The Underdogs: A novel of the Mexican Revolution

“When, after many hours of climbing, he gazed back, huge flames shot up from the depths of the canyon by the river. His house was on fire.”

Demetrio’s involvement in the Revolution begins as a quest for personal vengeance. The Federals have come in the night, forced him to leave his wife and infant, and burned down his home. The burning of the home foreshadows the night when he will spare Don Mónico’s life but burn down his house.

“‘May God help you and lead you to safety! Today it’s you, but tomorrow we’re also leaving here, feeling the draft, chased down by those damned government people who’ve declared a fight to the death against all us poor folks. They steal our pigs, our chickens, and even our corn. They burn our houses and carry off our women, and if they ever get hold of us, they kill us on the spot like rabid dogs.’”

Early in the novel, peasants thank Demetrio and pray for his men in their fight against the government. Over the course of the novel, Demetrio’s rebels will eventually perform the same loathsome acts as the Federals. The peasants will come to fear them just as they do the government men, and the rebels will not see that they have become the enemy of the people they claimed to protect.

“‘What cause are we defending?’”

When Demetrio meets Luis, he is skeptical of his claim that he wants to help with their cause. Initially, Demetrio’s question looks like a strategy to find out whether Luis is sincere and trustworthy. By the end of the novel, when Demetrio is no longer sure why he is fighting, it can be argued that he may have actually been asking the question sincerely, out of a desire to learn.

“‘The revolution benefits the poor, the ignorant, all those who have been slaves all their lives, all the unfortunate people who don’t even suspect they’re poor because the rich take their sweat and blood and tears and turn it into gold.’”

This quote encapsulates Luis’ early view of the Revolution. For him, it is not merely a fight between men, but a fight between good and evil, and between good and evil ideas. He believes that they are fighting to liberate literal slaves from an oppressive government. By the end of Part 2, the unfortunate people he refers to will become the victims of Demetrio and the rebels.

“‘Where are those men on Pancho Villa’s payroll, so admirably equipped and mounted, who get paid in only pure silver pieces that Villa coins at the Chihuahua mint? Bah! Barely two dozen half-naked, mangy men, some of them riding decrepit mares with sores from withers to tail.’”

Luis is shocked by the shabbiness of Demetrio’s group. He has written in newspapers about the wealth and appearance of Villa’s rebels, and realizes that he has been mistaken. The sight of Demetrio’s men, however, also makes Luis wonder if their reputation as bandits who only want to enrich themselves under the guise of revolutionaries might be warranted. They look like men who would resort to banditry.

“‘Don’t forget that curros are like moisture, they seep in everywhere. It’s the curros who stopped up reaping the harvest of the revolution.’”

After Demetrio compliments Luis’ medical skill, Venancio reminds him that people like Luis are the reason the Revolution is necessary. “Curro” is a slang term for a fancy, pretentious person who makes a show of their education and wealth. Venancio will quickly become a supporter of Luis, but his early attitude toward him is typical of the rebel view of the educated.

“‘What the devil are you waiting for, silly fool? If the chief likes you, what more do you want?’”

After Camilla hints to Luis that she likes him, he is shocked. He holds Demetrio in such high regard that he views her choice of him over Demetrio as an indication of her stupidity. Luis’ words foreshadow the choice he will make later to lie to Camilla in order to bring her to Demetrio. He believes that anything that makes Demetrio happy and fulfilled can only benefit the Revolution.

“‘I’m no good at that sort of thing. And I don’t like the idea of accepting orders from anybody.’”

When Luis encourages Demetrio to meet with Natera and join forces, Demetrio is reluctant. His insistence that he wants to act independently is ironic given that, later in the novel, he tells Natera that he doesn’t want to make decisions, he just wants to be told what to do. As long as Demetrio feels that he understands the cause for the Revolution, he is confident in his ability to make the right choices. Once he begins to see how ignorant he is of politics, his confidence in anything but his ability and willingness to fight vanishes.

“‘We are the tools Destiny makes use of to reclaim the sacred rights of the people. We are not fighting to dethrone a miserable murderer, we are fighting against tyranny itself.’”

After Demetrio tells Luis his reasons for joining the Revolution, Luis argues that Demetrio does not understand how important he is. Demetrio’s desire for vengeance is petty, in Luis’ view, because Luis sees the rebels as embroiled in a war for salvation. He speaks of “sacred” rights with religious fervor. This early, sincere idealism makes Luis’ transformation into a petty, indifferent criminal more jarring.

“‘You’ve been very good to me. Why, you’ve been more than a friend, you’ve taken care of me like a sister. I’m very grateful to you; and I’ll always remember what you did.’”

When Luis says goodbye to Camilla, he acknowledges that she has cared for him and that he is in her debt. Later, when he lies to her and then abducts her in order to deliver her to Demetrio, there is no indication that he still feels so kindly toward her. At that point, Luis feels little emotion at all, and is able to treat Camilla, whom he claimed to view as a sister, as property.

“Pancracio and Manteca surpass the others in the butchery by killing off the wounded. Montañez, exhausted, lets his hand fall limp; he still has that sweet look in his eyes; a child’s naïveté and a jackal’s amorality light up his face.”

