BANANALAND Hochschule Luzern

Hochschule Luzern
Master of Arts in Design / animage / Track Free
BANANALAND
The construction of the Banana Republic image
Master Thesis presented by: Hugo Ochoa
Luzern, January 17, 2011
Abstract
The present work analyzes the term Banana Republic as an image and how it has been
historically constructed. An overview of banana production history in Latin America shows
us the social and political context within which the term was coined.
Taking the representation of the latino by US American mass media and the self representation by Latin American novelists, we find out how the Banana Republic image has been
part of the symbolic war between North and South and how it has conditioned the power
relationship between both sides.
Contents
Bananaland. The Construction of the Banana Republic image.
.- Introduction
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1.- Banana, The fruit from paradise. Background information about the banana fruit
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2.- Brief history of Banana production in Latin America
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3.- The Image Making Machine
The construcition of the latin image by mass media.
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3.1.-The latino image in the U.S. popular culture
3.2.- Good neighbor policy
3.3.- Latin America through Donald duck‘s eyes
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4.- Banana + Republic
Genesis and development of the Banana Republic term
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4.1.- Bananas’s cultural meanings in US American Society
4.2.- The Republic of Anchuria and the origin of the
Banana Republic Term
4.3.- Banana Republic and its Representations
Between comedy and Tragedy
5.- Conclusions
6.- Bibliography
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Introduction
Bananas are a cult object. During the XX century this tropical fruit became so popular that
today they are widely consumed as food and as a cultural symbol. Bananas are a staple food
in many third world countries and their importance goes well beyond its nutritive value:
bananas are a political fruit.
Bananas owe their popularity mainly to the “efficient” production-distribution-marketing
system set up by North-American Fruit Corporations since the beginning of the XX century.
All across last century bananas‘ cultural meanings have been diverse. From sexual jokes to a
symbol of the capitalist world, bananas have been re-presented in all kinds of discourses. We
will consider diverse aspects concerning the construction of one of the images associated
with Bananas, the Banana Republic being one of them. This term is the direct result of a
chain of historical interactions between some Latin American countries where bananas are
produced and the North American transnational companies that control the commerce of the
exotic fruit.
After taking a look at some background information about bananas as fruit, the present work
gives an overview of Banana production history in Latin America, in order to get to know
the context within which the term “Banana Republic” was coined and how this historical
dynamic created abroad the image of Latin American countries known as Banana Republics.
The image of Banana Republic is one that has been constructed by the interaction of diverse
historical, political, economical and socio-cultural elements in a subtle combination of
facts (reality) and collective imagination. It is a game of representations that little by little
forms images like that one, and that shape our perception of the other. This phenomenon is
analyzed on the third part of dissertation, presenting key moments that helped construct the
latino images that United Fruit Company used as successful marketing strategy and became
the face that The United Fruit Company projected to the public opinion. Carmen Miranda,
one of the most beloved latin icons during the 40s and in films such as “Saludos amigos”
(1942) and
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“The three caballeros” (1944) where part of the “Good neighbor policy”, an attempt to improve the political relationships between Latin America and the US. These magical representations of Latin America by US mass media became very popular and consolidated the
latino image’s associations with color, flavour and rhythm.
On the other hand, the perception of Latin American countries as wild and backward places
gave rise to the term Banana Republic. In the last chapter of this work, genesis and
development of the Banana Republic term, we analyze the first uses of the expression and
how, as time went by, the term and its connotations changed. A derogatory and racist expression at the beginning, the term is used today to practice political criticism and has become
part of our social imagery. Several artists and writers have used the Banana Republic concept as point of departure for their stories and representations to reflect about diverse themes
concerning politics, corruption or the abuses of the savage capitalism.
In This game of representations I chose two different critical approaches to the same reality:
The banana novel, a self representation by Latin American writers and two Banana Republic
parodies made by US film directors. These two examples, where artistic works have the
Banana Republic as inspiration and scenario, are complementary approaches that move
between tragedy and comedy and show us how US Americans and Latin Americans deal
with the same theme.
Banana Republic is a concept that is part of our collective memory as global society. Expanding the term is necessary in order to discover how things are deeply intertwingled. This
is the last reflection that closes our analysis and adds the last piece to the mosaic that forms
the image of a Banana Republic.
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1. Banana, the fruit from paradise
Background information about the banana fruit
The banana is the perfect Fruit, easy to peel, seedless, ergonomic, nutritive and delicious!.
Contrary to the belief that bananas are a gift from nature (or from god), bananas, as we
know them today, are a human creation. The original banana or the wild banana that we
find in the tropical jungles has seeds and is not as tasty as the one we eat—in fact, it is
actually inedible. It took hundreds of years experimenting with cross-breeding of wild
banana varieties in order to produce an edible banana*. Finally the miracle happened,
the mutation that the Asian Farmers were expecting took place and the banana was probably the first scientifically produced food. A seedless and edible banana began to spread
around the World. “Nurtured by farmers, and carried by sailors, merchants, conquerors and
pioneers, the banana took seven thousand years to complete its circle around the World”
(Koeppel, 2008, p. 48)
Bananas come in many different colors, shapes and flavors. There are over 300 hundred
varieties of bananas around the World. During this spreading process hundreds of varieties
have been bred, each one with its own qualities, - e.g. Red banana, Burro banana, Macabu
banana, Guinea Verde banana, Ice Cream banana, Rajapuri banana, Lady Finger banana,
Orinoco banana, Basjoo banana, Lacatan, Fusarium Wilt banana, IC2 banana- just to mention a few of them.
Out of these 300 hundred varieties most people just know one: Yellow Cavendish. The
commercial banana that we eat around the world was designed by the two biggest fruit
Corporations: United Fruit Company (today known as Chiquita Brands) and Standard Fruit
Company (today known as Dole). The Yellow Cavendish is the successor of the gross
Michael, the first fruit to be standardized. Peter Chapman in his book “Bananas, how the
united fruit company shaped the world” tells us how United Fruit‘s bananas were the forerunners of those products we know today like the multinational hamburger Big Mac:
“United Fruit whittled the varieties for its purposes down to one. This was the Gros Michel
or “big Mike”. It was economically “efficient”, good for profits. More sizeable than alter-
*Dan Koeppel said that this is the first banana mystery, “At some point seedless bananas emerge,
possibly through a mutation or inadvertent cross-breeding via a windblow seed. (Koeppel, 2008,
p.245)
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Fig 1. The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. Musa Paradisiaca is the
generic name for the common plantain.
