Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tion of railroad; the government has negotiated with company represen-
tatives for the line to be maintained but it does not have the right to force
them.''
46
The same concessions that gave the fruit companies access to the
region's resources also gave them the liberty to remove their infrastruc-
ture—including railroad branches—when the transformed resources no
longer met their needs.
Following his inspection of the Omoa-Cuyamel region in 1933, Hon-
duran o
cial AlonsoValenzuela described the stark contrast between the
boomyearsofthepastandthepresenteconomiccollapse:''It'sapitytosee
thecomparisonbetween1916andtoday:then,bananafarmscoveredallof
the valleys and the level of commerce was astonishing; today, everything
isdesolate,dead.Thevalleysareallguamilesanditishardtofindabanana
plant.''
47
In Cuyamel, Valenzuela noted that the ''greater part'' of the in-
habitants remained in the area. Some residents engaged in the bittersweet
work of dismantling fruit company railroads and buildings. Others cul-
tivated grains and/or raised animals including pigs, chickens, and cattle.
Along a section of railroad that ran close to the sea, small numbers of
cultivators continued to grow export bananas that they transported to
steamers via small boats and canoes. However, by the mid-1930s, banana
exports from the Cuyamel-Omoa region had all but ceased.
By the time that Valenzuela and fellow inspector Pascual Torres ar-
rived in Omoa, the fruit company railroad had already started to deterio-
rate from disuse. Valenzuela and Torres reported that repairing the rail-
road would require a significant investment on the part of the national
government. Even more problematic, according to the inspectors, was
the lack of potential tra
c capable of generating the amount of revenue
needed to meet the railroad's operating expenses. Local people reported
thattheygenerallyusedcanoesandmulesastheirprimarymeansoftrans-
portation because they were more convenient and less expensive than the
fruit trains (whose frequency had been diminishing for several years). In
fact,someresidentsdeclaredthattheyhadneverviewedthefruitcompany
bridges and railroads as a necessity ''to the extent that is being suggested
today.''
48
TorresreportedthattheremovalofanironbridgeovertheCuya-
mel River would not disrupt local livelihoods since the bridge had served
rail cars exclusively. He stated that the people in Cuyamel would be ''con-
tent'' to have a government-provided truck capable of crossing the river
during the dry season and a wooden bridge to facilitate crossing during
the rainy season. The two inspectors may have downplayed the impor-
tance of the railroad in order to help build a case for why the government
should forego a costly overhaul of the line in favor of less expensive alter-
