John Soluri's Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, & Environmental Change in Honduras & the United States (2005) takes on a perspective not yet discussed in-depth as other monographs and articles in the course thus far. Namely, I am referring to how such a commodity, the banana, impacted the geographical landscape, such as what is dealt with in Honduras. The business between the United Fruit Company and the Truxillo Railroad Company is specifically important in shifting geographies. Yet, the issue of the poquiteros challenges the production and sale of fruit with the United Fruit Company, as well as challenging land disputes, and the use of the Truxillo Railroad to transport product, namely bananas. Additionally, in Honduras within the 1930s, the local government, particularly the Sonaguera municipal council, was also thrown into the dispute. This all boils down to who maintains primary control of the land. Soluri states, "The story of the drawn-out struggle to control the soil resources of Lot 19 does not readily conform to images of omnipotent fruit companies usurping the lands of hapless smallholders. The poquiteros' stubborn squatting and shrewd alliance making succeeded in keeping the Truxillo Railroad Company at bay for at least five years" (101). The United Fruit Company was not seen then as a major force that could simply wanted it what it wanted to suit it's financial and economical means. The company, including the railroad struggled with the poquiteros, especially around the La Paz area. Soluri further adds, "The strong statement of support issued by the Sonaguera municipal council in 1934 suggests that if some local elites' initial backing of the poquiteros was motivated by little more than opportunism, support for La Paz evolved into an expression of Honduran nationalism" (101). In conjunction with this debacle of land ownership, government officials argued that those who backed the poquiteros and their right to keep their land against foreign business, it was a stance that implicated the land for cultivation was for Honduran citizens in benefit of the Honduran nation, thereby exemplifying a call for nationalism. Such a nationalistic call further challenges United Fruit Company's economic gains in the region. Soluri indicates that the competitor to United Fruit, Standard Fruit, to do business with the poquiteros, hurt the Truxillo Railroad Company and their attempts to get rid of the "squatters" (101, 103). Such an act further curtails United Fruit. Soluri further adds that, "The persistence of La Paz, then, can be attributed in large part to its geographical location: in contrast to the abandoned farms occupied by squatters along the coast of Atlantida, the La Paz settlement straddled the active production zones of two fruit companies...the rapid spread of Panama disease compelled the Truxillo Railroad Company to abandon dozens of farms in the lower Aguan valley" (103). Two points must be made here--firstly, the physical geographical location allowed those of La Paz to reside in two areas of active farms, allowing them to an extent have more control of the land than United Fruit and allowing them more to resist their inquiries. Secondly, the issue of disease greatly deteriorated the Truxillo Railroad Company business exploits but in the process abandoned many farms along its tracks. The combination of government (politics), national fervor, and economic competitors, allowed those of La Paz to challenge United Fruit's claims to land. Moreover, the physical geography and disease further contributed to the deterioration of further business ventures, such as Truxillo Railroad.
With Soluri, the deployment of maps as sources is critical in his examination of the struggle for land in order to grow the commodity he discusses. The maps Soluri utilizes originates from those held by the U.S. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, as indicated in the bibliography of his monograph. The maps utilized extend from primary records from the period from analyzing the bibliographical section on maps. In particular, Map 3.1 on page 102 of the monograph shows the changing geography of the banana zones between c1930-c1950 on the Northeast coast of Honduras. The two maps illustrate that in a matter of twenty years, the breadth of the railroad and banana zones decrease. By c1950, a majority of railroad was abandoned, with its corresponding area of bananas growth areas decreased as well. This illustrates the argument made earlier in this blog post; the combination of political dealings, rise of nationalistic ideals, and especially disease, and challenges against United Fruit and Truxillo Railroad changed the geographical landscape of not only where active railroads remained by c1950 from c1930 but the new geographical locations of where bananas grew.
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