Bananas

I never thought I could be so moved by a fruit. The materials discussing banana farming were fascinating and left me angry and disturbed that human beings could justify committing such atrocities against other human beings for the purpose of monetary profit. Further, it was eye opening for me to dive deeper into the story behind a fruit I buy at Publix all the time and it has caused me to be more aware of the food around me and the story behind what I am consuming.

 Moberg and Striffler discuss the monopoly on the banana market created by foreign companies from the United States and Europe, particularly United Fruit Company. Similar to colonization, the economic dominance of the foreign companies in Latin America has left the people there suffering. As we have seen in previous readings, the people of Latin America had to lose for big business to win. Moberg and Striffler describe how lives were loss in the establishment of mass banana production and gave an excellent factual representation of the situation. However, other than statistics, Moberg and Striffler did not humanize the suffering as a result of the banana industry. This is where the “The United Fruit Company” by Neruda and the documentary were helpful.

            The poem by Neruda started to humanize the consequences of the banana production industry. His use of biblical language like “Jehovah” and “rechristened” painted of portrait of the infiltration of foreign companies. Rechristened is defined as giving a new name to something, and biblically is used to refer to baptism – or being reborn into the family of God. The use of this language in the poem gives the image of the land being reborn, renamed, and given a new identity with its new ownership just as someone is when they are baptized. Neruda has taken the sacred image of baptism and used it to emphasize the drastic change of the land that was taken by foreign companies. This powerful imagery left me with a better understanding of the emotional and physical destruction caused by the methods of banana production.

            Finally, I found the documentary Bananaland: Blood, Bullets and Poison incredibly disturbing but critically important to my understanding of the impact the banana industry has had on the people of Latin America. Its description of American Banana company’s involvement in terrorist groups in Colombia as well as the destruction of people’s lives due to chemical exposure left me horrified at the lengths companies are willing to go to, for the purpose of maximizing profit. The Chiquita Company paid off a terrorist group, meaning they negotiated with a terrorist group. This breaks United States law, yet the perpetrators were allowed to remain anonymous therefore not facing repercussions for their crimes. Further, the company claims they did this for the purpose of protecting their workers, but who were they really protecting? As said in the documentary they were not protecting the Latin Americans working for them on the ground, they were protecting their executives and employees. Therefore, their breaking of the law did not serve the people it most needed to, the Latin Americans who were being raped and killed by terrorists. The other aspect of the documentary that I found particularly disturbing was the sterilization of men due to the chemicals they were interacting with. Isodoro who worked in the banana fields was consistently exposed to pesticides and after being married to his wife for two years was told he was sterile and could never have children. He describes how at Christmas he and his wife Maria are alone in their house and listen in sadness to other people’s kids experiencing the joy of the holiday. It is devastating to think that one of life’s greatest privileges, the ability to have a child has been taken away from someone, because people at the top did not care enough to test chemicals before exposing them to the public. The course of Isodoro and Maria’s life was completely changed by something that could have been prevented. Isodoro could have had a chance at feeling the same joy other parents do on Christmas morning if only the people in charge had taken the time to ask questions about the effects of pesticides on humans. It is tragic to think that someone who did not have to suffer the pain of knowing they cannot have children has had to feel that pain due to a preventable issue. In conclusion, the documentary left me devastated for the people whose lives have been tragically altered because of the banana industry and had me wondering: How do we reconcile the bananas we buy at the grocery store out of connivence with the tragic story of Isodoro and Maria  and countless others who have suffered because of those very bananas?