The men have transitioned from fighting to butchery. They kill off the wounded with joy, joking as they do so. The description of Montañez as childlike and with a sweet look in his eyes depict a man who is beginning to enjoy killing. The jackal is a savage animal, and the use of the word amorality describes Montañez as someone who no longer sees killing in terms of right or wrong.

“‘There are facts and there are men that are pure poison. And that poison drips into your soul and turns everything bitter. Enthusiasm, hopes, ideals, joys…all come to naught.’”

Solís describes the reasons why he lost his enthusiasm for the Revolution. His participation in the conflict has brought him into contact with other idealists, but also with violent thugs. His constant witness of brutality has made him cynical about the Revolution, but also about humanity itself.

“‘It is like the hurricane, and the man who joins it isn’t a man anymore…he’s a miserable dead leaf caught up in the windstorm.’”

Solís speaks as if a man who joins the Revolution sacrifices his agency. War dehumanizes people when they treat each other as enemies and targets. The dead leaf is not able to choose to leave the fight. Rather, it is completely at the mercy of the forces controlling it. Demetrio’s continued fighting—even after gaining the chance to stay with his wife—is an example of the man behaving as the dead leaf in the storm.

“‘One man’s the same as the next. No man’s got more guts than any other, if you ask me. For fighting, all you need is a little pride. I may be dressed like hell, but let me tell you, I don’t have to be here.’”

When the men discuss the fine uniforms allegedly worn by Villa’s men, they are self-conscious about their own clothes. Montañez is an exception. He defines a man’s worth as his willingness to fight and his ability to take pride in his courage. He reminds the other men that they are volunteers. They did not initially begin fighting with riches or success in their futures in mind. They joined because they believed in the cause.

“The theme is inexhaustible.”

The theme referred to here is the reality of cyclical violence. The rebels transform into bandits, rapists, and thugs. Each town they enter now has cause to fear them, whereas at the outset the arrival of the rebels was cause for celebration. The description of the theme as inexhaustible is an indictment of humanity itself, because war and violence will exist as long as humans do.

“‘Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, and you take it without asking anyone for permission. Who’s the revolution for, anyhow? For the rich folks? We’re the fancy ones now.’”

Pintada delights in the power that being a rebel gives her. She is not concerned with liberating peasants from oppression. Rather, she wants to be able to steal, intimidate, and kill without consequences. Each victory is not a step closer to a free and just Mexico, but a chance to increase her own fanciness.

“A painful silhouette has crossed his mind. A woman with a child in her arms, walking over the rocks of the sierra in the moonlight…a house in flames.”

When Demetrio decides to spare Don Mónico’s life, it is because he remembers his own wife and child. He is unwilling to kill the man and leave his wife and children without a husband and father. Part of Demetrio is still unwilling to abandon the early ideals of the Revolution.

“‘If you could only see that I don’t care for money.’”

During another looting spree, Demetrio tells Luis that wealth is unimportant to him. Seeing his rebels acting as bandits depresses him. He is still committed enough to what he believes are the Revolution’s ideals that he sees the looting as dishonorable to their cause. His unwillingness to revel in theft is part of what begins to alienate him from his increasingly unruly men.

“‘The poor devil lying out there dead was the church sexton, but what an idiot! His own fault, of course! Who in the name of hell could be so foolish as to dress up in trousers, coat, cap, and all?’”

Pancracio’s morality has deteriorated to the point where he can justify the murder of a sexton because he is annoyed by how the man dresses. Life has become so cheap to Demetrio’s men that mere irritation is now a cause for killing. At this point there is no pretending that the Revolution matters to the men. They are just indulging their vicious appetites.

“‘To tell the truth, I don’t think it’s wrong to kill, because when you kill, it’s always out of anger.’”

Güero is the most sadistic character in the novel. He enjoys tormenting prisoners and killing for the sake of causing death. This quote distills his ability to justify his reasons for violence. He views anger itself as a virtue, and as a sign that a wrong has been committed and must then be put right again. He views theft as a greater wrong than murder, because greed is a base motive when compared to anger.

“‘It seems to me that the meat of the matter is that we’ve got to go on fighting. All Right! Let’s go to it! You know me, General, I’m game to the end.’”

Natera tries to get Demetrio to tell him which side he will fight for after political power shifts again. Demetrio does not care whom he fights for; he sees his purpose as simply to continue fighting. He is also willing to die fighting, despite no longer fighting for a definable cause.

“Villa defeated was a fallen God. And fallen gods are not gods at all, they are nothing.”

When the men hear that Villa has been defeated, they are stunned. Demetrio is never shown entertaining the idea that Villa is capable of losing. His thought that Villa is now a fallen God reinforces the men’s’’ view of Villa as a divine being with a righteous mission. A god who can be beaten is no longer a god, and the men who still fought for Villa now have to contemplate why, or whether, they will continue fighting.

“‘Look at that stone; how it keeps on going.’”

When Demetrio’s wife asks him to tell her that he will not leave again, he throws a pebble off a cliff. The quote is his answer to her. He has been fighting for two years and will go on fighting, even though he does not know why. He is pulled along by the violence of the Revolution just as the stone is pulled by gravity.