Entrance facade of old United Fruit Building on St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana

The United Fruit Company was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 from the merger of Minor C. Keith's banana-trading concerns with Andrew W. Preston's Boston Fruit Company. It flourished in the early and mid-20th century and came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, Ecuador, and the West Indies. Though it competed with the Standard Fruit Company for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1588x1888, 1302 KB) Summary Entrance to old w:United Fruit Company building, St. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1588x1888, 1302 KB) Summary Entrance to old w:United Fruit Company building, St. ... NOLA redirects here. ... For other uses, see Corporation (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Fruit (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Pineapple (disambiguation). ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ... This article is about crop plantations. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into United Fruit Company. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... For other uses, see Central America (disambiguation). ... Map of Central America and the Caribbean The Caribbean Sea (pronounced or ) is a tropical sea in the Western Hemisphere, part of the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the Gulf of Mexico. ... West Indies redirects here. ... Now named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company was established in 1924 by the Vaccaro Brothers. ... This article is about the economic term. ...

The Company had a deep and long-lasting impact in the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the so-called "banana republics." After a period of financial decline, United Fruit was merged with Eli M. Black's AMK in 1970 to become the United Brands Company. In 1984 Carl Lindner, Jr. transformed United Brands it into the present-day Chiquita Brands International. Neocolonialism is the term describing international economic arrangements wherein former colonial powers maintained control of colonies and dependencies after World War II. Neocolonialism can obfuscate the understanding of current colonialism, given that some colonial governments continue administrating foreign territories and their populations in violation of United Nations resolutions[1] and... A multinational corporation (or transnational corporation) (MNC/TNC) is a corporation or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in at least two countries. ... For other uses, see Politics (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Banana republic (disambiguation). ... Eli M. Black (1922?-February 3, 1975) was an American businessman who controlled the United Brands Company. ... Carl Lindner, Jr. ... Chiquita Center in downtown Cincinnati Chiquita Brands International Inc. ...

Corporate history

In 1871, U.S. railroad entrepreneur Henry Meiggs signed a contract with the government of Costa Rica to build a railroad connecting the capital city of San José to the port of Limón in the Caribbean. Meiggs was assisted in the project by his young nephew Minor C. Keith, who took over Meigg's business concerns in Costa Rica after Meiggs' death in 1877. As an experiment, Keith had begun planting bananas along the train route in 1873. Henry Meiggs (July 7, 1811--September 30, 1877) was a promoter/con man and railroad builder. ... Nickname: Location of San José Canton between provinces Coordinates: , Country Province Canton San José Canton Founded circa. ... Limón, also known as Puerto Limón, is the capital city of the homonymous province of Costa Rica. ... Map of Central America and the Caribbean The Caribbean Sea (pronounced or ) is a tropical sea in the Western Hemisphere, part of the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the Gulf of Mexico. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into United Fruit Company. ...

When the Costa Rican government defaulted on its payments in 1882, Keith had to borrow £1.2 million from London banks and from private investors in order to continue the difficult engineering project. In 1884, the government of President Próspero Fernández Oreamuno agreed to give Keith 800,000 acres (3,200 km²) of tax-free land along the railroad, plus a 99-year lease on the operation of the train route. The railroad was completed in 1890, but the flow of passengers proved insufficient to finance Keith's debt. On the other hand, the sale of bananas grown in his lands and transported first by train to Limón and then by ship to the United States, proved very lucrative. Keith soon came to dominate the banana trade in Central America and in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. GBP redirects here. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Juan Primitivo Próspero Fernández Oreamuno was President of Costa Rica from 1882 to 1885. ...

In 1899, Keith lost $1.5 million when the New York City broker Hoadley and Co. went bankrupt. He then travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, where he arranged the merger of his banana trading concerns with the rival Boston Fruit Company. Boston Fruit had been established by Lorenzo Dow Baker, a sailor who, in 1870, had bought his first bananas in Jamaica, and by Andrew W. Preston. The result of the merger was the United Fruit Company, based in Boston, with Preston as president and Keith as vice-president. Preston brought to the partnership his plantations in the West Indies, a fleet of steamships (the "Great White Fleet"), and his market in the U.S. North-East. Keith brought his plantations and railroads in Central America and his market in the U.S. South and South-East. At its founding, United Fruit was capitalized at $11,230,000. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Boston redirects here. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ...