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native varieties like the Red Macabu or Lady Finger, Big Mike meant consumers simply
ate more banana. It also travelled well. With a thicker skin than some, Big Mike arrived
at its destination with less bruising. United Fruit was a pioneer of mass production. With
its one-size-fits-all banana, the company beat Henry Ford, the man often credited as the
pioneer of industrial standardization, by a number of years. Big Mike was on the shelves
at the turn of the twentieth century; the model T motor car, on the other hand, rolled of the
production line in 1908” (Chapman, 2007, p.20)
The banana monoculture brought the destruction of huge extensions of tropical forests,
thus becoming a threat to ecological diversity. The practice of planting crops with the
same patterns of growth resulting from genetic similarity has a big disadvantage: since all
the crops are genetically identical, if a disease strikes, it can destroy entire populations of
crops. This is the case with Banana crops which are exposed to diseases like the black Si-
gatoka and the panama disease, just to mention two of the most dangerous ones. As a matter of fact, the panama disease was the fungus that exterminated the Gros Michael banana
and made Banana Companies in 1961 change to the Cavendish Banana which was smaller,
more delicate to handle and not as tasty as the Gros Michael, but was resistant to Panama
disease.
The yellow Cavendish is not only the most popular fruit in the World, it is also the most
chemically treated. In order to protect banana plantations from epidemic diseases,
multinationals dump huge amounts of chemicals over the plantations. On the other hand, in
their research laboratories (since 1928), the Companies make efforts to find the perfect
banana: a disease-resistant banana with the already known characteristics that the public
“demands” from a banana.
“Today bananas are the world‘s fourth major food after rice, wheat and milk” (Chapman, 2007, p.20) and in many countries of the third world they are a staple food, the main
source of energy to survive. India, China and Brazil are among the top banana producing
countries in the world meanwhile Ecuador, Philippines and Costa Rica are among the top
banana exporting nations. But the mass produced banana that we buy in the supermarket
has a polemic and dramatic history behind it. This obscure history began about 110 years
ago.
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Fig. 2. „The Ford model T“ car and his analogue „the Big Mike“ banana (right) are among
the first products to be object of industrial standardization. The Transnational companies
engineers created a „efficient“ system to produce bananas based on monoculture.
Fig. 3. Two banana varieties: the “mango” like Karat Banana and Cuban Red banana.
There are more than 300 banana varieties in the world and most people just know one: the
„Yellow Cavendish“, which is the commercial banana produced by all the big fruit transnational companies.
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2. Brief history of Banana Production
in Latin America
It was the beginning of the XX Century, the spirit of modernity and progress was being
spread all over the world. Thanks to technological improvements the commercial and symbolic exchange became more efficient and made it possible to import perishable goods like
bananas, from remote tropical places to the big American metropolis. Bananas became one
of the first foods to be mass produced, and object to industrial standardization.
At the end of the XIX century there were approx. 100 US shipping companies buying bananas in the tropics from local farmers and competing to commercialize bananas in the US
market. During the last decade of the XIX century all these companies would be absorbed
and reduced to two corporations that monopolized the commerce of bananas: the United
Fruit Company (today known as Chiquita Brands) and the Standard fruit Company (today
Dole). ( Carías, 1991, p.14)
Bananas was United Fruit Company‘s business; they built a banana empire. United Fruit
Company (from now on UFCO) was founded in 1900 and became in a few years a huge
monopoly which, in the countries where it was established, controlled not just all the phases
of banana trade but also all means of communication. They were the owners of the railway
system, the telegraph and post office, the ports and huge extensions of the best soils. They
controlled governments using all kinds of methods, and as the US Congress in the 20s concluded, bribery became “the way business was done in such parts of the world” (Chapman,
2007, p 199).
UFCO engineered a highly „efficient” network of production, shipping and distribution of
bananas. By 1905 millions of bananas were consumed in diverse places all over the USA.
The tropical fruit which came from places thousands of miles away, became as much a part
of daily life as apples were. By 1929 according to Peter Chapman “The new United Fruit
extended across three million acres, or 12,000 square kilometers. As one observation had
it, United Fruit dwarfed “the planet‘s smallest half dozen countries combined”… United
Fruit had become the un-starred state on the US flag”. They owned huge extensions of the
best soils in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica and
Cuba
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Fig. 4. Since the early 20s UFCO‘s advertising has successfully introduced the banana to
US American public as a healthy substitute of children goodies and between-times food,
under the slogan „Give‘em a Chiquita banana instead“. The image above, a detail of an
UFCO commercial appeared in a magazine (1920) shows us the banana as part of the children school‘s snack, suggesting an open treasure that comes from the countries shown on
the map in the background, “Bananaland” UFCO‘s empire down south.
To maintain this „efficient” chain, they had their own labour laws, which allowed workers
to be mistreated under bad working conditions as laboring poor. Across the XX century
UFCO fought against labor unrest, strikes and leaders who demanded better working conditions. UFCO would accuse them of being “communist agitators”, thus having license to
eliminate them using their favorite method: brute force. 100 years of brute force methods
to produce a cheap Banana with cheap labor. With this modus operandi, UFCO didn‘t just
produce bananas, they also produced Coup d‘etats, poverty, infertility, illness, death, greed
and corruption among others. “It was a macabre exchange, human lives traded for bananas”
(Koeppel, 2008, p.108)
By the 40s the image of UFCO and his production methods at the “back yard” was getting
more and more deteriorated. American politicians were accusing them for their corrupt
methods, and anti-trust laws were applied by the US Government. UFCO wanted to improve
it´s image as an “evil octopus”. That was when a new industry emerged: Marketing. In 1944
the Chiquita brand name was introduced and the public Relations Department created “Señorita Chiquita Banana” (one of the worlds first banana brandings). A sexy banana character
dressed like a cha cha cha “bailarina” with a hat full of fruits, inspired by the “lady in the
Tutti-frutti hat” by Carmen Miranda. The new character was a great success, and accord-
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ing to UFCO it became “one of America‘s most famous and beloved icons”. That helped
increase sales, and “Senorita Chiquita Banana captured the exuberance and optimism of the
world‘s sole superpower” (Chapman 2007, 119).
Fig. 5. „Señorita Chiquita Banana“, character created in 1944 by UFCO‘s public relations
department, inspired by „The lady in the tutti frutti hat“ by Carmen Miranda. The character
became a symbol of the tropical Lands, normally associated with good rhythm and good
flavour.
