I stumbled across this book among the cheap paperbacks at my
local used bookstore. The back of the book tells me that it was originally
published in “small El Paso paper” so I had to read it. It was written in 1915
and tells of the recent chaos of a generally chaotic Mexican Revolution, as
seen by one Demetrio Macías. Demetrio becomes a revolutionary out of anger at
the cruel policies of the Federales. He puts together a small army that become
renowned for its fantastic marksmanship, which leads to a few stunning
victories over much larger groups of government troops. But the real story of
the novel is the degeneration of Demetrio—who is far from an ideologue—from
acting as an instrument of revolution to a war-loving tool of tyrants. As such
the real purpose of the books is to describe Azuela’s own disillusionment with
the country and the revolution that he fled, coming to the United States where
he wrote his novel. He does this by peopling his book with small-minded
peasants and crazies and drunkards, who barely, if at all, understand what they
are fighting for or against, and by the end don’t even seem to care if they are
being used.
