The Lawless Roads

Greene traveled through Mexico in the late 1930s to document the brutal anti-Catholic purges initiated by President Plutarco Elías Calles. The book specifically focuses on the extreme suppression of the church in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas.

Yes, Greene's harrowing experiences traveling through the remote, persecuted regions of Chiapas directly inspired his 1940 novel "The Power and the Glory." The protagonist of that novel, a persecuted "whisky priest," is based on the real clergymen Greene met during his travels.

The governor of Tabasco, Tomás Garrido Canabal, was notorious for violently enforcing secularism, forcibly closing churches, and executing priests. Greene's travelogue captures the stark reality of Garrido's campaigns and the terror inflicted on the local indigenous population.

The book is highly pessimistic, deeply uncomfortable, and highly critical, lacking the adventurous romanticism of standard 1930s travel writing. Greene deliberately focused on the dirt, fever, and political misery of the region rather than exoticizing the landscape.