March to the Monteria (Jungle Novels) [Paperback]

B. Traven (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jungle Novels | Publication Date: February 1, 1994

March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven's six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Here Traven relates the life of Celso, a young Indian whose only goal is to earn enough pesos to purchase a bride. He works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Celso then goes off to work two years in a montería—but he is such a good worker that he is thrown in jail on a trumped-up charge to assure that he will stay. When he is bailed out by the labor agent, he heads off for a term of debt-slavery in the montería, from which, it is clear, he will never return. Having already forfeited his life, Celso has nothing to lose and takes his vengeance on agents and overseers. As in the other Jungle Novels, Traven traces the beginnings of consciousness which ultimately led to the Mexican Revolution and the overthrow of the Díaz regime.

Editorial Reviews

Review

B. Traven is coming to be recognized as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century. (New York Times )

The Jungle Novels constitute one of the richest portraits of revolution in all literature. (University Review )

Great storytellers often arise like Judaic just men to exemplify and rehearse the truth for their generation. B. Traven was such a man. (Book World )

Traven is a riveting storyteller. (Philadelphia Inquirer )

Readers who ignore the genius of B. Traven do so at their peril. (New York Times )

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee; 1st Elephant pbk. ed edition (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566630460
• ISBN-13: 978-1566630467
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Young Indian trapped in system of brutality and exploitation, March 12, 2005

By 

C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: March to the Monteria (Jungle Novels) (Paperback)

This is the third in a series of books written by Traven. They are usually called the Jungle Novels. In the first book; Government, there is a detailed explanation of the social and economic structure under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. We see how Indian peon work on farms as serfs, always in dept to the large land owners. In some ways the first book reminded me of the books of Victor Hugo where he combines social science with novel.

In the second book; The Carreta, a young man makes his living traveling the roads of Mexico with an ox drawn cart full of goods owned by his master.

This third novel in the series is actually better than the first two in some ways. In the first novel, Traven gives a tremedous amount of social commentary, which is good, but the characters lack the cohesion and depth of a novel. In the second novel, a romance between Andres and a young runaway Indian girl becomes a marriage, but they experience one challenge after another in a system that is rigged against them.

In this third novel, Celso, a young Indian man who has assumed his father's debts and has gone to work in the mahogony plantations of Southern Mexico, must survive under the cruelest and most brutal of conditions. Celso is a more heroic character than characters in the first two novels. He is heroic in assuming his father's debts. He has a critical consciousness that allows him to make judgements about the system in which he is trapped. He begins to try to figure a way out of the system instead of resigning his fate to daily back breaking toil and death. The reader dearly wants him to escape. Therefore the reader becomes more emotionally involved in his struggel to escape from the man-destroying experiences of the Monteria, the mahogany plantations. Celso has a sense of justice and injustice that allows him to look beyond his personal circumstance and at the circumstances that entrap his people.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Story of Exploitation, April 27, 2005

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: March to the Monteria (Jungle Novels) (Paperback)

This superb novel is one of several "jungle books" by the author that describes exploitation and debt slavery among the impoverished Indians of Southern Mexico in the early 20th Century.

The story centers on Celso, an illiterate young Indian trying to earn enough money to buy a wife. Celso works two years on a ranch, only to lose most of his savings in a quasi-legal swindle. He then undertakes a dangerous trip into the jungle, and contracts to work in a jungle logging camp - called a Monteria. After two years of ceaseless labor on the Monteria he tries to return home with his savings to marry. Once again he is cheated, this time by an under-handed conspiracy involving agents, contractors, and the law. Celso then tries to adjust to his situation as he joins the forced march of fellow pseudo-slaves deep into the jungle to their new Monteria. Readers quickly identify with Celso as he attempts to control his life despite an unfair system that repeatedly cheats and abuses people like him.

Author B. Traven (1890-1969) wrote with great sympathy for the impoverished Indians of Mexico, as well as other exploited workers. Traven held leftist/anarchist views, and as usual, exposes the dark sides of human nature, racial bigotry, and capitalist exploitation.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relentless, gripping, enlightening tale., June 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: March to the Monteria (Jungle Novels) (Paperback)

Read this in a British translation many years ago. After all these years it remains for me the most memorable of the "jungle" novels by Traven. Of course, all of them are exceptional, and all should be read. This novel has the ring of truth, a truth that indicts the comfortable and complacent, a truth from which most of us would like to avert our gaze, but truth nonetheless. This is Traven at his most powerful.