Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
acts for one lempira. If paydays provided men with opportunities to re-
lax and consume, they gave many women a chance to supplement their
earnings from kitchen work by preparing and vending a varietyof special
foods, including tamales, enchiladas, breads, and sandwiches, along with
a variety of drinks—including some illicit ones.
By virtually all accounts, drinking among men was commonplace
in banana camps, particularly on paydays and holidays. Commissaries
offered beer (in bottles and kegs) and whiskey, but they did not sell what
was perhaps the most popular drink—guaro—whose sale was o cially
prohibited. As early as 1930, Honduran President Colindres Mejía tried
to ban the sale of liquor in banana camps on paydays. When the Truxillo
Railroad Company came under criticism for continuing to sell alcoholic
beverages wholesale, company o cials maintained that they had tried
to prohibit liquor and beer sales, but that drinking continued unabated
due to ''numerous persons who operate the contraband trade with im-
punity.'' 108 ÁngelaCoto-Morenorecalledhowhermothersecretlydistrib-
uted guaro: ''She had a short, little barrel that she would fill with pachos
(about half of a liter) of guaro. Then she'd sit on the barrel and all of the
men would know that she was selling.'' Periodic visits by the authorities
required deft diplomacy: ''The head of the police would pass by and say
to my mom—whowas dark-skinned, 'Negra,they say that you sellguaro.'
Shewould reply, 'No, I don't sell anyof that. I've got my little supply here,
butit'sjustsoIcanaddadroptoflavorthepunchthatIsell.Won'tyoutry
some?' Then she would give the police a glass of punch—my mom knew
how to take care of herself. 109
Guaro and otheralcoholic beverages were also available in manyout-
lying villages that lay within walking distance of the plantations.This was
particularly true in the Aguán valley, where many of the farms that Stan-
dard Fruit established in the late 1930s and 1940s borrowed their names
from adjacent communities. Several ex-workers remembered paydays as
timeswhen''everyonewenttothevillages,''someto''lookforgirls(mucha-
chas),drinkbeerandrum,''andotherstogambleorvisitbrothels. 110 How-
ever, for some workers, villages were not merely a place for weekend so-
cializing, they were home. For example, Neche Martínez, was born and
raised in a small village on the outskirts of Standard Fruit's Aguán val-
ley farms. He continued to live there throughout his years of employment
with the company, once turning down a promotion offer because it would
have required moving his wife and children to a companycamp. Martínez
didnotconsidercamplifetobeahealthysettinginwhichtoraiseafamily:
''Life in the work camp was not the same as village life . . . there was a lot
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