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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Journey to Banana Land: Race and Gender in Afro-Caribbean Labor Migration to Honduras and the United States Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hr5f6pd Author Green, Christina Estel Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Journey to Banana Land: Race and Gender in Afro-Caribbean Labor Migration to Honduras and the United States A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies by Christina Estel Green Committee in charge: Professor Curtis Marez, Chair Professor Kirstie Dorr Professor Sara E. Johnson Professor Sara Clark Kaplan Professor Daphne Taylor-Garcia 2017 Copyright Christina Estel Green, 2017 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Christina Estel Green is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii DEDICATION To my abuelito, Adolfo Confesor Arzú. Thank you for instilling in me the importance of knowing my history. Without your weekly Sunday history lessons, none of this would have been possible. I hope that all of my hard work makes you proud. Because of you, I will always be a champion! Te extraño y te amo muchisimo. En su memoria, descansa en paz. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS SINGATURE PAGE . .iii DEDICATION . .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF FIGURES . .vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vii VITA . .xii ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION . .xiii INTRODUCTION . .1 CHAPTER ONE Setting the Stage: Early Twentieth-Century Racialized and Gendered Constructions of Banana Workers through the Lens of U.S. Educational Films . .20 CHAPTER TWO Onboard the Great White Fleet: Racialized and Gendered Representations of Labor and Leisure in American Fruit Company Tourism . 63 CHAPTER THREE Resisting the White Colonial Gaze: Banana Women in Caribbean Plantation Photography . .109 CHAPTER FOUR Family Ties: The Lived Experiences of Addie and Nelly McBride. .140 CONCLUSION . .180 BIBLIOGRAPHY . .189 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Telescope View . .37 Figure 2: Nutritional Facts . 43 Figure 3: Unemployed Workers . 49 Figure 4: Close-up on Hands . 58 Figure 5: “United Fruit Ad 1916” . 70 Figure 6: Jamaica Advertisement . 89 Figure 7: Deck Golf . 92 Figure 8: Costa Rica Advertisement . .93 Figure 9: Scene one from the musical number “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” . 100 Figure 10: Scene two from the musical number “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” . 103 Figure 11: “Native Woman, Jamaica” (1900) . .125 Figure 12: “Loading a Fruit Steamer with Bananas for Northern Markets” . .130 Figure 13: “Banana Carriers Jamaica” (1907) . 135 Figure 14: Obituary Photo of Addie McBride (1974) . 141 Figure 15: Standard Fruit Railcar . .157 Figure 16: San Jose Railcar . .158 Figure 17: VII Encuentro de Mujeres Afrocentroamericanas y la Diáspora . 187 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their unwavering support throughout various stages of this project. My dissertation chair, Curtis Marez, has been my biggest advocate on this journey to obtaining my Ph.D. His exceptional knowledge of migration and labor studies pushed me to think outside of the box. His expertise in visual studies and film studies allowed for my analysis of Afro-Caribbean migrant labor to open up in ways I never thought possible. He challenged me to think beyond what I saw in the archive and he remained generous with suggestions and praising, strengthening my project with every draft that he read. I am grateful to have had him as the chair of my committee. I thank you, Curtis, for your patience, encouragement, and positivity. Kirstie Dorr taught my very first graduate course at UC San Diego. She has remained one of my biggest champions, reassuring me that my voice is heard and needed as a first-generation, Afro-Latina graduate student at UCSD. I can always depend on her to challenge my thoughts and my engagement with the texts that I examine. Thank you, Kirstie, for the laughs and for always keeping your door open when I needed a trusting ear and heart. Sara Kaplan transformed how I think about blackness, gender, and ethnic studies. Sara’s keen analysis and thought-provoking questions have continued to challenge me and my thoughts about how my research intersects with black studies and gender studies. Sara, your acute examinations of my ideas and arguments have always kept me on my toes and ready for any hurdle I come across and for that, I thank you. Daphne Taylor-Garcia has continuously made herself available to talk through any concerns I have had with my research. I admire her prompt responses and respect for one’s time. Daphne, thank you for being a