Mala Yerba y ESA Sangre

by Mariano Azuela

Mala yerba, publicada a finales del Porfiriato, conlleva una imagen fiel de la situaci n en que se encontraban los trabajadores del campo con respecto a los poderosos hacendados. Esa sangre contin a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9681609107
• ISBN13: 9789681609108
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.4" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Before and after the Mexican Revolution

"Mala yerba " (Bad weed) is a novel about Western Mexican countryside shortly before the Revolution starts. A pretty but light-headed peasant, Marcela, has been having an affair with the owner of the estate, Julian Andrade. But then she runs away with an employee, and after that with an American. Finally, she returns with the employee, but he is killed by Andrade, who later kills Marcela. The bottomline of this novel is the situation of the Mexican rural areas before the Revolution. It underlines the cruelty and despotism of the landowners, frequently lustful, alcoholic and brutal men, owners of lives and fates."Esa sangre" (That blood) tells the story of the return of Andrade to the town near his estate. He has come back from Argentina, where he found refuge after deserting from Pancho Villa's forces (yes, there were landowners fighting in the Revolution). He returns impoverished and aged, to try to recover his old estate. He never succeeds, and his fate will be hard.The value of this novels is that they show effectively a "before and after" approach to the specific lives of representative individuals. Azuela is a good writer. He takes sides with the poor, but manages to keep an objective balance. His literature is concise and economic, there is little rethoric or lecturing. It is a strict realism which has won him the title of "the Mexican Balzac", all proportions kept.