El nombre de Jack London es sinónimo de aventura . "El mexicano", publicado por primera vez en agosto de 1911, es fruto de su estancia en El Paso, Texas. El relato cuenta las andanzas revolucionarias de un extraño personaje que debe boxear para ayudar a la causa antiporfirista. Su retrato psicológico y la densidad que sonsigue, a la hora de narrar la pele con un estadounidense feroz, crean una atmósfera muy peculiar que rompe con el esquema habitual. Rivera pelea sóilo con el propósito de comprar armas para la lucha revolucionaria y para ello se juega, literalmente, la vida. London, inspirado en la vida de Joe Rivers, seudónimo de un revolucionario que ayudaba a la Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana en el exilio, capturó muy bien los sentimientos de muchos mexicanos de la época que estaba dispuestos a poner todo de si para contribuir al avance de las fuerzads contestatarias.
Author
John Griffith Chaney (1876-1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories, "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay", and "The Heathen". London was part of the radical literary group, "The Crowd," in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, workers' rights, and socialism. He wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam. London died November 22, 1916, in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. London's ashes were buried on his property, not far from the Wolf House. The grave is marked by a mossy boulder. The buildings and property were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park, in Glen Ellen, California.
