Category: Latin America

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The Monkeys Have No Tail in Zamboanga–A Growing Up Story (a book review)

Wolfe, Reese. The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1959) pp. 169.

An old friend, gone by and by, wrote this wonderful memoir a few years before I met him. He confessed he was an author when we worked together, but I did not read his work until decades later. Now I’m glad I finally read this part it; it may have been his most satisfying.

The Monkeys Have No Tails is Reese’s memoir of growing up and becoming a man. He told me, when I knew him, that he had grown up in the Berkeley-San Francisco area in a well-heeled family, an assertion confirmed in this book. I discovered I was vaguely familiar with his growing up years, as chronicled here, most probably because we talked about his early life when my wife and I visited him and his wife, Dorothee, and I started learning the little matters that underpinned our work. We were cultural attaché’s in Central America, he the older, I the younger (much younger).

Reese tells us in his book that he became a man at sea. That is what this memoir is about; that at the age of eighteen he left home and made it to the old wharfs in San Francisco where he committed himself as an apprentice mariner on a rusty old merchant marine ship. He thought it was the beginning of an exotic adventure but was soon put to work cleaning and polishing the entire ship, day after day, then later shoveling coal into the steam boilers. This is how came to sail the briny blue for countless weeks. He became overwhelmed with regrets when the fabled ports of call turned out to be a big disappointment.

He couldn’t get back home quickly enough.

In between, he discovered, among other things, that in Zamboanga monkeys have no tails but more importantly he learned lifelong lessons: who he was and who he wasn’t. He admired the first assistant engineer so much that he began aping him, but soon came to terms with himself, with who he was—and to return to finish up college in Berkeley.

He writes in a light and friendly manner and includes songs he sang on the ship’s foc’sle, strumming his banjo-ukulele to ease the long days on deck.

Reese Wolfe and his daughter, Mimi.

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Book Reviews Caribbean Latin America

Christophe, the King of Haiti / The Kingdom of this World, a book review

Carpentier, Alejo. El reino de este mundo (Santiago, Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1969). (See English below) El reino del que trata este libro de 142 páginas es el del “rey” de Haiti, Henri Christophe, que llegó a su fin en 1820 en la isla de Española.

Nacido en Suiza, pero criado en Cuba, el autor probablemente se dio cuenta en su juventud de la historia pesarosa del país vecino. Así es que nos asegura en la introducción, que en 1943 tuvo “la suerte” de hacer una visita a Haití donde encontró “las ruinas, tan poéticas de Sans Souci, la mole imponente” que legó Christophe a sus desharrapados compatriotas, refiriéndose al edificio colosal y masivo que sus vasallos tuvieron que erigir y que trae turistas hasta hoy en día.

Sans Souci

Considerado como uno de los más destacados escritores de América Latina del siglo XX, Carpintier hace un lado su estilo magistral rebuscado, el que resalta en la introducción de este libro, y, menos mal, no escribe el texto propio de la novela de una manera rebuscada, pues se ajusta al nivel de un esclavo negro llamado Ti Noël cuya suerte nos revela el mundo del rey Christophe.  A través de su precaria existencia el lector descubre, sin tener que aguantar términos pedantescos, de la manera en que Christophe ejerció su despotismo sobre sus súbditos desheredados, opresión que debió desaparecer después de las insignes luchas por la igualdad libradas por el célebre Toussaint L’Overture cuyo nombre curiosamente no aparece en este libro.

Carpintier deja ver su anhelo por descubrir “lo maravilloso” en la historia de los pueblos latinoamericanos para contraponer a géneros similares europeos. Así es que ve en la historia de Haití figuras protagónicas como la de Christophe (y Mackandal, líder revolucionario vudista) que tienen la capacidad de asombrar a través del tiempo por sus hazanas extraordinarias.  [January 2020]

The Kingdom of this World, is available in English. The kingdom that this 142-page book is about is that of the “king” of Haiti, Henri Christophe, who came to an end in 1820 on the island of Española.

Born in Switzerland, but raised in Cuba, the author probably discovered the sorrowful history of the country next door when he was a young man. He assures us in the introduction, that he was “lucky” to pay a visit to Haiti in 1943 where he found “the poetic ruins of Sans Souci, the imposing mass” that Christophe bequeathed to his ragged subjects, referring to the massive colossal edifice that they had to erect, a structure that attracts tourists to this day.

