Book: Raised from the Ground by Jose Saramago

A historical novel about Portugal and events leading up to the Carnation Revolution in 1974

From Wikipedia, this is the bare bones background of Raised from the Ground:

António de Oliveira Salazar

Opposed to communism, socialism, anarchism and liberalism, Salazar's rule was corporatist, conservative, and nationalistic in nature. 

At home, Salazar's government and its secret police PIDE repressed civil liberties and political freedoms in order to remain in control of Portugal, including the 1965 PIDE shooting of Humberto Delgado, declared winner by the opposition in the 1958 presidential election, while Delgado and his secretary tried to illegally enter Portuguese territory from Spain. 

Control of the economy, of citizens and of colonial policy were only cosmetically relaxed until the left-wing Carnation Revolution in 1974. The latter led to attempts to introduce democratic socialism and eventually allowed for the restoration of a full parliamentary democracy.^[5]

The men and women who live on and work the latifundio (large estates) are the characters in this novel. They are poor, mostly illiterate peasants who work for the prosperous owners. In this novel, we follow four generations of the Mau-Tempo family. Their priest, Father Agamedes, is of little comfort and gives no lasting solace for his people. They are always struggling and hungry. 

"But Joao Mau-Tempo isn't so sure about having set a good example. He has spent his whole life simply earning his daily bread and some days he doesn't even manage that, and this thought immediately forms a kind of knot inside his head, that a man should be bom into a world he never asked to be born into, only to experience a greater than normal degree of cold and hunger as a child...and grow up to find that same hunger redoubled as a punishment for having a  body capable of withstanding such hardship, to be mistreated by bosses and overseers..."

The men slowly begin small resistances with predictable results of brutality and incarceration and torture when discovered. Their stories are universal in the history of civilizations and are sobering. To write of the poverty and marginal existence of these men and women is to recognize, validate and honor them. Every country has their Mau-Tempos and we need to be reminded how everywhere and every place there are those with power and money and those without. How the fortunate think of and treat the less fortunate is surely a measure of morality which can be operative in each of our lives, everyday.