MAX PARRA is Associate Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

The Calles Era 1925 1935
13

Chapter 2 Villa and Popular Political Subjectivity in Mariano Azuelas Los de abajo
23

Chapter 3 Reconstructing Subaltern Perspectives in Nellie Campobellos Cartucho
48

Chapter 4 Villismo and Intellectual Authority in Martín Luis Guzmáns El águila y la serpiente
77

Chapter 5 Soldierly Honor and Mexicanness in Rafael F Muñozs Vámonos con Pancho Villa 98

Chapter 6 The Battle for Pancho Villa During Cardenismo 1935 1940
120

Chapter 7 Villismos Legacy
137

Notes
141

Bibliography
165

Index
179

The 1910 Mexican Revolution saw Francisco "Pancho" Villa grow from social bandit to famed revolutionary leader. Although his rise to national prominence was short-lived, he and his followers (the villistas) inspired deep feelings of pride and power amongst the rural poor. After the Revolution (and Villa's ultimate defeat and death), the new ruling elite, resentful of his enormous popularity, marginalized and discounted him and his followers as uncivilized savages. Hence, it was in the realm of culture rather than politics that his true legacy would be debated and shaped.
Mexican literature following the Revolution created an enduring image of Villa and his followers. Writing Pancho Villa's Revolution focuses on the novels, chronicles, and testimonials written from 1925 to 1940 that narrated Villa's grassroots insurgency and celebrated—or condemned—his charismatic leadership. By focusing on works by urban writers Mariano Azuela (Los de abajo) and Martín Luis Guzmán (El águila y la serpiente), as well as works closer to the violent tradition of northern Mexican frontier life by Nellie Campobello (Cartucho), Celia Herrera (Villa ante la historia), and Rafael F. Muñoz (¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!), this book examines the alternative views of the revolution and of the villistas. Max Parra studies how these works articulate different and at times competing views about class and the cultural "otherness" of the rebellious masses. This unique revisionist study of the villistanovel also offers a deeper look into the process of how a nation's collective identity is formed.