Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
offighting...andquiteabitoffreedom...forgirlsandallthat.Ididnot
want that for my family.''
111
In all likelihood, Neche's circumstances and
his decision to turn down a promotion were unusual, yet his case demon-
strates the diversity of worker experiences, perceptions, and values that
guided individual pathways.
In addition to visiting local villages, some workers spent their free
time fishing in nearby rivers and hunting in the forest fragments that
bordered banana farms. Juan Gavilán hunted deer (venado) that once
abundantly populated the forested lands found ''very close'' to Standard
Fruit's Coyoles operations. He attributed the decline of the local deer
populationtotheproliferationoffirearmsamongworkers,suggestingthat
hunting was a popular activity. In the Sula valley, Víctor Reyes hunted
deer, tepescuintle (Querétaro pocket gopher), and feral hogs (chanchodel
monte)inaforestedareanearElProgreso.Othercampresidentspreferred
fishing. Bricio Fajardo spent free afternoons fishing for catfish, dormilón
andtepemechínin the Aguán River. Cantalisio Andino also recalled catch-
ing ''large''dormilón in the Aguán when its waters ran low during the dry
season. In the Sula valley, José Maria Lara used to canoe the Ulúa River
and cast nets to catch catfish, bass and other river-dwelling species. For
at least some individuals then, the non-human world was not entirely en-
countered through labor processes.
Hoping to raise the consciousness of the Honduran working class,
Ramón Amaya Amador stressed the ways in which a capitalist produc-
tion system and U.S. imperialism erected oppressive social structures that
imprisoned plantation residents in a bleak world from which there was
littlehopeofescape.However,thenarrativesofformerworkersrevealthat
they were constrained—but not immobilized—by theweight of being on
the bottom of the plantation hierarchy. Most workers found the means—
through the help of friends, spouses, sympathetic bosses and their own
ingenuity—to endure the hardships and uncertainties that characterized
plantation life. In some instances, individuals ''escaped'' the confines of
company plantations by pursuing livelihoods not directly linked to ba-
nana production. Others labored decades for the company, shifting jobs
frequently, and occasionally getting promoted to low-level management
positions.
If field workers found ways to endure and at times even enjoy life in
the banana zones, exceedingly few were able to accumulate much capi-
tal. About 25-50 percent of an average wage (2-3 dollars per day between
roughly 1930 and 1950) went to pay for prepared meals. Work clothes
