Last 301 - Guatemala... gone Bananas!
What a read... Talk about the bitterness that a seemingly harmless fruit leaves you with after reading "Bitter Fruit". The notion I got from the reading and what my head just kept on thinking about while going trough the text was this idea of social unfairness, greed and corruption... Political and economic interests as the source of a power struggle in Guatemala, mixed with ideological wars trying to stop the "spread of communism". American political and economic agendas become clear.
last301
Quite disturbing indeed... Killings, corruption, massacres, military coups and foreign invasions. A history of blood, a history od violence... Anyone want to share a "Banana Split", perhaps?... Definatly, this world (and in this case Guatemala) has gone "Bananas". And then to think it all traces back to the establishment of one fruit as the ultimate and most imortant mean for commerce and economic development in a country whose main export has become just that: Bananas...
2 comments:
I agree. To add to the social unfairness of ideological wars, I thought one of the comments in the reading was especially true. It cited that while the Cold War promoted the development of Democracy in Western Euruope, in Latin America,it had the effect of ousting popularly elected leaders (some of them with middle of the road policies like Arbenz) for military hardliners promoting the US agenda. Looking at some of the vocal opponents of US politics in Latin America today, like Chaves, it is no wonder that he takes such a radical approach, as history shows that any middle way is quickly dominated by US interests.
htt://cmgraber.livejournal.com
This is the first historical account that I've read on United Fruit. I was shocked to read how deep this went. I can understand why ther eis still so much anger in the latino community towards them.
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