Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter3
Altered Landscapes and
Transformed Livelihoods
ThelasttrainontheTruxilloranonApril5,1942,andthelast
purchaseoffruitwasinMarch.Therewillhenceforthbenooutlet
forthesmallfarmersinthatsection.
robert whedbee, april 18, 1942
''I believe, Honorable Minister, that the true sons of Honduras should
not be impeded when we want to work our own lands,'' wrote a frus-
trated Víctor Medina Romero on October 8, 1932, in a letter addressed
to the Honduran minister of development.
1
Born and raised in the Hon-
duran highlands, Medina first migrated to the North Coast in the 1920s.
There he found work as a day laborer (jornaliando) for the fruit compa-
nies. He later left the North Coast only to return in 1932 with the hope of
establishingafarmnearthevillageofCorralitos,Atlántida.Medina'sletter
explained that because there were no forested lands (montañas vírgenes)
in the area, he had sought permission to cultivate a guamilthat belonged
to Standard Fruit. When a company o
cial informed him that the land
would be made available via lease in the upcoming year, a disappointed
Medina turned to the national government for help with gaining access
to land that ''I need so badly in order to make my own living. The com-
panies only want slaves; the worker remains with nothing after buying
his necessities.'' He concluded his letter by reminding the minister about
the di
culties of squatting: ''if these companies do not give their consent
to work an abandoned farm, they won't want to buy the fruit that one
harvests!''
Víctor Medina's brief yet evocative letter sheds light on the dynamic
intersection between landscape and livelihood negotiated by those who
ventured to the North Coast in the early twentieth century with the hope
oftappingintotheregion's''greengold.''However,hisself-describediden-
