For most of you Banana Republic is a place to buy khakis

Deconstruct the store’s image – what are they selling?

What is a Banana Republic?
Enloe, used derisively to describe “countries whose land and soul are in the clutches of a foreign company, supported by the might of its own government.  A banana republic’s sovereignty has been so thoroughly compromised that it is the butt of jokes... .  Because it is impossible for such compromised rulers to win the support of their own citizens, many of whom are exploited on the corporation’s plantations, the government depends on guns and jails, not ballots and national pride” (133)
     

As eluded to in Latin American group’s presentation
– elections – less than free and fair, lack of political competition
strong ties between political (economic) elites and military

Militarism, Enloe describes, the ultimate expression of Latin machismo
Machismo and private sphere, domestic violence

Source of these “traditions”???

History of region – colonialism, Spain, Portugal, Conquistadors, Catholic Church

Today, banana industry as Enloe describes it – neo-colonialism
TNCs –
United Fruit Company
United Brands
Chiquita (US based, monopoly control of bananas grown in Honduras, Costa Rica)

Note neo-colonial patterns noted on 132
US sources – Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras (Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte)
Germany – Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras
France – Martinique, Guadaloupe
UK – Windward Islands, Colombia, Suriname (Geest, Fyffes-United Brands subsid)
Italy – Colombia, CR, Somalia
Spain – Canary Islands
Japan – Philippines, China

Banana wars between the EU and US (really their respectively rooted TNCs) over access to European markets

Trade war eventually won in the WTO by the US
 
Plantation economies – based on gender and ethnically segregated labor
e.g. Panama – Ladino men superior to Amerindian men
men do machete wielding and heavy lifting
women pick, weed, clean and pack or can the produce, work in brothers, keep farm going at home
men intensive industries – bananas, sugar, palm oil
women intensive industries – coffee, tea

What does the gendered political economy of your country look like?  What are  your countries main agricultural products and food processing industries?  What roles do women play in these industries?