Bananas

In a certain way, it could be said that the banana business homogenized different parts of latin America; though expression and certain details on topics regarding the business were unique due to each countries’/regions uniqueness, there were definite patterns to be seen among the players. Though all the players would be affected by things such as labor problems, each country involved would have a distinct way of dealing with these issues. Moving away from political and business issues however, there have been shifts and changes in the topology of the landscape, the representation of peoples, and general mindsets when the banana business is concerned. No matter where the banana trade went, even if it was dense jungle, with it, it brought some form of development to the region of use and also brought people. In fact, according to Moberg and Striffler, “Wherever the banana trade established itself, it generated broadly similar demands for labor, land, and capital, causing common patterns and themes of development to emerge in otherwise disparate regions.”

The banana industry was initially viewed as a way to bring modernity and progress to even the most abandoned portions of a region—if bananas could grow. Certain racial tensions that plague modern communities today, however, may have their roots at the inception of the banana trade, when it brought people of various backgrounds to one place with the promise of work. The trade of course brought with it tension and disparities, and then eventual divisions. These divisions can even be seen in the different regions where bananas are grown and how the business and its model works and is variable. 

Much of central America has been largely influenced by the banana business and international banana companies have been present in central America for decades, having roles in shaping policy, landscape, and other profiles. So much internal strife can be attributed to the banana business in central America that an outside power such as the united states has interviened in past situations. In central America, large portions of the land are owned by or allocated to banana production in some way, and owned by singular, large scale entities.

In the Caribbean, though most of the power lies with individual people instead of corporations, this simply reflects that they are more so at the mercy of weather patters and international marketing agreements and other external monopolies held by European entities. The local governments are thus at the mercy of these agreements

In south America, power lies in the hands of domestic capitalists who in turn to international exporters, working under contracts

According to Moberg and Striffler, by the turn of the century two key changes came about that drastically changed the banana industry. The first being that foreign banana companies became the primary growers instead of the exporters who relied on separate growers. This shifted a much more variable economic and laboral environment to one that became subject to the whims of a larger enterprise.

The second dramatic change came when the individual companies, the Boston Fruit Co and Minor Keith’s combined into one to form the United Fruit Co. this now massive company took control of the means of production

The United Fruit company gained monopoly over the banana industry in North America and owned a great deal of the means of production, such as land, in south America. Though they had hundreds of thousands of acres of land to actively cultivate the fruit, they owned hundreds of thousands more to ensure future production should something happen to their active lands; this also meant that many local growers would have been limited in their capacity to grow due to United Fruit’s ownership over so much land. When the Arbenz government tried to correct this and give lands back to the local people, the company responded with smear campaigns and lobbying to get the US government involved to overthrow the Guatemalan administration at the time. But strife in Guatemala was not the only place the UFC left a lasting impact.

The documentary, “Banana Land: Blood, Bullets, and poison” further elaborates on examples and points made by Moberg and Striffler. The United Fruit Company held a great deal of power not only in the American market, but Latin America as a whole. By focusing on specific examples where UFC incited controversy as far as malady and death, we as viewers may see the grander picture of what is so easily overlooked in the united states yet is incredibly prominent in other parts of the globe. Not only did UFC incite the coup in Guatemala, destabilizing the government there, they are the perpetrators of a massacre that afflicted Colombians workers who wanted fair pay, they financially supported a known terror group for years, and blatantly disregarded health advisories—instead opting to use chemicals known to cause sterility in the pesticides used in Colombian crops. The documentary serves as a poignant reflection of blind consumption fueled by capitalism and economic motives and the disproportionate affects thrown onto latin American people, and how these plights have been and are blatantly disregarded and ignored in other parts of the world. 

Other significant figures, such as Pablo Neruda have in the passed voiced their concerns and opposition to the beast. In Pablo Neruda’s “The United Fruit Company” he uses various biblical references to create an ironic and critical tone to challenge the actual fruit company’s impact in the latin America. He first refers to trumpets. My initial interpretation of this reference was to the seven trumpets of the apocalypse and how each one brings inhabitants closer to the final judgement day, however, if we as a reader continue to read, Neruda seems to make light of this event, or full out discredit this by referring to Jehovah, God, but instead of being one that descends from the heavens, this imposter god springs forth from the earth to judge, or rather accept, large and powerful corporations that have played a major role in industry and life in in Latin America. But Neruda reserves The Fruit Company as the greatest offender by pairing it with “the delicate waist of America.” He describes the rechristening of the land he called home and how the company laid over it a perverse mask of deceit, envy, oppression, and pestilence. He continues this chaotic, end-of-days metaphor by connecting and comparing some of Latin Americas worst individual offenders with beast that helped amass corpses that these individual “flies” could then use after the United Fruit Company no longer had use for them.