Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
on the North Coast reflected—albeit critically—the fact that the region's
image as the land of ''green gold'' (oro verde) did not stem merely from
the large numberof available jobs. Export banana zones were dotted with
the symbols of modernity. Fruit company commissaries and other mer-
chantssoldanarrayoffoodstuffs,clothing,andmanufacturedgoodsfrom
the United States and elsewhere. Paved streets lined with electric lamps,
hospitals, ice plants, and breweries were just some of the amenities to be
found in company towns such as La Ceiba,Tela, and Puerto Cortés. Novel
consumer technologies such as Victrolas and imported recorded music
found their way to the work camps, where they filled the air with sounds
from Argentina, Mexico, and the United States.
Butifvisionsofmodernity'smaterialcomfortsluredpeopletothe
North Coast, the ability to find work is what kept them there forextended
periods.Mostex-workersrememberedthe1930sand1940sasatimewhen
one could land a fruit company job with relative ease. Payroll statistics
confirm an overall upward trend in hiring. During the 1920s, the export
banana industry provided jobs for 15-20,000 people (about 10 percent of
the North Coast's total population at the time).
5
Twenty years later, the
combined payrolls of the Tela Railroad Company (24,000) and Standard
Fruit (6,000) approached 30,000. In the early 1950s, the two companies'
combined payrolls fluctuated between 32-36,000 workers.
6
The increas-
ingly high-input practices of the fruit companies along with the opening
up of new lands and the reclamation of old ones in the Sula and Aguán
valleys created many jobs during this period.
7
In addition to the multiple
tasks associated with Sigatoka control, new jobs emerged in conjunction
with expanding use of irrigation, fertilizers, and wooden stakes to pre-
vent wind-related losses. Not all of the job growth during this period took
placeontheplantations.In1949,theTelaRailroadCompany's11,000farm
hands represented only about half of its employees. The company's engi-
neering and construction, mechanical, buildings and grounds, merchan-
dise, and medical departments all had large payrolls.
In twentieth-century Honduras men almost always outnumbered
women in and around banana camps, a situation that prevailed through-
out Central American banana growing regions.
8
The men employed by
the fruit companies possessed diverse ethnic, national, and racial iden-
tities. For example, in 1929, the Truxillo Railroad Company's employees
consisted of ''Hondurans'' (59%), ''West Indians'' (11%), ''Central Ameri-
cans'' (10%), ''Honduran Caribs'' [Garífuna] (9%), ''North Americans''
(3.9%), and ''Bay Islanders'' (3.2%).The remaining four percent included
''Europeans,'' ''South Americans,'' ''Mexicans,'' and ''Asians.''
9
There can
