Reading Skills "The House of the Scorpion"

I am at a point in the book where I have a lot of questions. But first let me get you caught up on whats happening. Another Matteo Alacran, much older than the main character Matteo Alacran (The both have the same name) was introduced. He is the person that Matt is a clone of and is very high up in the social ladder. He found out how they were treating Matt and got very very upset. So my questions are why do they have clones? Why are they treated very poorly? The book states that Matt is a "special" clone and did not get his brain taken out like the rest. Why him? Why do they take the brains out and make them stupid? Why did the older Matteo Alacran need a clone? My prediction for this question is that once the older Matt dies, then the clone Matt will need to take his place in whatever important job he has ( I do not know what it is). I have tons of questions and hopefully they will be answered as  I get more into the book. Moving on to Connections; This book allows me to relate to science class in eighth grade where we learned about clones and what they are.This book also allows me to relate to the TV show Futerama where it is in the future and has a advanced clone technology kind of feel just like The House of the Scorpion. A text to world connection is that to this day we have been cloning fruits and vegetables and even have the technology to clone humans even though we don't. Probably because its illegal.