I have no idea where to begin analyzing this poem... i have to write an essay on how it relates to Imperialism... any help would be greatly appreciated!
The United Fruit Co.
by Pablo Neruda
When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehova game the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.
It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and baners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns,
encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.
With the bloodthristy flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overladed trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.
Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.
Here is some background on imperialism which should help you in your essay:
[www.historywiz.com] />
Les
Think about the meaning first- Neruda says that Jehovah (God) gave the world to various US corporations. What does the Bible actually say? Why would he say that? Who are the people mentioned in the second stanza? How did they come to power? Why does Neruda call them flies?
pam
I don't know any of the answers to Pam's questions, but am certainly interested now!
To me, he extends the metaphor of the book of Genesis, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, somewhat bitterly. Instead of the earth being given to mankind, it is given to the big companies (that control the politicians, and therefore get to do as they wish). The flies feed on the dead bodies of the countries in Central & South America.
I recognize Trujillo, but not the others. The line in the last stanza about the Indians falling into sugared depths reminds me that American Indians suffer from high rates of diabetes- I suppose that Central American Indians do the same.
pam
It is an objection to the exploitation of his countries natural resources (Chile).
The impact of the United Fruit Company (UFC) inspired the poet Pablo Neruda to write this poem with the company's name as the title.
The UFC and the bankers that supported it convinced the CIA and President Dwight Eisenhower that the president's plan to redistribute uncultivated land owned by the United Fruit Company among Indian peasants was a sign of a Communist takeover in Central America. As a result, people were killed through "executive order", as many as 100,000 people died, and the CIA released classified documents (available in their electronic reading room) of their involvement...much later.
[en.wikipedia.org] />
[64.233.161.104]
Also,
- US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles's law firm had represented United Fruit.
- John Foster Dulles's brother Allen Dulles was the director of the CIA.
- The brother of the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs, John Moors Cabot, was once president of United Fruit
Today, you can see a glimpse of how this impacted one person, thereby finding out how United Fruit Company impacted entire countries.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Rigoberta Menchú, 1992
[nobelprize.org] />
Timeline:
1950; Nobel-awarded Chilean writer Pablo Neruda publishes his epic work "Canto General" about the history of Latin America. One of its chapters is entitled "The United Fruit Company."
1951: Jacobo Arbenz wins the Presidential election in Guatemala and promises to change the agrarian structure of the country.
1953: Using the Agrarian Reform Act Arbenz government declares that 209,842 acres of uncultivated lands of United Fruit should be expropriated and distributed to landless peasants. The Guatemalan government promises the company an indemnification of $627,572 in governmental bonds.
1954: Twenty-five year old Argentinean Ernesto Guevara (later known as el "Che") witnesses the United States' CIA-backed coup in Gutemala and becomes convinced that radical changes in Latin America are only possible through an armed revolution.
1955: Between 1955 and 1962 United Fruit published around 15 million pieces of literature for students in elementary grades through high school to promote the learning of bananas and the health benefits of their consumption. These manuals were also distributed in schools around the world.
1956: The Senate's Select Committee on Small Business, undertakes a investigation of "the problems of small business" and calls on United Fruit to testify on its commercial distribution of bananas within the US. The State Department immediately requests that the Senate hearings be closed to the public and press.
1958: The US government's anti-trust against the company is finally settled. The United Fruit Company agrees to sign a consent decrees that allows the company to admit to no wrongdoing but still allows the government to force several important changes to the structure of the company.
[www.unitedfruit.org]
Imperialism: the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas
[www.webster.com] />
United Fruit Company established a monopoly on the production and distribution of bananas in Latin America in the early 20th century, which lasted at least into the 1970s with long lasting ramifications for the economic and political development for the region. Documented tactics include brute force, politcal affiliation, and social engineering.
The poem can be seen as a reflection to the feelings of those directly affected by this (the struggle and harsh reality my people face), franksness about a company's lack of ethics in an effort to increase profitability while maintaining a monopoly through the extortion of other's natural/unatural resources, and the moral injustice of stripping fellow human beings of the abiltiy to prosper in one's own country through one's own resources in the hopes of a better quality of life.
What is interesting is that in the United States, these same people that made these decisions (and countless others like them), judge and question in perplexsion how inner city killings are due to the communities' lack of value on life. It may be that they see it because it's in thier backyards or that the value of stock somehow dictates the relative value of life...
In any case, a look in the mirror may allow them to start that change we as human beings so desparately need.
Banana Republics:
[en.wikipedia.org]
Disgusting. If only we could say with confidence that things have changed today ...
duh. I think we can say fairly confidently that things did not change today. The WMF is still going strong. Food policies still enforced on countries. Countries still are or are being made dependent on the West. Very frustrating.