Cain's Motives is a unique text in Revueltas's work. In this document, the author records the reasons Jack Mendoza, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, had for deserting to Mexico, where Revueltas met him briefly and listened to him. The Korean War has pitted Mendoza against a communist prisoner who heroically endures torture. The tortured man and the sergeant are both of Mexican descent. One dies, the other deserts. The anecdote is simple; however, Revueltas writes pages here as extraordinary as those in his best novels.