John Griffith London, born John Griffith Chaney, was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. 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". Jack London wrote his story The Mexican after visits to Mexico, intrigued by the outbreak of the Revolution. The story centres around Felipe Rivera, the son of a Mexican printer who had published articles favourable to striking workers in the hydraulic power plants of Río Blanco, Veracruz. The workers are locked out, and the federal troops are sent against them. Rivera escapes 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 where he comes into contact with the Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana. He volunteers to serve the Revolution at the office of the Junta, who, suspicious, put him to work doing menial labour. Soon, however, he is dispatched to Baja California to reestablish connections between Los Angeles revolutionaries and the peninsula. Exceeding his orders, he assassinates federal General Juan Alvarado and returns to El Paso. The long and dramatic, round-by-round description of the epic struggle on which the fate of the Revolution is at stake will have you on the edge of your chair throughout. You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Mexican” by Jack London on our website.
