People, Plants, and Pathogens: The Eco-social Dynamics of Export Banana Production in Honduras, 1875-1950

Abstract

In July 1899, six municipal officials in El Paraíso, Honduras, placed their signatures on a document that listed the names of area residents who grew bananas for export. The municipal secretary, Bartolomé Bueso, signed with a heavy hand, perhaps an indication of the fatigue running through his fingers after recording more than two hundred names complete with several columns of statistics related to banana production. Similar scenes took place in other Honduran municipalities in response to a national survey carried out with the intention of making known “one of the great sources of wealth of our Atlantic Coast.”1 That same year, another group of men met in Trenton, New Jersey, to sign a different type of document—a corporate charter that established the United Fruit Company. The creation of both documents reflected a shared perception that export banana growing was a lucrative livelihood. However, the survey was never published and passed into obscurity on a dusty shelf in the Honduran National Archive. In contrast, the United Fruit Company— known in Central America as El Pulpo (the Octupus) because of its far-reaching economic power and political entanglements—has been the subject of numerous scholarly investigations, polemics, and popular legends. The very different fates of these two projects undertaken in 1899 reflect not only the historical power of United Fruit but also the power of historical narratives to push entire sets of actors off-stage in order to simplify their plots.In the case of the Honduran banana industry, the actors who have largely been left out of the drama are the small-scale growers (poquiteros), whose initiative and labor helped to give rise to the industry in the late nineteenth century. The pioneering research carried out by Charles Kepner and Jay Soothill discussed the relationship between “independent growers” and the United Fruit Company during the 1930s, but provided little by way of historical context.2 Subsequent generations of researchers have tended to marginalize non-company growers for diverse reasons. For writers who credited the fruit companies with “modernizing” banana production in Honduras, small-scale cultivators and their low input farming methods represented vestiges from the trade’s “chaotic” early years.3 On the other hand, studies utilizing marxist frameworks have focused primarily on interactions between foreign capital and workers in enclave economies.4There are notable exceptions to these general tendencies. For example, recent works by Darío Euraque and Ethel García Burchard have demonstrated the key role that elite planters played in shaping twentieth-century Honduran politics.5 In the last decade a number of authors have explored the complex relationships between banana companies, nation-states, local elites, and working peoples in export banana-growing regions in Central America (including Belize), Colombia, Ecuador, and the Caribbean.6 This scholarship has stressed both the interactions between local and global economic processes and how ethnicity, gender, and class have shaped the historical meanings of those interactions. Several of these studies examine the role played by contract growers in the banana trade during the second half of the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the relationship among growers, banana companies, and state institutions.Collectively, this growing body of scholarship identifies much-needed agency among working peoples by demonstrating how international capital was compelled to adapt to local conditions in order to secure land, labor, and political favors. However, researchers have devoted little attention to what was presumably the day-to-day business of both fruit companies and working peoples: growing bananas for export.7 Perhaps the “everydayness” of enduring—the drudgery of making one’s livelihood—turns people, historians included, to the study of more redemptive projects such as strikes, rebellions and other challenges to power. To be sure, people have engaged in the work of converting tropical sunlight, plants, soils, and water into bananas for millenia, but this process has been anything but static. By shifting the focus to the changing work of banana growing, this study explores the dynamic relationships among the landscapes, production processes, and livelihoods that shaped the eco-social spaces in which power was contested.Scholarly accounts of the banana industry often contain contradictory images of tropical environments. On the one hand, tropical landscapes serve as static backdrops that fade as soon as the spotlight on the On the other hand, the in the of a such as a that actors are to the banana historical For example, in his of the Charles Kepner that the of the banana trade be largely to the and that of small-scale growers who the production by the United Fruit Company. two after and United by to the for of a known as has been by to be among the of the twentieth number of researchers have the role played by in shaping the in Central and America and to the among the in the production and of that to the of narratives banana companies as on the from a tropical in an to be of tropical landscapes as and from a to the dynamic as in the people a in the second a of In both a to the between and The that an of tropical that on the historical among the diverse people, plants, and that shaped and tropical landscapes and on the that banana and are as whose historical and meanings are in for the of processes than in demonstrating the historical of the to this by from the of on the interactions between and their the of which are and The plants, soils, and water into export bananas not but dynamic of an eco-social shaped by historical processes local and rise of the banana trade to a of people, and to the of people of of of of and of in the process of and landscapes on a and in local landscapes not the only that shaped export banana The and of an on production the banana passed from an to and as in fruit By the of the century, particular what a reflected not only but also the of and to and This a whose and be the of production on banana to both local and international in the United and the of the production and of export bananas was a of to a for The research on the of and working in research The United Fruit Company research in as early as and established research in Honduras, and has been the political and economic little attention has been to its role in the of banana growing during the twentieth By the published and of both and non-company that researchers to a for a between and