In 1901, the government of Guatemala hired the United Fruit Co. to manage the country's postal service. By 1930, the Company had absorbed more than 20 rival firms, acquiring a capital of $215,000,000 and becoming the largest employer in Central America. In 1930, Sam Zemurray (nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man") sold his Cuyamel Fruit Co. to United Fruit and retired from the fruit business. In 1933, concerned that the company was mismanaged and that its market value had plunged, he staged a hostile takeover. Zemurray moved the company's headquarters to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was based. United Fruit went on to prosper under Zemurray's management; Zemurray resigned as president of the company in 1951. For other uses, see Mail (disambiguation). ... Samuel Zemurray (January 18, 1877-November 30, 1961) was a U.S. businessman. ... A takeover in business refers to one company (the acquirer, or bidder) purchasing another (the target). ... NOLA redirects here. ...

Corporate raider Eli M. Black bought 733,000 shares of United Fruit in 1968, becoming the company's largest shareholder. In June 1970, Black merged United Fruit with his own public company, AMK (owner of meatpacker John Morrel), to create the United Brands Company. United Fruit had far less cash than Black had counted on and Black's mismanagement led to United Brands becoming crippled with debt. The company's losses were exacerbated by Hurricane Fifi in 1974, which destroyed many banana plantations in Honduras. On February 3, 1975, Black committed suicide by jumping out of his office on the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building in New York City. Later that year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission exposed a scheme by United Brands to bribe Honduran President Oswaldo López Arellano with $1.25 million, and the promise of another $1.25 million upon the reduction of certain export taxes. Trading in United Brands stock was halted and Lopez was ousted in a military coup. Eli M. Black (1922?-February 3, 1975) was an American businessman who controlled the United Brands Company. ... Hurricane Fifi-Orlene, usually known as just Hurricane Fifi was a catastrophic storm the 1974 Atlantic and was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation). ... The MetLife Building in New York City The MetLife Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, is located at 200 Park Avenue in New York City. ... The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, commonly referred to as the SEC, is the United States governing body which has primary responsibility for overseeing the regulation of the securities industry. ... Oswaldo López Arellano (b. ...

After Black's suicide, Cincinnati-based American Financial, one of billionaire Carl H. Lindner, Jr.'s companies, bought into United Brands. In August 1984, Lindner took control of the company and renamed it Chiquita Brands International. The headquarters was moved to Cincinnati in 1985. Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ... Carl Lindner, Jr. ... Chiquita Center in downtown Cincinnati Chiquita Brands International Inc. ...

Throughout most of its history, United Fruit's main competitor was the Standard Fruit Company, now the Dole Food Company. Now named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company was established in 1924 by the Vaccaro Brothers. ... Dole Food Company, Inc. ...

History in Central America

The United Fruit Company (UFCO) owned vast tracts of land in the Caribbean lowlands. It also dominated regional transportation networks through its International Railways of Central America and its Great White Fleet of steamships. In addition, UFCO branched out in 1913 by creating the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company. One of the company's primary tactics for maintaining market dominance was to control the distribution of banana lands. UFCO claimed that hurricanes, blight and other natural threats required them to hold extra land or reserve land. In practice, what this meant was that UFCO was able to prevent the government from distributing banana lands to peasants who wanted a share of the banana trade. The fact that the UFCO relied so heavily on manipulation of land use rights in order to maintain their market dominance had a number of long term consequences for the region. For the company to maintain its unequal land holdings it often required government concessions. And this in turn meant that the company had to be politically involved in the region even though it was an American company.

