The Carreta

You definitely wouldn't like this book if you're a republican or a libertarian, because Traven lays out how capitalists use their power over their workers to get rich off the poorest and enrich their families and friends. Traven uses his talents and publishing platform to expose the Capitalists and the Catholic Church in their shameful oppression of the lowest economic class in Mexico.
But this is also a love story and a description of the beautiful scenery and the Animals and plants of Chiapas.

Andres and his family and everyone he knows is forced further and further into debt peonage with no hope of relief. He is a rational actor in an irrational economic structure filled with people who self-justify their cruelty and deviousness with appeals to reason and order.

One striking aspect in the book is the effect of innumeracy and illiteracy and the way that both are used as weapons of class warfare meant to enslave.

This book is heavy on exposition and stage-setting and light on plot. And the romance gets very saccharine and devotional (dependant?) very quickly.

purchased at 2018 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair

Outstanding and realistic portrayals of Mexican life and culture. Good stories.