also reflected both the of the banana companies and a of what an in the the process of one of of on its of For that landscapes, have been shaped by interactions with This in the an to dynamic of on and of in which projects historians For and the of in America and to that of and In this historians to of landscapes and livelihoods shaped by a of than the of the for what a whose to one to the that was the from to a that the of a historical in the in response to the of a banana trade between the and New the of trade on the to that of and its the fruit trade was and on the six companies the and for bananas was By the early that the banana trade was also rise to on the In the Honduran from This reflected the of banana growing on the an that to have the of growers on and In a Honduran that to fruit from the to that the of growers to their that and that the of fruit was in By banana from and but eco-social to the of export banana production on the in the and of that labor to by and a of in to the and fruit that to one hundred not but not as as The banana fruit one year, a on a than was from such as and the banana not labor and the of a fruit the year, a not have to This the for banana to study of for the regions of Honduras, municipal that small-scale cultivators to both and national an economic banana was a for growers with to capital and to the of the trade also the place by and other of in the of Central and The growers to bananas for export have their as a process than an of export banana growing was the Honduran to that grew to of six a of fruit The often that and out to another In the late nineteenth century, between cultivators and in a number of to the creation of that the of banana growers those of The trade was by labor by between political of often into the the with growing export bananas not the fruit was the to be with both and two that growers on to fruit to The National which banana-growing between and for the and that the fruit on its a economic in that their fruit in often bananas that to be fruit was in The of was to in and bananas that in of example, be in of low example, bananas be the year, to their production for the between and for the fruit in the United the from the banana of in that the banana have for the was to the of who took of In of growers to Honduran to and fruit in order to the to which are subject by the That same year, the growers of their into the Honduran passed the national the banana The fruit to fruit to and established an export the from which to be to the of the and to for the fruit growers in who to the export on the that the often not with the number of for which been to be in the in a to the of fruit order to in their with growers In for example, and with several other growers in the to the Honduran Fruit Company of The to an number of bananas to the by a of who their fruit to other and from the In growers the with the of the of the banana industry by the to the the of the industry on this In order to a one of The 1899 survey of growers charter of the for this group from to only growers more than of an indication that not the In the The charter a that was to be for with from making fruit the fruit of a and production which for one more the of of fruit more the in for one more to in on the of that after the of the United Fruit Company in 1899, Honduran to be several different For example, in making between and two and by the a of how growers to In to of the production the the of its fruit that has the on foreign and that a this the in New and not to the in our The between production and in the The growers that of shaped not only by fruit the Honduran but also by images of bananas in the of the United of the to helped to in the the a number of to the Honduran national In two and to a to banana in the another to a to In a to his his that with a in the and be with the such as and was of both the by other Central and the role that in the of However, a after the political the the of his in New and banana production on the Honduran during the decade of the nineteenth century. In 1899 more than of bananas in growers in that year, a of on a with that of The of the production from small-scale of the growers than of in production between For example, of the in El and and of those in than of In contrast, only of the cultivators and of those in El and than in El and also the of with more than of export banana production. The banana of the in bananas as in the 1899 This a of economic among export banana one that was reflected in the and On the other hand, the 1899 that planters with production to the that be in the to The export banana trade in to have been by the number of and was The work of bananas was to the late in the production banana growing in was established to the of the United Fruit Company. For growers, this was a a of and among a and which livelihoods be The of capital by during the of the twentieth to a of banana and of However, the with which the industry the of the United Fruit Company not the that the processes of and largely by and perhaps of Honduran to the several banana-growing those to the was one of the of and Company to be as the Fruit and the to his banana and a a the that of the Honduran National to to the his with from the numerous to foreign the in for to the to of and In to the this by the of the and of the Fruit to his in two key to of the United Fruit Company and more to the Fruit of economic through was not a one for Honduran of both foreign capital and be for economic this in its of a the Honduran that more that the more and this during the of Honduran fruit from to to in making the export banana in the have been with the banana to to a that one Honduran to as between and the of the banana-growing from to rise in banana and was to the of Fruit the Fruit and the United Fruit Company. By United two Honduran the Company and the of in bananas and in The Fruit Company and its in the of of in the of companies of in and The companies also of of (the of which to banana with work and this of and non-company growers to and of bananas to the fruit from a survey in banana growers in the of of the growers municipal national than half of those of bananas and more than of a indication that to out livelihoods However, the survey also growing among non-company In the of more than one half of the banana and the production area of the planters The be with growers, both and For example, grew and on in his and on a of of the growers listed on the survey one in to survey from represented only a of the number of non-company growers that from that more than banana cultivators in the and the Company an of from non-company the this to to between and in of non-company from