UFCO had a mixed record on promoting the development of the nations in which it operated. In Central America, the Company built extensive railroads and ports and provided employment and transportation. UFCO also created numerous schools for the people who lived and worked on Company land. On the other hand, it allowed vast tracts of land under its ownership to remain uncultivated and, in Guatemala and elsewhere, it discouraged the government from building highways, which would lessen the profitable transportation monopoly of the railroads under its control. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the economic term. ...

In 1954, the democratically elected Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was toppled by a group of Guatemalan army officers who invaded from Honduras with the covert assistance of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (see Operation PBSUCCESS). Before that, the directors of UFCO had lobbied to convince the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that Colonel Arbenz intended to align Guatemala with the Soviet bloc. Besides the disputed issue of Arbenz's allegiance to Communism, the directors of UFCO may have feared Arbenz's stated intention of purchasing uncultivated land from the company (at the value declared in tax returns) and redistributing it among Native American peasants. The American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was an avowed opponent of Communism whose law firm had represented United Fruit. His brother Allen Dulles was the director of the CIA. The brother of the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs John Moors Cabot had once been president of United Fruit. The overthrow of Arbenz, however, failed to benefit the Company. Its stock market value declined along with its profit margin. The Eisenhower administration proceeded with antitrust action against the company, which forced it to divest in 1958. In 1972, the company sold off the last of their Guatemalan holdings after over a decade of decline. Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (September 14, 1913 – January 27, 1971) was the president of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954, when he was ousted in a coup détat organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency, known as Operation PBSUCCESS, and was replaced by a military junta, headed by Colonel... CIA redirects here. ... Former president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán on the cover of TIME magazine in June 1954 after his overthrow Operation PBSUCCESS was a CIA-organized covert operation that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. ... For other persons named Harry Truman, see Harry Truman (disambiguation). ... Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American General and politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953–1961). ... CCCP redirects here. ... This article is about the form of society and political movement. ... Brazilian Indian chiefs The scope of this indigenous peoples of the Americas article encompasses the definitions of indigenous peoples and the Americas as established in their respective articles. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the... Seal of the United States Department of State. ... John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. ... A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. ... Allen Welsh Dulles (April 23, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was an influential director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961 and a member of the Warren Commission. ... This article is about anti-competitive business behavior. ...

Company holdings in Cuba, which included sugar mills in the Oriente region of the island, were expropriated by the 1959 revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro. By April 1960 Castro was accusing the company of aiding Cuban exiles and supporters of former leader Fulgencio Batista in initiating a seaborn invasion of Cuba directed from the United States.^[1] Castro warned the U.S. that "Cuba is not another Guatemala" in one of many combative diplomatic exchanges before the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Despite significant economic pressure on Cuba, the company was unable to recoup cost and compensation from the Cuban government.^[1] Expropriation is the act of removing from control the owner of an item of property. ... The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolution that led to the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batistas regime on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements within the country. ... Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... The term Cuban exile usually refers to the large exodus of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castros communist state since the 1959 Cuban Revolution and in particular the wave of Cuban American refugees to the U.S. during the years 1960 and 1979, who sought greater political and economic freedom. ... General Fulgencio Batista (pronounced or ) y Zaldívar (January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician. ... Combatants Cubans trained by Soviet advisors Cuban exiles trained by United States Commanders Fidel Castro José Ramón Fernández Ernesto Che Guevara Francisco Ciutat de Miguel Grayston Lynch Pepe San Roman Erneido Oliva Strength 51,000 1,500 Casualties various estimates; over 1,600 dead[1] to 5,000...

