CAMPEÑAS, CAMPEÑOS Y COMPAÑEROS: LIFE AND WORK IN THE BANANA FINCAS OF THE NORTH COAST OF HONDURAS, 1944-1957 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Suyapa Gricelda Portillo Villeda January 2011 © 2011 Suyapa Gricelda Portillo Villeda CAMPEÑAS Y CAMPEÑOS: LIFE AND WORK IN THE BANANA FINCAS OF THE NORTH COAST OF HONDURAS, 1944-1957 Suyapa Gricelda Portillo Villeda, Ph.D. Cornell University 2011 On May 1st, 1954 banana workers on the North Coast of Honduras brought the regional economy to a standstill in the biggest labor strike ever to influence Honduras, which invigorated the labor movement and reverberated throughout the country. This dissertation examines the experiences of campeños and campeñas, men and women who lived and worked in the banana fincas (plantations) of the Tela Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company, and the Standard Fruit Company in the period leading up to the strike of 1954. It describes the lives, work, and relationships of agricultural workers in the North Coast during the period, traces the development of the labor movement, and explores the formation of a banana worker identity and culture that influenced labor and politics at the national level. This study focuses on the years 1944-1957, a period of political reform, growing dissent against the Tiburcio Carías Andino dictatorship, and worker agency and resistance against companies' control over workers and the North Coast banana regions dominated by U.S. companies. Actions and organizing among many unheralded banana finca workers consolidated the powerful general strike and brought about national outcomes in its aftermath, including the state's institution of the labor code and Ministry of Labor. This dissertation explores gender, ethno-racial, and class constructions in the North Coast, which created the context for the strike. This history of life, work and labor organizing in the fincas and campos (living areas) analyzes how workers created community and adapted to conditions of the fincas, resisted company control, and organized, setting the scene for the 1954 strike. The culture and history of the North Coast, including the strike, are products of complex negotiations among different identities and actors in a dynamic environment. This dissertation suggests that the dominant male, mestizo character of the North Coast working class was only a part of the picture and existed in dialogue with the "other" (i.e., Garifuna, other black and women workers). The context and events of the North Coast can only be understood with an appreciation of the ways in which these identities collided. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Suyapa Gricelda Portillo Villeda was born in Florida, Copán, Honduras on July 6, 1974 but spent most of her childhood as an immigrant in Los Angeles, California. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish (Latin American Literature) from Pitzer College in Claremont, California in 1996. The day after graduation she began working as an organizer for KIWA (then the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates), organizing garment workers. She continued on to work as a field organizer for unions such as the Service Employees International Union, Local 399, Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees, Local 11, American Federation of County and Municipal Employees and the Screen Actors Guild of America on campaigns with healthcare workers, childcare workers, college housekeepers and actors among others. Her organizing work also includes coalition building and community based organizing efforts to address issues such as health care access for immigrant families, Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Queer rights, immigrant and labor rights for organizations such as the Latino Equality Alliance, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, and the Coalition for Quality Health Care. She and her partner, Eileen Ma, live and organize in Los Angeles, California. She has traveled extensively through Central America, Mexico and Chile. She began her Ph.D. work at Cornell University in 2002. iii To Olympia Edelmira Figueroa, Teresina Rossi and Juan B. Canales, QEPD. To the campeñas and campeños of past and present laboring in the banana fields of the North Coast of Honduras. To the Honduran Resistance in all its shapes, sizes, colors, genders and gender identities--for awakening people's consciousness every day. Finally, to my abuelita Blanca and abuelita Licha iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the collaboration of many individuals, organizations and institutions in Honduras and in the United States. I would like to especially thank my dissertation committee: co-chairs, professors Mary