Meanwhile the people in US had this colorful and happy image of Bananaland, the place
where bananas came from, on the other side, in the Central American factory towns was the
most crucial period, the one in which UFCO made its reputation in Latin America as „the
octopus” and Banana Republics weren’t just fictitious places, but a crude, brutal reality.
During the first half of the XX century banana corporations had the monopoly of both pro-
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duction and commercialization. It was a vertical integration, controlling all the stages of production and distribution. In the post World War II period, however, this trend -both globally
and within the banana industry- has gone the other way, toward vertical disintegration. The
companies made a transformation from a production Company to a Marketing company.
(Buchelli, 2003, p.80)
Today Chiquita Brands is doing efforts to clear its bad image from the past, they have officially recognized their past mistakes. In 2003 Chiquita Brands received the “Corporate
Conscience Award” from Social Accountability International. This was in accord with the
new term trend invented by the big corporations: “Corporate Social Responsibility”. In 2005
the company announced that 100% of its Latin American plantations had been certified to
comply with International Labor and environmental standards.*
But it is hard for Chiquita to get rid of its bribery methods and Bananaland is still a hot
place in the tropics where things get easily corrupted. According to Marcelo Buchelli in his
Article Bananas and Terrorism (2008), “In March 2007 Chiquita Brands pleaded guilty to
the Department of Justice for paying $1.7 million to different Colombian terrorist groups
between 1997 and 2001. The company paid both the right-wing paramilitary organization
AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) and the left-wing FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces). Both organizations are included in the US list of international terrorist groups and are deeply involved in cocaine trade”.
The history of North American Fruit transnationals in “Bananaland” is controversial and
complex. Interestingly, as english writer Peter Chapman observes, many of the bloody
events that Chiquita caused in Latin America “remained hidden from the people at home,
where UFCO had managed to create a quite different impression” (2007, p.79). But how did
UFCO manage to wash its face from all the dirt in its back yard?. UFCO‘s Public Relations
Department was an image-making-machine which specialized in the “engineering of
consent”. The image that UFCO projected to the public opinion as part of its marketing
strategy became one of the archetypical Latino images.
* From „United Fruit Historical Society“. [Last access 10.10.2010]. http://www.unitedfruit.org/
chron.htm
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3. The image making machine
the construction of the latin Image by mass media.
Through its advertising, UFCO projected a world full of color, rhythm, flavour and happiness over its factory towns and labour camps. The public Relations Department created
a fictional world called “Bananaland”, the place where bananas come from. A place at the
other side of the mirror, somewhere in the mythical south.
UFCO created chiquita banana in a moment when the exotic latino image was demanded
and well received by US American audiences. Now we will take a look at the latino image
construction’s ideological background and how the Latin American tropical image got consolidated.
3.1 The Latino image in the U.S. popular culture
The Latino image created by US Americans through mass media has varied according to the
historical moment and the way the relationship between Latin America and U.S. has been
shaped.
Thus, this image has taken many different faces according to the historical moment: „El
Bandido”, Gangster, Latin Lover, Drug dealer, „Guerrillero” and the more recent Immigrant,
are just some examples of the role that Latins have played in the US American social
imagination. Also the “Generalissimo” image, an authoritarian dictator character, has been
depicted in films, caricatures and stories and belongs to the Banana Republic imagery. All
this stereotyping process has had a big influence in shaping the form Anglo Americans perceive the other, those people down south, beyond the border.
Stereotyping is a central part of the creation process in cinema and storytelling. It is an effective tool used to trigger conventions among the public and make a story understandable.
„Through the social lens, stereotyping in film can be seen as a graphic manifestation of the
psychosocial process of stereotyping in society in general . . . The images of Latinos in
American film exist not in a vacuum but as part of a larger discourse on Otherness in the
United States. Beyond their existence as mental constructs or film images, stereotypes are
part of a social conversation that reveals the mainstream‘s attitudes about others“ (Ramírez
2002, p.4)
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Fig. 6. On the left we see the poster of Steven Soderbergh‘s film about Che Guevara‘s life, a
mythical Latin American guerrilla leader. On the right we see the poster of “Tropico 3” a video
game (construction and management simulation game) where the user plays as a Banana Republic
dictator. These two characters, The “guerrillero” and the „Generalissimo“ have inspired several
stories, novels, films and belong to one of the most popular Latino stereotypes. Part of the latino
image, with which Latin Americans feel identify, has been constructed by North Americans. An
Interpretation of the intereaction and cross perception between North and South.
According to Ramírez this stereotyping mechanism has an ideological background which
has been part of the historical symbolic war between North and South. “The case of Latino
stereotyping in mass media involves a discursive system that might be called „Latinism“ (a
play on Edward Said‘s Orientalism): the construction of Latin America and its inhabitants
and of Latinos in this country to justify the United States‘ imperialistic goals. Operationalized externally as the Monroe Doctrine and internally as Manifest Destiny, U.S. imperialism was based on the notion that the nation should control the entire hemisphere and was
willing to fight anyone who disagreed. For centuries, the precepts underpinning the Monroe
Doctrine have been used as a rationale for U.S. interference in the internal politics of Latin
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America. On the whole, Hollywood endorsed North American dominance of this hemisphere, and as often as it depicted that hegemony uncritically, movies helped to perpetuate
it“. (Ramírez, 2002, p.5)
These public beliefs about other social groups reproduced by mass media uncritically and
without context, can create a prejudice culture and promote discrimination, social exclusion
and lack of understanding among different social groups.
„In the United States, especially in the Southwest, Manifest Destiny meant taking land from
Mexico, displacing Mexican landowners, subjugating Tejanos, Hispanos, and Californios
(Texans, New Mexicans, and Californians of Mexican heritage), and exploiting them as
cheap and expendable labor. In order to rationalize the expansionist goals laid out by the
Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, Latinos—whether U.S. citizens, newly arrived migrants from the south, or Latin Americans in their own countries—needed to be shown as
lesser beings. Movie stereotyping of Latinos, therefore, has been and continues to be part of
an American imperialistic discourse about who should rule the hemisphere—a sort of „Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny Illustrated.“ (Ramírez, 2002, p.5)
The representation of the Latin American in US American culture has been part of a symbolic war that perpetrates relationships of dominance and marginalization of the Latin people.
