A searing novel of the post-1910 Mexican revolutionary era that itself challenged the Mexican political establishment, Guzmán's The Shadow of the Strongman ( La Sombra del Caudillo ) stands beside Azuela's The Underdogs ( Los de abajo ) in the pantheon of Mexican fiction. Unmasking the years of political intrigue and assassination that followed the Revolution, the novel was adapted in the 1960 film La Sombra del Caudillo , which was banned in Mexico for thirty years.