Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of time ranging from days to weeks depending upon the task. In the early
1930s, wages ranged from US$1.50-$2.00 per day.
18
Some contractors en-
ticednewcomerstojointheircrewsbyofferingclothes,shoes,andmache-
tes.
19
They also hired cooks to prepare meals for workers who paid about
1 lempira (US$.50) per day for food. Providing meals fulfilled a practical
need since banana farms were often far from stores and markets, but the
practice may have contained an element of coercion: manyex-workers re-
called that contractors compelled them to eat exclusively in their kitchens
by threatening to fire those who ate elsewhere. However, some women
whoworked in camp kitchens did not remember this practice. Laborcon-
tractors probably varied in this regard, but there is little doubt that they
played, for better or worse, a crucial role in the lives of field workers.
New arrivals to export banana zones also relied on family connec-
tions,friends,andword-of-mouthinordertofindwork.Forexample,fol-
lowing the sudden death of his father in 1942, Bricio Fajardo began work-
ing on a Standard Fruit farm after family friends convinced ''the bosses''
togivehimajobonaproppingcrew.
20
In 1946,Víctor Reyes set out from
Santa Cruz de Yojoa for El Progreso where he found a job with the Tela
Railroad Company ''through a friend.'' According to Reyes, getting a farm
job at the time involved few formal procedures:
If I arrived in a camp in the middle of the day and you knew me and
that I had come from another camp because I was not making much or
did not have enough work, then you'd say, ''go over to such and such
section of the farm [to work.]''
21
The experiences of Juan Gavilán, an Olancho native, confirm that per-
sonal contacts were important, but not essential, for finding work. Gavi-
lán landed his first job—weeding on a Tela Railroad Company farm—by
approaching a contractor who he did not know. Sometime later, Juan re-
locatedtotheAguánvalleywhereheweededforStandardFruit.However,
he considered the job to be ''too much work'' for the pay. Fortunately, a
brother-in-law found him a position in the company's irrigation depart-
ment. In Gavilán's case then, a family contact helped him to leave a job
that he disliked for a more favorable one.
22
Singlewomen seeking work in camp kitchens often relied upon a net-
work of friends and extended family to land a job in much the same man-
ner as their male counterparts. For example, Gladys Nieves was raised on
a banana farm where sheworked in the kitchen of her mother who single-
handedly ''looked after'' some men workers in addition to herdaughter.
23