But not all the images created by US American image machinery tend to marginalize Latinos. We also find an image that shows Latin America as a colorful, happy place. This kind
of image construction has a political and ideological background too.
3.2 Good neighbor policy
Among all these rather negative Latino images, there is a friendly one that brushes American
kitsch* look at the Latinos: Carmen Miranda
She made popular one of the tropical clichés per excellence: The lady in the tutti Frutti hat.
The Portuguese-Brazilian singer became famous with songs like, “Banana is my business”
and movies like “The Gang’s all here” (1943). Miranda’s presence in American cultural
agenda was part of the President Franklin Roosevelt’s „Good Neighbor Policy“ a campaign
to replace the militaristic and imperial approach to US-Latin American diplomacy with a
more “cooperative” strategy, since U.S. businesses in Latin America that had been established during the colonial period were integral to pulling the States out of the Depression and
* As kitsch will be understood the definition given by Czech writer Milan Kundera: „The absolute
denial of shit“. According to Kundera, kitsch is when we tend to hide all the shit -the things we
don‘t like accept about us, under the carpet. Reality is decorated to disguise the real problems.
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creating regional allies in the upcoming war years (Enloe, 1989, p. 127).
Carmen Miranda became a beloved Latin icon in US. Society. During the 40s, she was so
popular that she was the highest-earning woman in the United States. United Fruit Company took advantage of the phenomena around Miranda’s image and created Chiquita banana,
a character inspired by Miranda‘s lady in the tutti Frutti Hat.
Fig. 7. „Banana is my business“ was a popular song interpreted by .Hollywood star Carmen
Miranda. She represented the Latin image during the 40‘s in the Northamerican market and
became famous as „the lady in the tutti frutti hat“.
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Fig. 8. „Instead of embracing the costumes for their cultural meaning, US Hollywood executives pushed the costumes towards an outlandish, flashy, goofy exaggeration that was more
a racial joke than a tribute to Brazilian culture. Consider some of the frivolous hats Miranda
wore: an entire salad complete with tongs and silverware; a huge butterfly headdress with
wings; a lighthouse; candy canes and lollipops; and elaborate fruit and flower arrangements.
Carrying on her head the weight of stereotypes and jokes poking fun at an aspect of Brazilian women culture wasn’t easy, but Miranda did it with strength and dignity. Even in her sexually charged, exaggerated dances there is a natural and undeniable sex appeal and charm“.
(Myths of latin America, http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/LA260/miranda.htm)
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3.3 Latin America through Donald duck’s eyes
The 40‘s was also the time of Walt Disney‘s animated versions of Latin America. Disney
and his crew went on a 2 months trip to Latin America to get inspiration and stories to produce the film “Saludos Amigos” (1942). The film’s success gave Walt Disney the motivation
to make another film about Latin America “Three Caballeros” (1944)
“In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State
commissioned both a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie
to be shown in Central and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. . . Disney
was chosen for this because several Latin American governments had close ties with Nazi
Germany, and the US government wanted to counteract those ties. Mickey Mouse and other
Disney characters were popular in Latin America, and Walt Disney acted as ambassador.”*
The films are a homage to Latin culture and a romantic, friendly and kitsch view of the
„amigos“ down south. Donald duck stars as a U.S. American tourist, traveling in Peru,
Mexico and Brazil. He meets José Carioca and Panchito Pistoles which represented Brazil
and Mexico respectively. The two Latin birds take Donald Duck on a trip to show him the
wonders of their countries as well as some of their dances, music and traditions.
Fig. 9. Poster of the film
„Saludos Amigos“ where the
Ze Carioca character is introduced for the first time.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saludos_Amigos
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Walt Disney’s magical representations of Latin America consolidated the Latino image’s
associations with color, rhythm and Latin flavor. They became a reference and a stereotype
of the latin culture in United States.
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Fig. 10. Stills from the film „Saludos amigos“ (1942). The film describes
theto see
trip
Walt Disney
and his crew across Latin America and the creation process of 4 short animation films inspired
during the journey, which are integrated in the film . The story is told using a documentary film
style and mixes live action scenes with animation. Donald duck travels as a tourist with camera
in hand and deals with funny situations between the height, the Llamas and the people from
lake Titicaca.
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Fig. 11. Stills from the film „The three Caballeros“ (1944). Donald duck meet Panchito Pisotles
(Mexico) and Ze Carioca (Brazil). The two birds take Donald to a trip of magic and color. This
film mixes live action footage with animation film.
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4. Banana + Republic.
Genesis and development of the Banana Republic term
„One thing I learned during my research was that such a republic
didn’t have to produce bananas to qualify for the title.“
Peter Chapman
The first time I heard the term “Banana Republic” here in Switzerland, was during a soccer
game. The home team lost the final game because of a last minute goal. That event aroused
so much anger and jealousy on the local fans, that they jumped onto the field to beat the winning visiting team. Such a shameful event made the visiting team´s trainer say in absolute
surprise: “incredible, it is as though we were in a Banana Republic!!” Ever since this term
became a curious source of inspiration to me. As Central American, Honduran, and thus
citizen of the world´s first banana republic, I began to investigate the curious history behind
the term, and the countries it is bestowed upon.
Banana Republic is a term that ironically contradicts the principles of what a true Republic*
is, because it “cartoons” democracy. This noun is pejoratively used in developed countries to
refer to poor, politically unstable, monoculturally agrarian, and dependent countries, which
are controlled and manipulated by foreign forces and badly administered by a small and corrupt oligarchy.
In the first world countries , for example, a Banana Republic is a place that represents the
opposite of democracy and order. It is a term that has evolved from being a word used to
directly and despectively refer to a country, to a mental construct that is part of our social
imagery. It is the place where absurd, uncommon and stupid things happen, or where things
simply do not work the way they should—a parallel dimension where times runs amock, a
place exposed to corruption and backwardness. And last but not least, the place where bananas come from.
The origins of the term go back to the beginning of the XX century and can be better understood if we analyze the cultural meaning of the banana fruit in US American society at that
time.
* Government based in laws and the equality of individuals in a court of law
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4.1 Banana’s Cultural meanings in US American Society
Bananas, an exotic tropical fruit, were at the beginning something rare and luxurious in the
North American market, but thanks to the „efficient“ system of production and distribution
set up by the American businessmen, it became a mass consumed product. Pretty soon Bananas became a cultural phenomenon and American consumers would perceived bananas as
something comical and exotic. John Soluri in his essay „Banana Cultures“ give us insights
that explain us why bananas are considered something funny in American culture:
„The banana’s life as a commodity was not limited to the breakfast table; over the course
of the twentieth century, the banana served as a ubiquitous symbol in U.S. popular culture.
