In his work “The Underdogs”, Mariano Azuela is able to master the spirit of villismo regarding both its theoretic, underlying principles as well as the movement’s subsequent physical manifestations. Though significant characters conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the humble agrarian spirit central to villismo’s origin, characters in this text also exhibit the disruptive, callous behavior that is more characteristic of the federalist forces and dictatorships they aimed to unseat. Moreover, Demetrio’s degenerating understanding of the reason he’s fighting, coupled with his few instances of immorality, symbolizes the collapse of villismo morality into its culminating bandit-ridden reality. Cowboys, farmers, and other agrarian people suffering from land and labor oppression united together as the diverse “pieces of a great social movement [to] exalt their motherland” . Demetrio and Solis embody this original character of villismo revolution, as they maintain a moral, humanitarian compass throughout the novel. Gaining no personal satisfaction from behaving cruelly, refusing to engage in the rampant looting behavior of other soldiers, and keeping the original ideals of the villismo in mind, the two characters are motivated by …show more content…
Looting made the fighting “worth…risking your hide for” and was seen as a payment for the men and women’s services to the villismo . The followers of the villista revolution had banded together to lift their oppression and then became the enraged oppressors of whoever would cross the end of their rifles. In fact, the soldiers go so far as to blatantly disregard Cervantes’s order to return the old mans corn, instead beating him until he plead for mercy . Villismo psychology and demeanor had clearly been warped if the oppressed revolutionaries now oppressed and harmed other poor individuals without