Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the coast, and Limón's deep harbor made an ideal port. Inland was dense jungle and insect-
infested swamps, which prompted the government to contract the task to Minor Keith,
nephew of an American railroad tycoon.
The project was a disaster. Malaria and accidents churned through workers as Tico
(Costa Rican) recruits gave way to US convicts and Chinese indentured servants, who
were in turn replaced by freed Jamaican slaves. To entice Keith to continue, the govern-
ment turned over 3200 sq km of land along the route and provided a 99-year lease to run
the railroad. In 1890 the line was finally completed and running at a loss.
Keith had begun to grow banana plants along the tracks as a cheap food source for the
workers. Desperate to recoup his investment, he shipped some bananas to New Orleans in
the hope of starting a side venture. He struck gold, or rather yellow. Consumers went crazy
for the elongated finger fruit. By the early 20th century, bananas surpassed coffee as Costa
Rica's most lucrative export and the country became the world's leading banana exporter.
Unlike in the coffee industry, the profits were exported along with the bananas.
Costa Rica was transformed by the rise of Keith's banana empire. He joined another
American importer to found the infamous United Fruit Company, soon the largest employ-
er in Central America. To the locals, it was known as
el pulpo
(the octopus) - its tentacles
stretched across the region, becoming entangled with the local economy and politics. Un-
ited Fruit owned huge swaths of lush lowlands, much of the transportation and communic-
ation infrastructure and bunches of bureaucrats. The company drew a wave of migrant
laborers from Jamaica, changing the country's ethnic complexion and provoking racial
tensions. Amazingly, you can still see the marks that
el pulpo
left on Costa Rica - look for
the rusting train tracks and a locomotive engine in Palmares.
For details on the role of Minor Keith and the United Fruit Company in lobbying for a CIA-
led coup in Guatemala, pick up a copy of the highly readable
Bitter Fruit
by Stephen Sch-
lesinger and Stephen Kinzer.
Birth of a Nation
The inequality of the early 20th century led to the rise of José Figueres Ferrer, a self-de-
scribed farmer-philosopher and the father of Costa Rica's unarmed democracy. The son of
Catalan immigrant coffee planters, Figueres excelled in school and went to Boston's MIT
to study engineering. Upon returning to Costa Rica to set up his own coffee plantation, he