Roldán and Professor Ray Craib, and committee members Professor Maria Cristina Garcia and Professor Derek Chang for training me, allowing me to explore and pushing me to be a better scholar at every turn. Other professors at Cornell that were supportive in many ways and deserve many thanks are Professors Mary Beth Norton, Debra Castillo, Michael Jones-Correa, Rachel Weil, Maria Cook, Angela Gonzales, Lourdes Beneria and Mary Pat Brady. I also owe a special thanks to Barb Donnell. I was very lucky to meet graduate students and future colleagues to whom I also owe my gratitude: Chris Zepeda, Wil Harris, Ilana Lucía Aragon, Sergio Chavez, Monica Villalobos, Diana Hernandez, Becky Marquez and Jessica Harris. Generous summer funding from the Cornell Latin American Studies Program Tinker Grant the Cornell Latino Studies Program Summer Research Grant and from the Cornell Center for Contentious Politics helped me to visit Honduras more than once for oral history gathering and archival research. I was also very lucky to have support from the Mary Donlon Fellowship in the History Department at Cornell, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship and the Consortium for Faculty Diversity Program, Pomona College. Without these generous fellowships I would not have been able to travel as far. Many scholars nurtured me and offered invaluable feedback both in the Honduras and in the United States. Scholars in Honduras, historian Marvin Barahona, and Professor Mario Posas gave me valuable time and energy. Fellow graduate v students and historians, Ingris Soriano and Odette Villeda, offered company and valuable exchange during archival excavations. The History Department at the Universidad Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH) was an important place to meet young scholars and find a home away from my institution. I'm indebted to the Minister of Culture at the time of my research, Doctor Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, for opening many doors. Equally I thank the Director of the IHAH, Professor Dario Euraque, and the Director of the National Archives, Melida Velasquez. I owe gratitude to Dilcia Valle, at the time director of the CEDIJ, and the entire staff in San Pedro Sula for graciously putting up with my daily visits and questions. In the North Coast I owe a great deal of thanks to SITRATERCO and SUTRAFCO unions and their elected officials. I am indebted to Iris Munguia, Gloria Garcia, Gloria Guzman and German Zepeda and the entire Woman's Program at COSIBAH. I am ever so grateful to the Comité de Jubilados in La Lima and El Progreso, especially Chico Portillo, Daniel Madrid Guevara, Jose Amerto Lagos and Jose Sanchez. I especially want to thank Padre Ismael Moreno Coto, SJ and the Equipo de Reflexión Investigación y Comunicación for including my scholarship and energy into theirs. There were many workers that allowed me to come into meetings, participate in workshops, visit them in their workplaces, in their homes and ask about their lives, record them and learn; thank you to them and their families. In Los Angeles, California I owe a great deal of gratitude to Professor Miguel Tinker Salas who read chapters and challenged my thinking. Also, the entire History Department at Pomona College, they made it an amazing and encouraging place to write and teach. Chicano Studies at the Claremont Colleges gave me the opportunity to be a colleague and learn from experienced scholars including Professors Susan Chavez-Silverman, Gilda Ochoa, Tomás Summers-Sandoval, who encouraged me at every step of the way. A especial thank you to scholars that offered support by either vi reading drafts, encouraging me and offering great advice: Laura Pulido, Cindy Forster and Dana Frank. I owe a special thank you to Nigel Boyle, Lourdes Arguelles, Karen Goldman and José Calderon and all the Claremont College professors who some years ago supported my desire to dedicate my life and study to the working people of the Americas. Other scholars that were supportive provided encouragement and valuable survival tips, form part of the innovative new voices in the study of Central America and the Central American Diaspora: Cecilia Menjivar, Leisy Abrego, Arely Zimmerman, Alicia Estrada, Ana Patricia Rodriguez. I owe a thank you to graduate students and new colleagues in California who encouraged me, read chapters and gave me great advice: Kate Kedley, Veronica Terriquez, Munia Bhaumik, Isabela Quintana, Veronica Castillo-Muñoz, Margie Brown-Coronel, Stacy Macias. While in Honduras many family members supported me, thank you to: Family Barnica-Villeda, Villeda-Tejada, Portillo-Ramirez, Chichilla-Ramirez, Portillo- Chichilla, Posadas-Villeda, Chinchilla-Chinchilla, Chinchilla-Collart, Portillo-Ramos