Bananas and Cocaine

Because I did not have internet access last Monday while attempting to post my blog, this week’s blog is a mixture of both John Soluri’s Banana Cultures and the Andean Cocaine by Paul Gootenberg. I enjoyed the fact that both authors used the “commodity chain” approach to their histories, allowing readers to develop a better understanding of the production and consumption of the commodities being discussed while also giving agency to multiple players throughout the chain. 

Overall, I found Banana Cultures to be an interesting and very readable history of the development of the banana export industry in Honduras. Like Daniel, I found Soluri’s approach to be unique, especially because of the importance he placed on the environment and the struggle against plant diseases that were outside the control of producers and marketers. Throughout our class discussions, we have tended to give agency completely to people, and I think this commodity in particular can give us more angles to examine. While the American desire for bananas created the industry, the environment played an enormous role as the industry developed, and I found Soluri’s analysis very enlightening. In addition, I also believe the author did an excellent job of highlighting the significance of the banana and how it changed the course of history and the lives of the people in Honduras. Since our reading of Black Rice, I have been convinced that a commodity history should give readers a new or better understanding of the development of world history, and I believe this book did just that. By showing the importance of the banana industry in shaping the lives of Hondurans as they moved from place to place to find work,  as they restructured their society, and as they struggled to deal with the irreversible environmental impacts of the railroads, the diverted rivers, and deforestation, this book has found a place as one of my favorites of the books we have read so far.

Moving to Andean Cocaine, I will start off by saying that I was overwhelmed by the density of the book at some points, and thought I would never get through it. Despite that fact, I enjoyed reading about a commodity that I had little to no background knowledge about outside of its “illicit” properties, and I found learning about it to be very interesting. As for its significance to our class, I think the first section dealing with Peruvian agency is the most important as the author discusses the important scientific and processing infrastructure set up by entrepreneurs such as Alfredo Bignon and Augusto Durand. By telling their stories and connecting them to the early promotions of coca leaf and crude cocaine in medicinal experimentation, he places them within the commodity chain where they have often been left out.  Their inclusion dispels the idea that only European initiative gave rise to the early cocaine industry. Furthermore, I think Gootenberg did a good job of showing the importance of cocaine to Peru’s development in the modern era. By connecting the ancient chewing of coca leaf by the Indian population to the development of capitalism and agro-industry, Gootenberg shows how the commodity helped to build nationalism within the country and forged lasting relationships with the US and Europe. In conclusion, I am interested to see what our class will have to say about his source material and how an illicit commodity fits into our definition.