The banana’s cultural meanings were (and are) multiple, but the fruit has most often been
linked to humor, zaniness, and sexuality. Since at least as far back as the 1879’s comedy
sketches have deployed bananas in a variety of ways to amuse audiences. Songwriters and
poets have played with the word’s phonemic qualities; comedians and musicians have exploited the fruit’s physical qualities to conjure everything from a penis to antidemocratic
political regimes. The banana’s association with humor (it is hard to imagine a serious connotation for the fruit) can be explained in part by Anglo-American perceptions of the tropics
as culturally backward. From the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth, US popular
discourses have linked the fruit to dark, sensuous, bumbling, lazy, non-English-speaking
people. The enduring use of the term banana Republic – which first appeared in an overtly
racist text- suggests that the banana continues to be a metaphor deployed in order to distance
the United States from the tropical neighbors with whom it has been intimately connected
for a century“. (John Soluri, 2003, p.76)
Fig. 12. The history of bananas associated to humor in American culture comes since the
second half of the XIX century comedy shows. Slipping on a banana skin and Slapsticks
comedies were something inseparable, this action became a classic gag.
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Fig. 13. Are bananas funny?, Chapman says: „Incidentally, no one laughs at the banana in
its areas of origin. It is far too serious a business, on which jobs and lives depend. When I
worked in Central America, I never heard one banana joke“.
The comical side of Banana can be good illustrated by the image above. There are three
different social groups (rich, middle and poor class) watching the famous Chaplin‘s scene
from the „Gold Rush“ where Chaplin eats a shoe. The reaction of the three groups is different according to their social status: the poor people are moved, feel identify and find
the scene tragic, meanwhile the upper class think it is an exquisite joke. The banana is
something funny depending on how directly you are affected by the historical problems that
banana production has caused. On the other hand, in Latin America popular culture bananas
are funny because of the fruit‘s phallic connotations. Bananas serve as one of the favorite
sources for sexual jokes.
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4.2 The Republic of Anchuria and the origins of the Banana Republic Term
The term Banana Republic appears the first time in Cabbages and kings (1904), a novel
written by O. Henry, inspired by his 1896-97 residence in Honduras. The author depicts a
fictitious tropical land called „Anchuria“*. The story is about an American Colonist that
lives in Coralio, a mythical small town in the Caribbean. Frank Goodwin, –one of the main
protagonists „an investor who had grown wealthy by dealing in the products of the country
–a banana king, a rubber prince, a sarsaparilla, indigo, and Mahogany baron“ (O Henry,
1904), has to deal with Anchuria‘s corrupt system . Bananas, coconuts, corruption and the
presence of the Vesuvious Fruit Company are some of the main elements that lead the plot
of the story and tell us about the power relationships between North Americans and natives.
The Story serves as testimony of the turn-of-the-century life in the Caribbean Honduras and
the perception US Americans had of the tropical lands.
„May I ask you two or three questions? I believe you to be a man more apt to be truthful than—timid.
What sort of a town is this—Coralio, I think they call it?“
„Not much of a town,“ said Goodwin, smiling. „A banana town, as they run. Grass huts, ‚dobes, five
or six two-story houses, accommodations limited, population half-breed Spanish and Indian, Caribs
and blackamoors. No sidewalks to speak of, no amusements. Rather unmoral. That‘s an offhand
sketch, of course.“ (O. Henry, 1904, p. 29)
The author refers several times to the people of Anchuria as monkeys (monkey - wild backwardness – banana), and the two times that the term „banana republic“ appears comes
as a derogatory expression:
“ One of the directors had his steam yacht coaled and with steam up, ready for the trip, . . . I had
a pretty good idea where old Wahrfield—that was his name, J. Churchill Wahrfield—would head
for. At that time we had a treaty with about every foreign country except Belgium and that banana
republic, Anchuria.. . . We struck the monkey coast one afternoon about four. There was a ratty-
looking steamer off shore taking on bananas. The monkeys were loading her up with big barges”
(O. Henry, 1904, p.115 )
* Anchuria makes reference to Honduras which actually means „Depths“, meanwhile „Anchuria“
comes from „Anchura“ which means „width“.
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The fact that Bananas come from tropical places, that historically have been perceived as
„backward“, „pestilent“, wild places, and that this perception comes from a XIX century Colonial mentality -with a superiority complex-, made the association banana-monkey-savage
something common in American society. So Banana Republic would be the Republic of
monkeys, a wild and chaotic place where there is no law and order. A place where just the
fittest could survive.*
The 40 years after O. Henry coined the term, „Banana Republics became characterized as
places of inhuman wars and dictatorships, which was not altogether far from the truth, but
now the term implicitly disparaged their inhabitants for succumbing. Conversely the protagonists came out of it rather well. Commentary from the US, if made at all, came from a
position of assumed superiority“. (Chapman, 2007, p.5)
In this context, the expression banana republic -coming from this superiority position- is
hypocrite and unfair. It takes for granted that the places called banana republic are like this,
because that’s their nature, and doesn’t takes into account how these places have been systematically looted throughout history excluding the roll that Northamerican imperialism has
played in this tragic story. Chapman in his book „How the United Fruit Company shaped the
world“ tell us more about it:
“Banana Republic was familiar enough term. It had seemed inoffensively jokey, at worst
a form of shorthand for political and economic mismanagement, probably with corruption
thrown in, plus an element of national dependence on some large external force. It turned
out, however, to be a more patronizing and derogatory term than I had imagined, at least as
viewed by the countries and people to whom it was applied. It was used as if it described
their original state, while saying very little of what role any aforementioned large external
force may have played in creating or exacerbating their predicament . . . By its actions, United Fruit had invented the concept and reality of the banana republic.” (Chapman, 2007 p.5)
Banana republic was at the beginning a derogatory expression to distance the US from their
neighbors down south. The term can be better understood if we take into account the US
American perception of their southern neighbors and the meaning of the banana fruit in US
American society at the end of XIX century. Bananas were considered something funny and
*. For the mechanical colonial rationality, the monkey and other animals in general have been associated to
brute force and stupidity. Besides, the false interpretation of evolution theory, made within colonial men-
tality, put the monkey and all other animals as inferior to human beings. This idea was also taken by social
scientists who applied the same concept and concluded that there are cultures which are more civilized than
others and this grade of civilization make these cultures superior than the less civilized
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were associated with exotic-tropical-wild-backward places. The image of Central American
countries as corrupt and unstable places, controlled by foreign banana Companies and ruled
by puppet-string dictators, which as a matter of fact was not the result of pure imagination,
plus the funny connotations of the banana, gave the Central American countries the title of
Banana Republics.
