Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of the tangible benefits that United Fruit's engineering wizardry brought
to the residents of Mezapa. But the company's production practices also
changed the region's water and soil resources in two distinct, but histori-
cally linked ways: seasonal flooding of the Naranjo River and a decline
in banana production due to Panama Disease. These new dynamics in
turn triggered another series of linked social processes that included the
fruit company's abandonment of the area, Mezapa residents' efforts to
maintain their livelihoods, and subsequently new historical meanings for
company-built infrastructure. Viewed in this context, the bridge—trem-
bling as it gets pounded by tree trunks—represents the instabilityof com-
plex agroecosystems shaped by dynamic processes operating at local and
international levels.
Two years after the Mezapa protest, the residents of San Francisco,
a small village west of La Ceiba, protested Standard Fruit's removal of a
branch line. Echoing the concerns raised by his counterpart in Mezapa,
San Francisco Mayor Sebastían Figueroa declared that the removal of the
track would be a ''mortal blow'' to his community because it was the only
means of transport possible through the swampy terrain in which the
village was located. He added that the branch line in question crossed
no fewer than 26 bridges. The Ministro de Fomento and the Ministro de
Gobernación both contacted Standard Fruit in order to request a suspen-
sion of work until the matter could be discussed. Standard Fruit's general
manager, A. J. Chute, responded by explaining that the track in question
had serviced farms taken out of production due to Panama disease prior
to 1929, and that company trains had alreadyceased to service the branch.
However, he believed that with only minor repairs the rail bed could be
converted to a roadway suitable for pedestrians and horses. Chute added
that at the request of some ''local employees and residents of San Fran-
cisco,'' the company had decided to leave two bridges in place.
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Chute'sreplyindicatedthatSanFranciscohadalreadyenduredanex-
tended period of relative isolation prior to the removal of the branch line.
In addition, a government report written four years prior to the incident
described San Francisco and its neighboring villages as former ''empori-
ums of wealth that today are barely surviving.''
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This suggests that the
removal of the branch line signaled less the beginning of an abrupt transi-
tion for the residents of San Francisco than the culmination of an ongoing
declineinlocaleconomicactivity.WhetherMayorFigueroaremainedsat-
isfiedwithStandardFruit'spromisetoleavetwobridgesinplaceisunclear,
but his interest in impeding the removal of useable elements of the fruit