Reputation

The United Fruit Company was frequently accused of bribing government officials in exchange for preferential treatment, exploiting its workers, contributing little by way of taxes to the countries in which it operated, and working ruthlessly to consolidate monopolies. Latin American journalists sometimes referred to the company as el pulpo ("the octopus"), and leftist parties in Central and South America encouraged the Company's workers to strike. Criticism of the United Fruit Company became a staple of the discourse of the communist parties in several Latin American countries, where its activities were often interpreted as illustrating Lenin's theory of capitalist imperialism. Major Latin American writers sympathetic to communism, such as Carlos Luis Fallas of Costa Rica, Ramón Amaya Amador of Honduras, Miguel Ángel Asturias of Guatemala, Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia, and Pablo Neruda of Chile, denounced the Company in their literature. This article is about the form of society and political movement. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja (January 21, 1909 – May 7, 1966), also known by the byname Calufa, was a Costa Rican author and political activist. ... Ramón Amaya Amador Ramón Amaya Amador is Hondurass most famous author. ... Miguel Ángel Asturias (October 19, 1899 – June 9, 1974) was a Guatemalan writer and diplomat. ... Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez, also known as Gabo (born March 6, 1927[1] in Aracataca, Colombia) is a Colombian novelist, journalist, editor, publisher, political activist, and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. ... Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the penname and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and communist politician Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. ...

The business practices of United Fruit were also frequently criticized by journalists, politicians, and artists in the United States. Little Steven released a song called "Bitter Fruit" about the company's misdeeds. In 1950, Gore Vidal published a novel (Dark Green, Bright Red), in which a thinly fictionalized version of United Fruit supports a military coup in a thinly fictionalized Guatemala. This reputation for malfeasance, however, was somewhat offset among those who worked for it or in the regions it controlled by the Company's later efforts to provide its employees with reasonable salaries, adequate medical care, and free private schooling. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Company and its successor, United Brands, created an Associated Producers Program that sought to transfer some of its land holdings to private growers whose produce it commercialized. As the Company gradually lost its land and transportation monopolies, its status as a capitalist bête noire declined.^{[citation needed]} Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. ... Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) (pronounced and , ) is an American author of novels, stage plays, screenplays, and essays, and the scion of a prominent political family. ...

Diane K. Stanley, a former U.S. diplomat and the daughter of a Welsh-born employee of the United Fruit Co. in Guatemala, argues in the book For the Record: The United Fruit Company's Sixty-six Years in Guatemala, published in 1994, that the negative perception of the company's influence in Guatemala is largely undeserved, and could be due in part to the unwillingness of left-wing journalists and writers to critically examine the legacy of the administrations of Presidents Arévalo and Arbenz. According to her: This article is about the country. ... Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (1904 – 1990) was the first of the reformist presidents of Guatemala. ... Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (September 14, 1913 – January 27, 1971) was the president of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954, when he was ousted in a coup détat organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency, known as Operation PBSUCCESS, and was replaced by a military junta, headed by Colonel...

Stanley also argues that while the company did orchestrate "an effective media campaign against the Arbenz government, it is clear that the Eisenhower administration was intent on ousting what it considered to be a Communist beachhead that threatened U.S. national security. Spurred on by John Foster Dulles, his vehemently anti-Communist secretary of state, President Eisenhower would have moved to depose Arbenz even if the United Fruit Company had never operated in Guatemala."^[3] For other uses, see Coffee (disambiguation). ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. ... Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American General and politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953–1961). ... John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. ...

Banana massacre

See also: Banana massacre

One of the most notorious strikes by United Fruit workers broke out on 12 November 1928 on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, near Santa Marta. Historical estimates place the number of strikers somewhere between 11,000 and 30,000. On 6 December, Colombian Army troops under the command of General Carlos Cortés Vargas opened fire on a crowd of strikers gathered in the central square of the town of Ciénaga. The military justified this action by claiming that the strike was subversive and its organizers Communist revolutionaries. The number of people killed in that incident is disputed: General Cortés himself estimated that 47 people had died, but Liberal Party congressman Jorge Eliécer Gaitán claimed that the toll was much higher and that the army had acted under instructions from the United Fruit Company. The ensuing scandal contributed to President Miguel Abadía Méndez's Conservative Party being voted out of office in 1930, putting an end to 44 years of Conservative rule in Colombia. The first novel of Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, La Casa Grande, focuses on this event, and the author himself grew up in close proximity to the incident. The climax of García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is based on the events in Ciénaga, though the author himself has acknowledged that the death toll of 3,000 that he gives there is greatly inflated. The Banana massacre, in Spanish, Matanza de las bananeras[1] or Masacre de las bananeras was a massacre of workers for the United Fruit Company that occurred on December 6, 1928 in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. ... is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the Colombian city. ... is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Colombian Army is the army of the Republic of Colombia. ... Location in the Department of Magdalena. ... Politics of Colombia Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Colombian political parties | Liberal parties ... Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (January 23, 1903 - April 9, 1948) was a politician, a leader of a populist movement in Colombia, a former Education Minister (1940) and Labor Minister (1943-1944), mayor of Bogotá (1936) and chief of the Colombian Liberal Party (1947-1948). ... List of Heads of State (Presidents etc. ... Miguel Abadia Mendez (1867 1947) was the President of Colombia for one 4-year term, from August 10, 1926 to August 10, 1930. ... The Colombian Conservative Party (Spanish: Partido Conservador Colombiano), is a conservative right wing / center right Colombian political party. ... Image:Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, Diaz. ... Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (born March 6, 1928) is a Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher, and political activist. ... One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and...

