The dark history of bananas - John Soluri

Explore the history of the notorious United Fruit Company and how its influence over the banana industry impacted Central America.

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In December 1910, the exiled former leader Manuel Bonilla boarded a borrowed yacht and set sail for Honduras in hopes of reclaiming power by whatever means necessary. Bonilla had a powerful backer: the notorious organization known throughout Latin America as “El Pulpo.” It was a U.S. corporation trafficking in, of all things, bananas. John Soluri investigates the United Fruit Company.

Lesson by John Soluri, directed by Sofia Pashaei.

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[toadbrigade]

the fact that a single company ruined several nations is sickening...

[Alkalus]

So this is how we got the term “banana republic”...

[JohnofSuns]

Fun fact:
Gros Michel bananas are the basis of artificial banana favour, made to taste as similar to the real banana, but because of the switch to the modern Cavandish banana from the Panama disease epidemic, and artificial flavouring not needing to switch, banana flavouring in stuff like candy taste different to modern fruit bananas. If you ever felt that banana flavouring was ‘off’, this is why.

[fourscoreandsevenyears]

lmao the video should be called "The dark history of US foreign intervention"

[smilesnack]

"Illegal bannana importation" is something that i never thought would exist.

[JoseLopez-gfjs]

There is a great book called “Prision Verde” written by someone who worked for the UFC, that gives you a deeper perspective of this.

[AaronMk]

What's been forgotten in this brief over-view: the human cost of the United Fruit Company, who had plantation workers massacred for striking with backing by the US and CIA. Don't forget the labor history aspect, don't just leave it at a mention of a Honduran union.

This is still an ongoing issue in Colombia where Chiquita has paid out money to paramilitary groups to terrorize its workers. They claim it's protection from extortion. The people do not believe them.

[jakeoskam]

This is pretty flattering to UFC Believe it or not. Doesn’t really mention their hand in massacres and the realities around what it takes to over throw governments and quell civil uprisings.

[TTTTania]

I'm from Guatemala and this is such an important part of our history and sadly we still have to live with many repercussions of this 💔 they owned 40% of arable land of my country, had control over the regional transportation networks (the railway and the ports + they had the "Great White Fleet") and they owned the Telegraph company. The working conditions were deplorable and when the workers asked for 8 hours working days and a raise the UFCO obviously refused and asked for the support of the corrupt government (over which they had control) and this resulted in a big death toll, injured and imprisonments. The UFCO helped establish a military dictatorship and the major victims of that were the workers of the company. The UFCO destroyed ecosystems by ravaging whole forests and draining swamps + destroying the soil in which they had the plantations, making it infertile after the plantation is relocated (basically what is happening today with palm oil). It was until 1972 that the company sold the last of the land they owned.

[ameliawatkins]

Me, eating a banana as the notification pops up: **chuckles** *im in danger*

[Theblueame]

Anyone who had read Cien Años de Soledad (100 years of Solitude) might remember the chapters about the massacre perpetuated by the military over a strike for better working conditions at the plantations. This event was real and we call it "La Masacre de las Bananeras". In the book the protagonist wakes up in a train carrying countless wagons full of corpses, and he climbs the corpses to survive and leave the train. This is the author trying to convey the way the military "hid" the bodies, by moving them on a train to shove them in the Atlantic sea, therefore the exact count of bodies is unknown but it's estimated around the 400 or even more, although they reported only 9 deaths. The Colombian goverment murdered it's own people because the United Fruit Company demanded their workers to conform and behave.

[DesterRodriguez]

It's just mind-blowing how the US has keep their grasp on everyone and everything they want to control, no checks and balances, no regulations, no remorse for everything they put other countries through, as long as they are profiting and their bubble does not get popped. I hope future Americans make the correct the wrongdoings of their fathers and grandfathers, although the system is riged. and we may need more than that. becuase the other superpowers suffer from the same problem

[sayanchakraborty]

“Leaving the banana trade ripe for another pandemic”, this is a nice presentation for the Ted-Ed both in terms of narration and original animation!

[krishanu]

"Due to overcrowding and extensive cultivating, gros michele banana plantations in Central America have fallen to Panama disease. So what have you learnt from that?"

Companies: "Ummm go to some other forest and destroy it to repeat everything again?"

[pamelaisabeltrejosquijano]

A novel written by a Costa Rican man called Carlos Luis Fallas, titled " Mamita Yunai" explains about all struggles people had to face while working at these farms. Very interesting and realistic as well.

[audenatticus]

In Costa Rica we all read a book in middle school called Mamita Yunai about the horrors caused by the United Fruit in our country from the perspective of a plantation worker. The power that company had in these countries, supported by the US government, is increible

[breynerjimeneznoy]

Banana companies also killed a lot of people across Latin America. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez tells the story of one of those massacres that happened here in Colombia. It's the story of a crime that "never" happened.

[nickhyland]

The more U.S. History I learn the more 2020 makes sense.

[sabrinalateef]

Woah the graphic, music, and narration were amazing. Great job Mr. Soluri!!

[johnmanno]

Back in the 70s when I was a kid, we never heard about the ravages of United Fruit, and only "communists" talked about it.

I'm very very glad to see that it's common knowledge now, and calmly discussed on a platform such as this one.