Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
who contracted tuberculosis around 1950 were ''normally given 100 lem-
piras . . . and a ticket to travel overland to their homes.''
93
A former em-
ployee of the company's labor relations department confirmed that many
field workers diagnosed with tuberculosis were given a small compensa-
tionbeforereturningtotheirhometowns''todie.''
94
Standard Fruit also
tried to get ''native employees'' suffering from tuberculosis ''off the farms
and back, as quickly as possible, to the place from where they originally
came.''
95
As was the case elsewhere in Central American export banana
zones,thefruitcompaniesshowedmuchlessinterestinhealingindividual
workers suffering from respiratory diseases than in preventing the spread
of illnesses to other workers. More significantly, the companies seldom
acknowledged the degree to which production processes and the organi-
zation of plantation spaces contributed to the spread of human—as well
as plant—pathogens.
The cramped living spaces inhabited by field workers afforded little
privacy. Oneworker recalled that contractors slept in small private rooms
in the barracks; laborers slung hammocks in a long corridor.
96
Francisco
Portillo did not have fond memories of life in the barracks:
We lived in the rooms packed like hens. The people returning from the
farm did not even bother to wash their feet before lying down in their
hammocks with their feet practically under their neighbor's nose!
Many workers were in the habit of chewing tobacco, too. They'd spit
on the walls and all over the place. You lived like an animal.
97
Other workers confirmed the lack of hygiene that characterized many
work camps. José Maria Lara recalled camps without toilets or showers.
Peoplewenttothefieldstorelievethemselves.Bathingwassometimespos-
sibleinoneofthemanycanalsandditchesthatcoursedthroughthefarms,
but after 1936 these were often contaminated with Bordeaux spray. More
often,workersbathedinnearbyriversandlagoons.Manycampshadwells
that supplied bathing and cooking water, but the wells were often shal-
low and the water not always potable. Sanitary conditions did not differ
significantly in the camps of Standard Fruit. Bricio Fajardo remembered
that pit toilets often over-flowed during heavy rains; unfortunate souls
who did not pay attention when walking near the latrines left with their
shoes—as Bricio politely explained—''plastered in poop.''
98
FollowingWorldWarII,theUnitedFruitCompanybegantore-design
plantation living spaces. In 1945 company engineers developed a proto-
type living space that improved sanitary conditions while preserving a
