Intro to Guatemala: Banana Republic

In order to understand exactly what we were studying it Guatemala it's important to understand a little bit about the country's history.

Originally Guatemala was ruled by the indigenous Mayans. Around 1523 the Spanish took over and ruled for almost 300 years. During that time they took the land from the natives and divided it into large plantations. Natives had no where else to go and were forced to work as slaves or for very little pay.

The country finally gained full independence in 1839, and from there it was controlled by warlords and large land owners. During this time foreign companies (mainly from the US) saw opportunity. They wanted large quantities of land to set up banana plantations. Bananas are a very vulnerable crop because every single banana we eat has the same DNA. This means if a disease manages to kill one banana tree it can wipe out an entire plantation. Out of fear, major fruit companies obtained copious amounts of land and used only a portion of it. That way if disease or natural disaster destroyed their crops they could easily replant. At one point the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) owned almost 25% of the land in Guatemala.

At this point there were still natives with no place to live so they were once again forced to work for almost no pay. Everything seemed hopeful when Juan Jose Arevalo became president in 1944. The country was finally beginning to democratize and he wanted to redistribute the land to the poor. The United Fruit Company didn't want to loose their land when the Guatemalan government demanded it back so they decided to use the Cold War to their advantage. They convinced the United States Government that Guatemala was a Communist country because of their attempts to aid the poor and redistribute land. The US planned a military coup and overthrew the government that was in place. This led to civil war for over 40 years. During this time hundreds of thousands of people died because of death squads organized by the government. Over 40,000 people went missing and thousands took refuge in Mexico and the US.

It's important to remember that all of this happened because a few greedy men wanted to keep land that they weren't even using, land that was never really theirs to begin with. This is where the term "Banana Republic" comes in. It has an actual meaning beyond that of the clothing line. El Salvador, Hondourous and other surrounding countries also earned this name when civil war was brought on for the same reasons.

In 1996 the Peace Accords were signed and the fighting stopped. Since then Guatemala has struggled to Democratize.

It is here that our journey began. With a brief understanding of their background we began to explore this poverty stricken land. We talked to people who lost family members in the genocide as well as people who had no idea that war a even happened in their country. We talked to politicians from both the left and right winged parties as well as social workers who have no political affiliation. Through this journey we began to understand the exactly what happened down there and hopefully through these next few posts you will gain a better understanding as well.