But what people doesn’t pay much attention to regarding Banana Republics is what Dan
Koeppel points out concerning the relationship between the Multinational Companies and
the Latin American Governments:
“…Throughout L. A. the destabilization resulting from banana-related interventions created a tradition of weak institutions, making it difficult for true democracy and fair economic policies to take hold. The Latin American tradition of governments not supported by
the general population, and propped up by overseas commercial interests, was created under
the authorship of UFCO“ (Koeppel, 2008, p. 91). The American businessmen came to bring
“progress” and civilization to the “savage” tropical lands, but instead they brought a savage capitalism model where human and natural resources were exploited in an arbitrary and
unsustainable way. The cure resulted to be worse than the disease itself.
As time went on, the expression Banana Republic has been pasted into new contexts and
acquired new meanings and uses. In the first world countries the term is still used in daily
situations to make „non politically correct“ jokes. The press, writers and intellectuals use it
to criticize government policies too, when they think that government’s actions have a reactionary impact in the social and political life. So the expression Banana Republic became the
term par excellence when it comes to talk about themes concerning politics and corruption
anywhere in the world. That‘s why the term has been extrapolated to other contexts and
several representations and discourses make reference to the term. Next we will take a look
at two different approaches of stories based on the history of the “Banana Republics”.
Fig. 14 . Signboard found in a toy store.
This mark was probably inspired by the
Banana Republic concept, it takes three
typical elements (wild-monkey-republic) from the Banana Republic imagery
and uses them as an advertisement strategy to sell cuddly toys.
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Fig. 15. This Caricature alludes to the 2006
Coup d‘état in Honduras. The Gorilla and
the banana are two typical elements that
belong to the Banana Republic image and
portrait Honduras as such. A Gorilla hand
aiming with a banana and the Honduras flag
as background tell us about how the brute
force of the Honduran Oligarchy (associated to gorillas) threatened the sovereignty
and „Democracy“ of a country. The resistance and the critical press would portrait
the De facto government as Gorillas making reference to the history of Honduras as
a Banana Republic and the tradition of the
honduran Oligarchy of making things happen by force and not by reason.
Fig. 16. Banana Republic is often
used to make political criticism.
On the right we see the term Banana Republic used in the context of
the Middle east problematic. „Israel
grant Abbas $1 billion only if Fatah
kills Hamas“ was the press headline.
The media acussed that Abbas (from
Fatah party) was being manipulated
by U.S. / Isarel interests to divide the
palestinians and makes them fight
against each other.
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Fig. 17. Kirk Anderson‘s Banana Republic comic strip. Anderson depicts United States as
the real Banana Republic, exposing and denouncing several problems generated by mismanagement during the Bush era.
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4.3 Banana Republic in its Representations
Between Comedy and Tragedy
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.”
Mel Brooks
The history and reality of the places called „Banana Republics“ has been a source of inspiration for diverse artists to create fictional worlds that have expanded our collective imagination about what a Banana Republic is. All these representations have helped to construct
the Banana Republic image today whether by documenting, mythifying or parodying such
reality. Now we will see two different approaches to the same reality: the Banana Novel,
a sub-genre* developed by Latin American writers and two films made by U.S. American
film directors that I picked up as examples of Banana Republic parodies.
Banana Novel.
The tragic side of the Banana
The Banana novel exposes the problematic of Northamerican foreign investment in the Latin American countries where they settled. They use storytelling as a medium to reflect about
the impact of American industrial expansion in the „backward“ Central American countries
and all the social problematic that this generated. „Mamita Yunai“ (1941) by Carlos Luis
Fallas (CR); „Prision Verde“ (1950 ) by Ramon Amaya Amador (Honduras); and „El papa
verde“ (1954), by Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala); are among the most important novels of the sub-genre.
The Banana novel main characteristic is his Anti-imperialistic, Anti-oligarchic and Anticapitalist posture (Grinberg/Mackenbach, 2006, p.163). All these stories have a condemning
attitude against the capitalist system’s abuses, making visible or re-telling the mistreat ment
of the workforce as a way of social protest.
They are based on important historical events or on the author’s personal experience, depicting the working class as protagonist of the story. Many of these novels have a didactic
intention and try to show (demonstrate, testify) the way the working class resists and fights
against the transnational power. (Grinberg/Mackenbach, 2006, p.173)
*The banana Novel belongs to the Social Novel genre. This is a big movement in latin american socially
committed literature. Stories based on facts, historical events or inspired by social reality.
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The Banana narrative is an important testimony of how the power relationship between
different races, genres and social classes was built in the highly hierarchical society during
the first half of the XX century. In this sense, racism, violence, discrimination, machismo,
corruption, rootlessness, alienation are recurrent topics in the novels and define the genre.
A baroque documentary writing style, the characters’ colloquial language and the tropical
environment play an important role and and help give verisimilitude to the stories.
Jessica Ramos-Harthum in her PhD dissertation suggest a new classification for the Banana
Novel sub-genre, which can be included in the „Transnational novel“ sub-genre. The idea is
to include in this category social novels that have in common the anti-imperialistic posture
and deal with the subject of Transnational Companies. There are considerable number of
social novels that have as central element of the plot the class struggle and the fight against
a transnational company- e.g., „El tungsteno“ (1931) by Cesar Vallejo, about the story of
the Northamerican transnational Mining Society and the abuses and violations against the
workforce and „Mancha de Aceite“ (1935) by Cesar Uribe Piedrahita about the oil exploitation by the Standard Oil and Shell in Venezuela, just to mention two of them.
The Banana novel has great potential to be re-discoverd and to be mixed with other genres
without loosing its anti-establishment character. Even though today many things have
change in the banana fields, the fight against the transnational powers and its abuses in the
third world countries continues.
QuickTime™ and a
Photo - JPEG decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Fig. 18. One of the most famous Banana novels, The autobiographycal Mamita Yunai by Carlos Luis Fallas.
