Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
outmunicipallands,andthefinancialburdenoferectingfencestoprotect
crops rested squarely on farmers' shoulders. 84
Life in Sonaguera began to change rapidly when not one but two
fruit-company railroads approached the municipality from opposite di-
rections. In 1924, one hundred residents led by Inés Lanza presented a
petition to the municipal council calling for Sonaguera's ejidos to be re-
zonedforagricultureinanticipationofthe''foreigncompanies'''arrival. 85
The petitioners complained that the presence of ''all kinds'' of roaming
livestock was impeding agricultural development.The Sonagueran coun-
cil, perhaps hoping to avoid rendering a decision on a contentious topic,
unanimously agreed to seek advice from higher authorities. The follow-
ing year, Mayor Martínez reported he had received multiple complaints
fromtheStandardFruitCompanyaboutcattle-relateddamagesonitsnew
plantations. 86 Thistimethemunicipalcounciltookaction,establishingan
agriculturalzoneon''landpertainingtothisjurisdiction''thatsurrounded
themunicipalejido. 87 Ranchersweregiventhreemonthstocorralanylive-
stock and relocate them to ejido lands where free grazing continued to be
permitted.
This measure apparently did little to resolve the conflicts between
ranchers and cultivators. In March 1926, Nicolas Robles, Adolfo Sarres,
Rosalio Escobar, Enrique B. Ocampo, and forty other Sonagueran
ranchers petitioned the municipality for permission to erect, at their own
expense, a barbed-wire fence in order to avoid damaging the plantations
of the ''foreign companies'' that encircled the ejido. 88 Local o cials ap-
proved the request, yet the power of the ranchers—who would now bear
the burden of preventing damage to agricultural fields—was diminishing.
Less than one year later, Robles, Petrona Ocampo, Tomasa Ramos, and
some twenty other Sonagueran residents sent a letter to the Ministro de
Fomento, complaining about the ''severe fines'' that they received on ac-
count of their cattle entering the banana farms of the Truxillo Railroad
and Standard Fruit companies. 89 Describing themselves as ''small cultiva-
tors and ranchers,'' the authors claimed that they lacked the financial re-
sourcestoenclosetheirpasturesandcalledonthenationalgovernmentto
oblige the companies to fence their plantations. The Minister's somewhat
ambiguous reply probably brought them little satisfaction: he urged the
petitioners to respect the existing regulations that obliged ''every owner
of cattle and agricultural fields'' to enclose their fields, but he made no
specific reference to the fruit companies. 90
By the end of the 1920s, export banana production in Sonaguera had
increased dramatically. A majority of the output came from the farms
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