"The Mexican" is a
1911 short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
author
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
.
Background
Written during the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...
, while London was in
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
, "The Mexican" was first published in the
Saturday Evening Post. In 1913, it was republished by
Grosset & Dunlap in the collection of short stories ''
The Night Born''.
The protagonist is based on the real-life "Joe Rivers," the pseudonym of a Mexican revolutionary whose boxing winnings supported the ''Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana'', a group of revolutionaries-in-exile. Joe Rivers eventually retired from boxing and became an ice
delivery person in El Paso.
Plot summary
The story centers around Juan Fernandez, the son of a
Mexican printer who had published articles favorable to striking workers in the
hydraulic power plants of
Río Blanco, Veracruz
Río Blanco is a municipality located in the montane central zone of the State of Veracruz, about 140 km from the state capital Xalapa. It has an area of 24.68 km2. It is located at . The Decree of June 8, 1899 ordained that Tenango's ...
. The workers were
locked out
Lock(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lock ...
, and federal troops were sent to kill them. Juan escaped the massacre by climbing over the bodies of the deceased, including those of his mother and father. He makes his way to
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
where he comes into contact with the ''Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana''. Adopting the new name of Felipe Rivera, he volunteers to serve the cause at the office of the ''Junta'', whose personnel suspect his motives and put him to work doing menial labor. Soon, however, he is dispatched to
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
to reestablish connections between
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
revolutionaries and the peninsula. Exceeding his orders, he
assassinates a federal general and returns to El Paso.
Rivera surprises his colleagues by occasionally disappearing for days or weeks at a time, then returning with much-needed funds and displaying fresh injuries that appear to have been caused by fighting. Unbeknownst to them, he has begun working on the local
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
circuit, first as a sparring partner for experienced fighters and later moving up to compete in a few bouts of his own. As the ''Junta'' scrambles to finance the revolution, Rivera overhears his superiors discussing a shipment of guns needed by the front-line fighters. He suddenly tells them to order the guns and promises to get the $5,000 needed to pay for them within three weeks.
Rivera pays a visit to Michael Kelly, a boxing promoter who has brought the promising contender Danny Ward in from New York. Ward's scheduled opponent has broken his arm and is unable to fight; Rivera offers to take his place, insisting on a winner-take-all contract once he learns that the prize money will be more than enough to afford the guns. Ward agrees, but on the condition that the weigh-in must occur on the morning of the fight instead of at ringside.
Rivera holds his own against Ward and manages to knock him down several times, despite the crowd's dislike of Rivera and the referee's active intercession on Ward's behalf. During the fight, Rivera learns that Kelly has bet heavily against him and refuses to take a dive even after Kelly offers to help advance his boxing career. In the seventeenth round, spurred by visions of vengeance against his parents' killers, he knocks Ward out and wins the money needed to pay for the guns and keep the revolution going.
Adaptations
* filmed in
1952 as ''
The Fighter
''The Fighter'' is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of professional boxer Mi ...
'' starring
Richard Conte
Nicholas Peter Conte (March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975), known professionally as Richard Conte, was an American actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from the 1940s through 1970s, including '' I'll Cry Tomorrow'', ''Ocean's 11'', and ''Th ...
and
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
* filmed in 1955 in Soviet Union as ''
The Mexican
''The Mexican'' is a 2001 American dark comedy adventure crime film directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in lead roles. Its plot is a mixture of different genres.
Plot
In Los Angeles, a traffic light changes to red a ...
'' starring
Oleg Strizhenov
Oleg Aleksandrovich Strizhenov (russian: Олег Александрович Стриженов; born 10 August 1929 in Blagoveshchensk) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1988).
Life and career
Strizhenov ...
and
Boris Andreyev
* TV movie "Der Mexikaner Felipe Rivera", filmed in GDR in 1984
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mexican, The
1911 short stories
Short stories about boxing
Works about the Mexican Revolution
Short stories by Jack London
Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post
Short stories adapted into films