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Fig. 19. Cover of the Banana Novel „Prision verde“ by Ramon Amaya Amador. The story of
a Landowner who is forced to sell his lands to the Fruit corporation and ends up working as
one more worker trapped in the banana fields.
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Banana Republic Parodies
The Comical side of the Banana
Across the XX century authoritarian dictatorships, Coup d‘état and political unrest have
characterized the social and politic life of many Latin American countries. This has been the
result of historical class struggle between a conservative oligarchy that wants to keep and
extend their privileges and the majority of population fighting to get a bigger „piece of the
cake“. A culture of corruption and the intervention of the transnational corporations representing the US government’s geopolitical interests, just made things worse.
Around the figure of the dictator and the issues mentioned above we find a specific type of
novel: the Dictator Novel, a popular genre that has made Latin American literature known
around the world. The dictator novel has extended the Latin image around the world and
consequently the Banana Republic image too. It‘s important to remember that, during the
XX century, the Fruit Transnational corporations supported and controlled dictatorships in
the Latin American countries. They even argued „that developing nations needed dictatorial regimes. It was the only way the engines of progress could continue to run smoothly“
(Koeppel, 2008, p 218). So became the Dictator stereotype an inseparable element from the
Banana Republic image in US American culture.
Besides this history and image has inspired U.S. American artists to developed the Banana
Republic theme from a new comical point of view and using the charismatic „strongman“
as protagonist. The humorous approach to the theme Banana Republic by U.S. American
directors Woody Allen and Paul Mazursky, is based on farces that play, ironically and critically, with diverse Latino and US american stereotypes, principally with the Dictator one.
“Bananas” (1971) by Allen and “Moon over Parador” (1989) by Mazursky have as scenery
a fictive Banana Republic, “San Marcos” and “Parador”. Both films use humor to reflect
about diverse issues concerning power, corruption, politics and mass media.
The films are a parody about the hidden mechanism of politics. They remind us how absurd
and ridiculous politics can be, and that banana Republics are everywhere where humans
beings are. Black humor is the principal ingredient to turn tragedy into comedy, celebrating
somehow our humanity.
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Fig. 20.
Moon over Parador’s Plot (1989)
“On location in the fictional Caribbean nation of Parador, a struggling New York actor is kidnapped and forced to impersonate
the country‘s late dictator... With outlandish
consequences.
Richard Dreyfuss play actor Jack Noah, who
gets the role of his life when Parador‘s fascist strongman consumes too much of the
national drink, and drops dead the day before elections. The chief of police (Raul Julia) then „invites“ Noah to assume the role
of president -under threat of death.
Noah‘s confidence grows with each speech
and with personal support from the dead
leader‘s sultry mistress (Sonia Braga), a
champion of Parador‘s downtrodden masses. But when guerrilla fighters strike, Noah
wonders if it might not be time to move to a
new role”. (By its distributor Universal studios)
Fig. 21.
Bananas‘ Plot (1971)
“When bumbling product tester Fielding
Mellish (Allen) is jitted by his girlfriend
Nancy (Louise Lasser), he heads to the tiny
republic of San Marcos for a vacation…
only to become enmeshed in bureaucratic
bungling and political intrigue. Kidnapped
by rebels, Mellish learns about San Marcos’s plight and a little something of guerrilla warfare. Once the band of rebels seize
power, their leader goes crazy, declaring the
official language… Swedish! The rebels replace him with Melish, thinking he can save
the country. But when Mellish is nabbed by
the FBI, he is put on trial for subversion and
in a side-splitting courtroom showdown –including the most hilarious self-cross examination ever – Woody Allen proves beyond a
doubt his is a gifted satirist” (by its distributor MGM United Artists)
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Even though the Banana Novels and the Banana Republic film parodies were made in different historical moments, we can notice how writers and directors tend to deal with the same
topic depending of their cultural background. What for Central American writers is serious
and dramatic for US artists is funny and ridiculous.
The funny connotations of the banana fruit in US society and some hilarious (not exempt
of contradictions) events in the history of Central American countries made the Banana Republic term a perfect concept and scenario of political parodies. This is the approach of the
US American directors Allen and Mazursky, who use humor as a medium to make political
criticism and move away from other approaches where the Banana Republic image is uncritically stereotyped producing ahistorical, uncontextualized and negative generalizations
that omit the social, political and economic history of the places called Banana Republics.
These uncritically approaches, normally seen in many Hollywood Films where Latinos are
stereotyped (represented), create biased opinions and align themselves with the ideological
nature of stereotyping that perpetrates the discrimination and marginalization of specific
social groups.
The concept of Banana Republic belongs to a drama as well as a comedy. It touches issues
concerning corruption, the human condition and the exploitation of human beings by human
beings.
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Esposito: Well, my friends, We have done it!
Fielding Mellish: You have
Esposito: And you, all of us
Fielding Mellish: At last this country can finally bask in the sunshine of a true democracy
A land where no man is better than the next and there‘s equal opportunity for all and
respect for law and order.
Esposito: Right now, I‘m the law
Fielding Mellish: Yes, but soon we‘ll hold elections, let the people choose their
leaders
And you can voluntarily step down and return to your simple farming
Fielding Mellish: (nervous smile) What‘s the matter? You look glassy-eyed
Esposito: These people are peasants. They are too ignorant to vote
Fielding Mellish: But they have common sense.
Esposito: I am the ruler of this country. There will be no elections until I decree it.
Fig. 22. Dialog from the movie „Bananas“ between Fielding Mellish (woody Allen) and
Esposito, the leader of the Guerrilla rebels, when they finally succeed in overthrowing the
dictator Vargas.
In this movie, Woody Allen plays with the image of the Latin american dictator and his
authoritarianism. The dialog reveals and reflects about the paradoxes between Democracy
and Dictatorship under the figure of a „good will“, powersick Generalisimo that has gone
mad.
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5. Conclusions
Expanding the image of a Banana Republic
Since colonial times diverse images have been associated with the territory that Latin American countries occupy today. The paradise, the land of cannibals and barbarians, the place
with exotic nature, etc. This collective perception of the other has always had a real basis
which is complemented by our collective imagination. One of these images of the Latin
American countries abroad is the Banana Republic one, which has been constructed by the
interaction of diverse historical, sociocultural and political phenomena. The Banana Republic image has played an important role in U.S. social imagery. It is part of the symbolic war
(symbolic exchange) between north and south; and it has had big influence on the way US
Americans and Latin Americans perceive each other. It has been decisive in the construction
of the power relationships between north and south.
