado y cuya fisonomía
inteligente y benévola predisponía desde luego en su favor. Los ojos
negros y dulces, su nariz aguileña, su boca grande, provista de una den-
tadura blanca y brillante, sus labios gruesos, que sombreaba apenas una
barba naciente y escasa, daban a su aspecto algo de melancólico, pero de
fuerte y varonil al mismo tiempo. Se conocía que era un indio, pero no
un indio abyecto y servil, sino un hombre culto, ennoblecido por el tra-
bajo y que tenía la conciencia de su fuerza y su valer. ( Zarco 11)

That Azuela decided in favor of creating an Indian hero is probably due to his
own views as a turn-of-the-century Mexican on the qualities of the Indian in
comparison with the other national racial groups and their political agency. It
seems that by his characterization of Macias as an Indian, Azuela was pointing
not so much to the qualities of the Indian as a natural man free from the vice

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80 SANTIAGO DAYDÍ-TOLSON

of modern society, as to t
whose interests were far f
tion. In spite of the realist
of the Present Revolution,
creation, an idealization, per
effective representation of
a complex social structure in
of millions.
The final scene of the nov
as a revolutionary poster c
revolutionary and freedom
sacrifice should not be forg
The smoke of the firing w
their imperturbable and m
doves sang lyrically; cows p
The mountain range displ
sible peaks the brilliantly w
head of a bride.
At the foot of the great hollow as impressive as the portico of an
old cathedral, Demetrio Macias, with his eyes forever fixed, continued to
aim the barrel of his rifle. (Three Novels 261).

Altamirano, Ignacio M. El Zarco: La Navidad en las montañas. Introducción de María del

Carmen Millán. México: Porrúa, 1966. Print.

ald Christ and Sheridan Phillips. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Lum
Azuela, Mariano. Los de abajo. Edited John Englekirk and Law
Hall, 1971. Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 1992.

Brushwood, John. "La novela mexicana frente al porfiri

rrativa mexicana del porfiriato. México: UNAM, 1998.
3 (ene-mar, 1958). Print.
Evans, James Leroy. The Indian Savage, the Mexican Ban
Popular Stereotypes. Austin: U of Texas P, 1967.
Frazer, Chris. Bandit Nation: A History of Outlaws and
1920 . Lincoln, NE: U of Nebraska P, 2006.
Hendricks, Frances Kellam. Introduction. Three Novels b
TX: Trinity UP, 1979. xvii-xxv.
Leal, Luis. Mariano Azuela. New York: Twayne Publishin
Robe, Stanley L. Azuela and the Mexican Underdogs. Ber
Three Novels by Mariano Azuela: Trials of a Respectable Fa
Trans. Frances Kellam Hendricks and Beatrice Berler.
1979.

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