MARIANO AZUELA (1947)

Writer whose 20 novels chronicle almost every aspect of the Mexican Revolution from its preliminary rumblings through its social aftermath.

He received an M.D. degree in Guadalajara in 1899 and practiced medicine, first in his native town and after 1916 in Mexico City.

His best-known work, Los de abajo (1916), depicting the horrors of the Revolution, was written at the campfite during forced marches while he served as army doctor with Pancho Villa in 1915. Forced to flee across the border to El Paso, Texas, he first published the novel as a newspaper serial (October-December 1915). Hardly noted, the novel was discovered in 1924. It widely influenced other Mexican novelist of social protest and was translated into most major languages.

Returning from Texas to Mexico City in 1916, Azuela, disillusioned with the revolutionary struggle, wrote novels critical of the new regime: Las moscas (1918) and Los caciques (1917; Two Novels of Mexico: The Files. The Bosses, 1956), Las tribulaciones de una familia decente (1918; with Los de abajo, Two Novels of the Mexican Revolution: The Trials of a Respectable Family and The Underdogs, 1963). His complete works appeared in 1959-60 (3 vol.)