The image of the Latin American countries as Banana Republics has had an important echo
in Art and culture. Thus, during the XX century, novels, songs, tales, parodies, films and several cultural manifestations have been created having the “Banana Republics” as inspiration
and scenario. For example the Banana novel, a sub-genre that was an answer (within this
symbolic exchange) from the Central American artists to the social injustice produced by
the Transnational enterprises and the Bananaland Governments. Even though since the 70s
It has lost continuity, the sub-genre has a great potential to be rediscovered and actualized
with these days’ social, cultural and political problems. A re-reading of the banana Novel is
worthwhile in order to better understand the nature and historical dynamics of globalization
as economic, political and cultural phenomena. Knowing this dynamic helps us open ourselves to being responsible global consumers, who watch and are aware of Transnational
Corporations behavior.
The notion of Banana Republic is part of our collective memory as global society. That is
why we can not see the term isolated as if it was an attribute of just third world countries.
The history of the Banana Republics is the history of the dynamics of Globalization, where
poor and technologically “backward” countries are used as cheap labor and natural-ressources-free-to-exploid places by the multinational corporations from rich and technologically “advanced” countries in order to reduce costs and maximize the profits. If we start to
37
see this dynamic not from the production point of view but from the consumption one, then
we can ask ourselves, which one is the real Banana Republic, the one to produce bananas,
or the one that consumes them?.
The stereotyped image of the Banana Republic omits the social, political and economic history of the countries called Banana Republics and It is just part of an empty comedy that
feeds ignorance and produces a distorted cross-perception between North and South.
In US American society the Banana Republic term belongs to a comedy that, in the best
cases, give us the opportunity to parody our human condition regardless of nationality and
race. At the other hand, for us (Central Americans) it is hard to take this issue with humor
due to our closeness to the events caused by the history of banana production in Central
America. We still perceive ourselves as victims of the story and, like in a tragedy, our destiny is, unfortunately, always someone else’s fault. Taking this story with humor means to
take responsibility of our own part in its making and learning from the past.
The image of the Banana Republic is not something static, it is actually constantly changing, getting mixed with other concepts, stories and semantic fields. Today we have the
possibility to play with this image. To manipulate clichés, to subvert stereotypes, to find out
counter-versions and discover the ironic side of these images. We, Central Americans, have
to re-think our condition of tropical beings in order to discover our potential to transform
our reality.
While investigating the history of countries referred to as Banana Republics, one can notice
that one of their main characteristics is that there is a tendency to things “MONO”: monoculture, monopoly, monotony etc. In other words, the actions of the Banana Transnational
Companies were a threat against free competition, ecological diversity and economic diversification creating a relationship of dependence and neocolonialism between the “Banana Republics” and the Companies that represented the geopolitical interests of the United
States. This tendency towards standardization suggest that Banana Republics can be seen
and understood as „no places”—i.e., they represent a Dystopia.. A futuristic place controlled by one absolute power, exposed to corruption and where everything is turned into
same. Using the Banana Republic image as Dystopia give us the opportunity to reflect in
a critical way about our problems and challenges in a global Society that is indeed ruled by
transnational Companies. After all, we all live in a yellow banana boat.
Hugo Ochoa
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6. Bibliography
.- Chapman P. (2007), “How the united Fruit Company shaped the world”. Canongate
Books Ltd. : New York
.- Koeppel D. (2008), “Banana: The fate of the Fruit That Changed the World”. Hudson
Street Press : New York.
.- Ramirez B. (2002), “Latino images in Film”. University of Texas Press: Texas.
.- Carías Velásquez M., (1991), “La Guerra del Banano”. Ediciones Paysa: Honduras.
.- Buchelli M. (2003), “United Fruit Company in Latin America”. Power, Production, and
History in the Americas“. Duke University Press: Durham
.- Striffler S., Moberg M., Raynolds L. and Soluri J. (2003); „Banana Wars : Power, Production, and History in the Americas“. Duke University Press: Durham
.- Amaya Amador R. (1950), “Prision Verde”. Guaymuras Editorial: Tegucigalpa.
.- Asturias M. (1954), „El papa verde“. Alianza/Losada Editorial: Spain.
.- Fallas C. (1941), „Mamita Yunai“. Libreria Lehmann: San Jose.
.- Mackenbach W./Grinberg V. (2006). „Banana Novel revis(it)ed: etnia genero y espacio“.
Rev Iberoamericana VI. San Jose.
.- Lawrence M. (2008); „We are what we eat: The colonial history of the banana“. MAI
Review University of California : Santa Cruz
.- Enloe C. (1989); „Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International
Politics“. University of California Press: Berkeley.
.- Ramos-Harthun J. (2004); „La novela de las transnacionales: hacia una nueva clasificacion“. Dissertation.com : Boca Raton, Florida.
.- Henry O. (1896); „Cabbages and Kings“. The Project Gutenberg eBook.
www.gutenberg.org
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Websites
.- Kozloff N. (2009). „From Arbenz to Zelaya, Chiquita in Latin America“. [last access
10.10.2010]. From: http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff07172009.html
.- Hari J. (2009). „Why Bananas are a Parable For Our Times“. [Last access 10.10.2010]
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/why-bananas-are-a-parable_b_156102.
html
.- Bucheli M. (2008). „Bananas and Terrorism. Corporate Social Irreponsibility in Bananaland“. [Last Access 10.10.2010]. From: http://www.fromthesquare.org/?p=109
.- Wikipedia about Banana Republic. [Last access 10.10.2010]
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
.- United Fruit Historical Society, Chronology. [Last access 10.10.2010]
From: http://www.unitedfruit.org/chron.htm
.- Myths of latin America, Carmen Miranda.
From: http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/LA260/miranda.htm
.- Wikipedia, The Three Caballeros. [Last access 10.10.2010]
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Caballeros
.- Wikipedia, Saludos Amigos. [Last access 10.10.2010]
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saludos_Amigos
.- Wikipedia, Carmen Miranda. [Last access 10.10.2010]
Audiovisual References
- Bananas (1971) written and directed by Woody Allen
.- Moon over Parador (1989), directed by Paul Mazursky
.- Saludos Amigos (1942), Produced by Walt Disney.
.- The Three Caballeros ( 19449) Produced by Walt Disney
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