Trozas

Trozas, here translated into English for the first time, completes the set of B. Traven's legendary Jungle Novels. Describing the conditions of peonage and debt slavery suffered by Mexican Indians during the reign of Porfirio Diaz, they form an epic of the birth of the Mexican Revolution. The main character of Trozas is a young Indian named Andres Ugaldo, a virtual slave worker in a monteria - mahogany plantation - which is purchased by the profit-hungry Montellano brothers, widely despised for their brutal treatment of workers. The demands on Andres and his companions exceed even the usual insufferable conditions in the monteria. Trozas (the word means "logs") captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas of Mexico, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Diaz's rule. In the hands of a masterful storyteller like B. Traven, the portrait of Andres and his political awakening makes arresting reading. Traven evokes the backbreaking daily routine of the monteria, brings alive the players in this sordid drama, and confirms his stature as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century.