"The Battle of Tomochic: Memoirs of a Second Lieutenant is the fictional account of the October 1892 military campaign mounted by the Mexican Army that culminated in the massacre of the small but courageous village of Tomochic, located in the Tarahumra Mountains. Written four months after the event, the story is narrated by an eye-witness, then second Lieutenant Heriberto Frias, who published anonymously to evade the scrutiny of the iron-fisted regime of General Porfirio Diaz.

At the beginning of the narrative, Miguel Mercado, the fictional protagonist, is a hopeful young soldier gifted with acute observation and a passion for life who comes to understand the treachery of his government after it orders the destruction of the town of Tomochic, where a renegade group had taken up arms against the government. Mercado's hopefulness and youth are betrayed as he becomes enmeshed in what turns out to be a cold-blooded massacre of a proud, rebellious population." "This book is the most complete edition of Tomochic to date, and the only English-language translation available. Although the work is fiction, the general plot is closely allied to the actual events of the massacre and is an indictment of the government of Porfirio Diaz."--Jacket.