positive and powerful guiding force throughout my graduate journey. Sara E. Johnson has pushed me to think critically about the histories of the Caribbean. Her demand for meticulous work has helped to develop me into a vii more organized researcher. Sara, thank you for believing in me and what I have to offer. I would also like to thank Dario Euraque, history professor at Trinity College, for sharing his vast knowledge and archival material regarding the United Fruit Company and the United States’ involvement in Honduran politics. I am very appreciative of his generosity and expertise in Honduran history. I am thankful for UCSD’s Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies and the Tinker Foundation for granting me the Tinker Grant which allowed me to travel and conduct research in Honduras. The connections I made while in Honduras are invaluable and the information I gained while examining archival material in Tegucigalpa and La Ceiba has added to my passion for revealing the stories of Afro-Caribbean migrant workers in Honduras and Central America, more broadly. I would like to extend my gratitude to Nilda Lopez, attorney and archivist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She made sure that my arrangements in Honduras were comfortable. She and her staff guided me throughout my visit, providing me access to all archival material available at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am also very thankful for the student interns from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras who assisted me with translations of several archival materials and whose stories and laughter filled me with so much happiness. I also give many thanks to Zulma Valencia, Vice President of ODECO in La Ceiba, Honduras. She offered a wealth of knowledge about the Garifuna experience in Honduras and was very generous in sharing ODECO’s ongoing plans to bringing social justice to Honduras’s black community. I do not know where I would be without the support of my friends and colleagues at UC San Diego. My cohort helped me to keep pushing on and encouraged me to see my research as worthy and powerful. Malathi Iyengar, Sal Zarate, and Lisa Ho read through numerous drafts of viii dissertation chapters and offered an exceptional amount of feedback, helping me to become a better writer with each draft that I shared. Malathi, thank you for your kindness and your encouraging words. You have always been slow to judge and quick to offer suggestions on the different ways in which I can strengthen my work whether through suggested readings or positive notes. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of you and Sanjana’s life while at UC San Diego. Sal, you have always been a source of inspiration. I have always been in awe of your creativity and passion for teaching. Whenever I reach a dead-end with my research you are always there to offer different perspectives, encouraging me to see my work with fresh eyes. Sal, thank you for sharing your kind spirit, your awesome sketches, and your hilarious jokes with me. Lisa, where do I begin? I knew you were cool the first day that I introduced myself to you over discussions of reality-tv and pop culture, but I was not prepared for the awesome sisterhood that has blossomed. I can count on you to tell me the truth no matter how harsh the truth may be. Thank you for being the best roommate and caregiver to Chiqui. You have stood by my side through many ups and downs these past seven years. You have allowed me to be myself with no judgement. Thank you for introducing me to sriracha and Vons pizza. Thank you for being my workout partner, roommate, and confidant. Thank you for allowing me to cry, scream, laugh, and be free. You are more than a friend; you are my sister. I met Crystal Perez during an ethnic studies course and two years later we became roommates. Crystal, I have always been able to depend on your honesty. I know that I can go to you for raw truth. You have never steered me wrong. Our talks about grad school, life, and love sustained me during a dark time. Thank you for energizing me with your wit and humor, for being my boxing and running partner, and for encouraging me to remain confident in my decisions. I cannot wait for our post-graduation trip to Cancun! I would also like to thank Mohamad Abumaye, Marilisa Navarro, Monique Paes, ix Christina Carney, Lila Sharif, Kyung Hee Ha, and Juvenal Corporale for your wealth of knowledge, comradery, faith, love, and friendship throughout my time at UC San Diego. My family has been a major support system throughout this crazy journey. Mami and papi, thank you for allowing me to claim my independence at a young age. Without your encouragement, I would have never had the courage to explore the world outside of Chicago.