Bananeras. Dana Frank

      Rank-and-file members of SITRABI, Morales, Izabal, Guatemala, at a COSIBAH workshop on domestic violence, November 2002

       To Iris Munguía

       With deepest gratitude

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      This book exists only because of the vast generosity, trust, and patience of hundreds of unionized banana workers in Latin America who welcomed me into their work and taught me how to understand it. My enormous thanks go to COLSIBA, the Coalition of Latin American Banana Unions, for such a spectacularly warm and deeply moving welcome, from that very first workshop in Guatemala City. I only hope that I can be useful in return, and that some day every banana will bear a proud union label. In Honduras, I owe my deepest gratitude to all the people who make up COSIBAH, the Coalition of Honduran Banana and Agroindustrial Unions. It’s been a great privilege. Thanks for the endless hospitality, the wonderful road trips, the generous use of the office, the rides, the plantation visits, the box lunches, the jokes (including the ones I didn’t get), the interviews, and so much glorious comradeship and fun. My deep thanks to Belkis Castro, Kathy Figueroa, Gloria Guzman, Claudio Hernández, Chema Martínez, Roberto Morales, Iris Munguía, Nelson Nuñez, and German Zepeda. Thank you, Zoila Lagos, in particular, for so much warmth, support, and wisdom—as well as chisme.

      My great thanks, too, to SITRATERCO, the Union of Workers of the Tela Railroad Company, my other Honduran union family, for the warm and moving welcome, help with the project, honorary membership, and, especially, of course, the dances. Thank you Mercedes Aguilar, Oscar Amaya, Manuel Ramírez, Edgardo Rivas, and all the other dirigente/as. My special thanks to Gloria García for so much help and inspiration. In Honduras, thanks also to Mirian Reyes, Juan Funez, Oneyda Galindo, Santos Licona, Digna Figueroa, Reina Ordoñez, Gladys Briones, Nelmy Martínez, and Telma Gómez for sharing their stories and work with me. Thank you, Domitila Hernández, for the kleenex box and so much joy. Thanks, also, to the allies who helped me out: Hector Hernández, Ajax Irías, and Norma Iris Rodríguez.

      Like banana women’s activism, my gratitude crosses many borders. In Guatemala, thanks to Irene Barrientos, María del Carmen Molina, Petrona Savala Morales, Noé Ramírez Portela, Catalina Pérez Querra, Jesús Martínez Sosa, and Enrique Villeda (now in exile in Los Angeles). My special thanks to Selfa Sandoval Carranza, for generous help, inspiration, and poetry. Thank you Mauricio Calderon for that first tour of Guatemala City and for explaining so much. In Nicaragua, my thanks to Doris García, Mathilde Aguilar Quiroz, Gloria Reyes, and “Don Arnulfo.” Thank you so much, especially, Berta Gómez, for your glorious spirit, for welcoming me into your home so full of love, and for teaching me what’s really important.

      In Costa Rica, thanks to Ramon Barrentos, Miriam Gómez, Ligia Lamich, Nineth Méndez, Luisa Paz, and, especially, Gilberth Bermúdez, for generous help and solidarity. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Carlos Argüedas Mora for the hospitality, the tours, the monkeys, the coconuts, the beach, and for being such a generous soul. In Panamá, thanks to Elizabet Gonzáles and Isabel Carrasco; in Ecuador, Susana Centeno Ramírez, Edelina García, and Guillermo Touma. Last, but not least, I want to thank the incredibly brave and inspiring Colombians: Guillermo Rivera, Clara Quinto, and, especially, Adela Torres—Adela, the future is yours.

      On the US side, I am equally indebted to my wonderful comrades at the US Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), whose example, constant support, and incredibly impressive solidarity work sustained me throughout this project. I can’t begin to express my admiration and gratitude. Special thanks to Joan Axthelm for the initial conversations, Gloria Vicente for the recipe, and Allison Paul for day-to-day friendship and solidarity. My thanks to Bob Perillo, in Guatemala, for generous research help as well as comradeship and advice. I also want to thank additional allies on the US and European side (broadly defined) who helped me out along the way: Liz O’Connor, Carol Pier, Jesper Nielsen, Alistair Smith, Liz Parker, and my student, Max Krochmal.

      I want to thank, as well, so many scholarly friends and comrades who invited me to speak, gave me advice, and helped me out, especially those who welcomed me so warmly and respectfully as a newcomer to writing about Latin America. My thanks to Sonia Álvarez, Gabriella Arrendondo, Raul Fernández, Jonathan Fox, Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Toni Gilpin, Gilbert Gonzáles, Emily Honig, Ruth Milkman, Priscilla Murolo, Marysa Navarro, Annelise Orleck, Aimee Schreck, Helen Shapiro, Lynn Stephen, and David Sweet. I am particularly grateful to Aviva Chomsky, Hank Frundt, and Steve Striffler for sharing unpublished work with me and welcoming me into the scholarly study of banana workers. My great thanks to Tanalís Padilla and Lisbeth Haas for reading the entire manuscript and helping make it so much better, as well as the pleasure of their friendships.

      I am honored to be published by South End Press and to be part of its tradition of activist publishing. Thank you all for believing in this book, for your support for a Spanish-language edition, and for making it accessible to ordinary people. My special thanks to Asha Tall for the first-round support and to Jocelyn Burrell for support along the way; to Elizabeth