Dana Frank - Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America

Text and photographs copyright 2005 by Dana Frank

First published in 2005 by South End Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

This edition published in 2016 by

Haymarket Books

P.O. Box 180165

Chicago, IL 60618

773-583-7884

www.haymarketbooks.org

ISBN: 978-1-60846-536-1

Trade distribution:

In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com

In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca

In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com

All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Cover design by Samantha Farbman.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Rank-and-file members of SITRABI, Morales, Izabal, Guatemala, at a COSIBAH workshop on domestic violence, November 2002

To Iris Mungua

With deepest gratitude

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book exists only because of the vast generosity, trust, and patience of hundreds of unionized banana workers in Latin America who welcomed me into their work and taught me how to understand it. My enormous thanks go to COLSIBA, the Coalition of Latin American Banana Unions, for such a spectacularly warm and deeply moving welcome, from that very first workshop in Guatemala City. I only hope that I can be useful in return, and that some day every banana will bear a proud union label. In Honduras, I owe my deepest gratitude to all the people who make up COSIBAH, the Coalition of Honduran Banana and Agroindustrial Unions. Its been a great privilege. Thanks for the endless hospitality, the wonderful road trips, the generous use of the office, the rides, the plantation visits, the box lunches, the jokes (including the ones I didnt get), the interviews, and so much glorious comradeship and fun. My deep thanks to Belkis Castro, Kathy Figueroa, Gloria Guzman, Claudio Hernndez, Chema Martnez, Roberto Morales, Iris Mungua, Nelson Nuez, and German Zepeda. Thank you, Zoila Lagos, in particular, for so much warmth, support, and wisdomas well as chisme.

My great thanks, too, to SITRATERCO, the Union of Workers of the Tela Railroad Company, my other Honduran union family, for the warm and moving welcome, help with the project, honorary membership, and, especially, of course, the dances. Thank you Mercedes Aguilar, Oscar Amaya, Manuel Ramrez, Edgardo Rivas, and all the other dirigente/as. My special thanks to Gloria Garca for so much help and inspiration. In Honduras, thanks also to Mirian Reyes, Juan Funez, Oneyda Galindo, Santos Licona, Digna Figueroa, Reina Ordoez, Gladys Briones, Nelmy Martnez, and Telma Gmez for sharing their stories and work with me. Thank you, Domitila Hernndez, for the kleenex box and so much joy. Thanks, also, to the allies who helped me out: Hector Hernndez, Ajax Iras, and Norma Iris Rodrguez.

Like banana womens activism, my gratitude crosses many borders. In Guatemala, thanks to Irene Barrientos, Mara del Carmen Molina, Petrona Savala Morales, No Ramrez Portela, Catalina Prez Querra, Jess Martnez Sosa, and Enrique Villeda (now in exile in Los Angeles). My special thanks to Selfa Sandoval Carranza, for generous help, inspiration, and poetry. Thank you Mauricio Calderon for that first tour of Guatemala City and for explaining so much. In Nicaragua, my thanks to Doris Garca, Mathilde Aguilar Quiroz, Gloria Reyes, and Don Arnulfo. Thank you so much, especially, Berta Gmez, for your glorious spirit, for welcoming me into your home so full of love, and for teaching me whats really important.

In Costa Rica, thanks to Ramon Barrentos, Miriam Gmez, Ligia Lamich, Nineth Mndez, Luisa Paz, and, especially, Gilberth Bermdez, for generous help and solidarity. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Carlos Argedas Mora for the hospitality, the tours, the monkeys, the coconuts, the beach, and for being such a generous soul. In Panam, thanks to Elizabet Gonzles and Isabel Carrasco; in Ecuador, Susana Centeno Ramrez, Edelina Garca, and Guillermo Touma. Last, but not least, I want to thank the incredibly brave and inspiring Colombians: Guillermo Rivera, Clara Quinto, and, especially, Adela TorresAdela, the future is yours.

On the US side, I am equally indebted to my wonderful comrades at the US Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), whose example, constant support, and incredibly impressive solidarity work sustained me throughout this project. I cant begin to express my admiration and gratitude. Special thanks to Joan Axthelm for the initial conversations, Gloria Vicente for the recipe, and Allison Paul for day-to-day friendship and solidarity. My thanks to Bob Perillo, in Guatemala, for generous research help as well as comradeship and advice. I also want to thank additional allies on the US and European side (broadly defined) who helped me out along the way: Liz OConnor, Carol Pier, Jesper Nielsen, Alistair Smith, Liz Parker, and my student, Max Krochmal.

I want to thank, as well, so many scholarly friends and comrades who invited me to speak, gave me advice, and helped me out, especially those who welcomed me so warmly and respectfully as a newcomer to writing about Latin America. My thanks to Sonia lvarez, Gabriella Arrendondo, Raul Fernndez, Jonathan Fox, Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Toni Gilpin, Gilbert Gonzles, Emily Honig, Ruth Milkman, Priscilla Murolo, Marysa Navarro, Annelise Orleck, Aimee Schreck, Helen Shapiro, Lynn Stephen, and David Sweet. I am particularly grateful to Aviva Chomsky, Hank Frundt, and Steve Striffler for sharing unpublished work with me and welcoming me into the scholarly study of banana workers. My great thanks to Tanals Padilla and Lisbeth Haas for reading the entire manuscript and helping make it so much better, as well as the pleasure of their friendships.

I am honored to be published by South End Press and to be part of its tradition of activist publishing. Thank you all for believing in this book, for your support for a Spanish-language edition, and for making it accessible to ordinary people. My special thanks to Asha Tall for the first-round support and to Jocelyn Burrell for support along the way; to Elizabeth Elsas, for once again giving me an amazing cover; to the proofreaders, Erich Strom and Esther Dwinell; and, most of all, to Alexander Dwinell, my editor, for such great advice and support at every turn. Its been a pleasure. Thanks, too, to Anita Palathingal and Steve Fraser at New Labor Forum for the article version. My thanks to Paco Ramrez, my union brother, for help with Spanish-to-English translations; and Sara Smith for help on the index. This book is currently being translated into Spanish by Janeth Blanco, in Honduras; I am grateful for the honor of working with her, and with Isolda Arita at Editorial Guaymuras.

This book was made possible in part by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of California, Santa Cruz Academic Senate Committee on Research, and the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment, to all of which I am deeply grateful. My thanks also to Victor Schiffrin for scanning photographs. I also want to thank the History Department at UCSC for its support and friendship, especially Meg Lilienthal, Stephanie Hinkle, and Tim Guichard.