a low of to a of for United other the are complete but that non-company growers a of Fruit by the Company of the in but this by the early In fruit only of Honduran This that non-company between 1899 and but that the of the during this by the process of undertaken by the fruit companies are by the of The on the of the banana industry the the of both Fruit and United Fruit from to that the in was the of which was reflected in that on late as the local and to on municipal to their In to the power of local hundred residents a to the municipal for the of an on the The that in of the to be The the growing number of as the to The perhaps to a on a to from year, that the Fruit Company was on the by to residents of The municipal by an on to this that the municipal to their from the established but the to on In and other the for to a in order to the of the that the The the but between and the fruit companies In and a to the the that on of their the banana of the and Fruit as cultivators and the authors that the to their and on the national to the companies to their that shared a with The little to the a different group of residents for the to be for The of the soils, the group residents to in banana The municipal to of the as an a of the local to their livelihoods the in this that the of are not for the of banana that after the second the and not production on the other hand, the The with the not to out a of wealth for an The was in the the to with the than after the to municipal its This in reflected in local cultivators little in the of their way the of the provided small-scale growers with both economic and the political to for local in this what to be a of in an enclave have more to on a By the was production However, this was from the same that helped to economic also local livelihoods by in landscapes that the of the has been a of cultivators banana to for such as and The of an export for bananas growers to as a the early of the fruit two of bananas the banana and the By the late nineteenth century, the was other The of was with the of one the and largely The of in the of between and but researchers that local cultivators of in to the as the banana role in from to a eco-social dynamic For small-scale cultivators growing a banana not because low the perhaps the livelihoods not to production of a of However, as cultivators to their in both the conditions and the of and in of the Honduran in the are but and and are of an number of late nineteenth stressed the of but such provided the and of the To by was the and the National by 1899 not of banana growers established in the one in with to the as largely of very and with the with an the by the of and other the of the also among the and with was by the who the of an of in the and the of but the of to on as his as the but his because of the way landscapes and The of banana and with the of the in the of an of a that in was with small-scale the of conditions that the of after the the and that the on a Company of the this area that for the with banana plants, in in in that been and in one after a of banana and a in the of and the and to the banana other of to the of the reflect the in the that from the of the banana industry that took place during the that from those of and By the several hundred of the and banana of the workers and with banana plants, by an of and low of into of and The was an that was to the of have banana in as early as but not an the in the The the and to of the on which the export industry was of the on an and workers the between growing the on the of a in the of a which has of the the same the of of to a of and the of the banana in by Fruit Company that from from to between and Company in to but an that the to and by the of the banana production in this be the fruit and officials In the Company that to the of and from the United and from who have devoted of their and to the The of the creation of United to Company with and United largely the of the and methods for its to for largely in to among the was a a that in but the not anything a second and by out In Honduras, in order to from and a was to and In these have the but not the the research in United Fruit a of the of but of his that be into also of Central in in the of a between and However, the to researchers a between in the and not on its for production on To by the research of fruit and in their The of in other to have been on than on a of the of to The by of of economic whose be by the of bananas in and the United Fruit The number of who the with the Central banana industry tended to focus on than the research by and the than the of that as one a of capital and an in the of this to the from the and growers to banana early as United of on a banana a in Central America that and has been also that the of the than the Several other in the to The United Fruit Company in and However, a export banana was because the with other banana to the of by the with a On researchers to in order to the from the fruit work was and the not the only challenges in a fruit and working in the of the to a banana that to the of By the banana in the United in of more than the for and and second only to of these of bananas The of in tropical regions not in the of a that was not on United Fruit Company the of from a that little economic case their to the that are by the as United Fruit Company and its bananas through a the Fruit Company. In the in and the United and Fruit to and by the late fruit to such as and In the lucrative of the United Fruit of the a group of fruit during a Fruit Company in United Fruit Company discussed the of production in the two the area which a to of the the to a banana known as the the to which by and United to a banana that was not a the of the banana but not The also how the of as fruit was not an for of United to another for the also into Fruit with to the but fruit in the United to the the of the tended to for to a The Fruit Company also with different banana only to that the than the and to the with a whose and not their what a as fruit in the United of to on the an United Fruit with the Fruit its this have been little that fruit to that the to the and United Fruit Company another shifting production to This was by that the to a of the by In Honduras, shifting both United Fruit and Fruit to production of the but tended to the as the of people, and landscapes and of the to be by an fruit was the been the export the late nineteenth of bananas in a in the area and the of a from the of the By the of Fruit Company of been by a of non-company growers whose in from to a of banana in However, as early as both Honduran and official

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