Further reading

• Chiquita Brands International
• Bibliography on United Fruit. The United Fruit Historical Society, Inc. (www.unitedfruit.org). Retrieved on March 6, 2006. Extensive bibliography

• Bucheli, Marcelo (2005). Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia: 1899-2000. New York: New York University Press. 

• Bucheli, Marcelo (Summer 2004). "Enforcing Business Contracts in South America: The United Fruit Company and the Colombian Banana Planters in the Twentieth-Century". Business History Review 78 (2): 181-212. 
• Bucheli, Marcelo & Read, Ian, "Banana Boats and Baby Food: The Banana in U.S. History", in Topik, Steven; Marichal, Carlos & Frank, Zephyr, From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000, Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.
• Cepeda Samudio, Álvaro (1962). La Casa Grande. 
• Chapman, Peter (2007). Jungle Capitalists. Canongate. 
• Chomsky, Aviva. West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870-1940. Louisiana State University Press. 

• Fallas, Carlos Luis (1940). Mamita Yunai. 
• Márquez, Gabriel García (1967). One Hundred Years of Solitude. 
• McCann, Thomas P (1987). On the Inside. Beverly, Massachusetts: Quinlan Press.  Revised edition of An American Company (1976).
• McWhirter, Cameron; Michael Gallagher (May 3 1998). "How 'el pulpo' became Chiquita Banana". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 
• Neruda, Pablo. Canto General.  "La United Fruit Co."
• Schlesinger, Stephen; Kinzer, Stephen (1982). Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. 
• Stanley, Diane K. (1994). For the Record: The United Fruit Company's Sixty-six Years in Guatemala. Guatemala City: Editorial Antigua. ISBN 99922-722-0-1. 
• Striffler, Steve (2002). In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 1900-1995. Durham, N.C.; London: Duke Univ. Press. 
• Vandermeer, John; Perfecto, Ivette (2005). Breakfast of Biodiversity. Oakland, California: Institute of Food an Development Poliy. ISBN 0-935038-96-X. 

Chiquita Center in downtown Cincinnati Chiquita Brands International Inc. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image:Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, Diaz. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Aviva Chomsky is a professor at Salem State College and former professor at Harvard University, specializing in history of Latin America and the Caribbean. ... Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja (January 21, 1909 – May 7, 1966), also known by the byname Calufa, was a Costa Rican author and political activist. ... Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez, also known as Gabo (born March 6, 1927[1] in Aracataca, Colombia) is a Colombian novelist, journalist, editor, publisher, political activist, and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. ... One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and... Michael Gallagher (born c. ... Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the penname and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and communist politician Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. ... Canto General is Pablo Nerudas tenth book of poems. ... Stephen Kinzer is an American author and newspaper reporter. ...

External links

• United Fruit Historical Society
• "Our Complex History", from the Chiquita Brands International 2000 Corporate Responsibility Report
• Banana Republic: The United Fruit Company
• Financial Times Article on United Fruit's legacy in Latin America: "Rotten Fruit"

Chiquita Center in downtown Cincinnati Chiquita Brands International Inc. ...

Footnotes