Considered as one of the most outstanding writers in Latin America in the 20th century, Carpintier sets aside his elaborate writing style, evident in the Introduction, and, thank goodness, writes the body of the novel less pedantically, adjusting it more realistically to his main character, a black slave named Ti Noël. His pitiful life draws the curtain for the reader on the world of King Christophe. Chronicling his precarious existence, we learn the way in which Christophe applied his despotism over his unprivileged subjects, an oppression that should have disappeared thanks to Toussaint L’Overture’s well-known fight for equality, but curiously this hero’s name is absent.

Carpintier exposes his desire to discover “the marvelous” in the history of Latin American peoples in contrast with similar European genres. So, he features protagonists like Christophe (and Mackandal, a voodoo revolutionary) in the history of Haiti as characters whose extraordinary feats enjoy the capacity to amaze over time.

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Book Reviews Central America Latin America World Affairs

“Mamita Yunai” is about the United Fruit Company

Fallas, Carlos Luis. Mamita Yunai (San José, C.R.: Editorial Costa Rica, 1941, 2019), pp. 267. [See Spanish below] The author was a unionized banana plantation worker in Costa Rica in the 1930s who learned to read and write despite conditions to the contrary. Mamita became his best known work. It is an excellent piece of literature, on its own, yet it also accomplishes what the author most wanted: to unveil the unquestionably villainous working conditions that made it possible for Americans to consume their bananas in those years. Have these conditions changed today?

Mamita Yunai is the ironic nickname that Spanish speaking workers used to refer to the company that employed them and which dominated the banana industry: The United Fruit Company. Yunai was the closest they could come to saying “united,” and they regarded the American firm as a wicked mother, which she apparently was. Apt title.

This is Fallas’ fictionalized memoir of the years he worked in the banana fields of Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast, first as a liniero or line man and later as a labor union representative. In the novel he calls himself Sibajitas and describes himself as a member of a squad of laborers opening the dense jungle to install the narrow-gage rail lines that would help extract the elongated perishable fruit. Sweating from insufferable humidity and heat, swamps, snakes and swarming mosquitos, the author convinced me of the improbability of human survival especially with little or no medical services. He writes that countless men died as a result, most of them left to rot in the muddy morass, as in the case of a close friend. Local government officials are described as enablers of this situation because they were in the company pay.

The north coast of Central America is the home of many African-origin folks who appear here as United Fruit workers, alongside their Hispanic-origin co-workers. They speak pidgin English and Spanish and reside in Costa Rica or are passing through from Honduras headed to Panama looking for canal jobs there. Aboriginals from Talamanca also appear in the story because the banana fields intruded into their long-guarded territory. They’re regarded as proud enemies of Spanish conquerors but their condition, in the 1930’s, had been reduced to wretched survival.

By the way, the Prologue’s author scorns Fallas’ many critiques for suppressing this book because of his membership in the local Communist Party, crushed long ago.  The book has been translated into English.

El autor fue un trabajador sindicalizado en las plantaciones bananeras de Costa Rica en la década de los 1930’s y aprendió a leer y escribir a pesar de tener todas las condiciones a su contra. Mamita Yunai es su obra mayor y la más conocida. La considero un trabajo literario excelente y pienso también que el autor logró lo que más quería: dejar ver las condiciones de trabajo incuestionablemente desgraciadas, que hicieron posible que los estadounidenses pudieran disfrutar de sus bananas en esos años. Han cambiado las condiciones en estos días?

“Mamita Yunai” es el apodo mordaz que los trabajadores de habla hispana usaban para referirse a la United Fruit Company, la empresa que los empleaba y que dominaba la industria bananera. “Yunai” era lo más cerca que podían llegar a decir “united,” y consideraban a la empresa norteamericana como una madre malvada, lo que aparentemente era. Título apto.

Esta es una memoria novelizada del propio Fallas cuando trabajó en los campos bananeros de Costa Rica, en la costa del Caribe, primero como “liniero” y luego como representante de un sindicato. En la novela se auto llama Sibajitas y nos dice que fue miembro de un pelotón de obreros que abría la espesa jungla para instalar las líneas ferroviarias que ayudarían a extraer la fruta amarilla y perecedera. Sudar a chorros a causa de la humedad y el calor insufrible, caminar en pantanos, aguantar serpientes y enjambres de mosquitos, el autor me convenció de la improbabilidad de la supervivencia humana, especialmente con poco o ningún servicio médico. Escribe que incontables hombres murieron como resultado, la mayoría de ellos pudriéndose en el fango, como en el caso de un amigo cercano. Describe a los oficiales de gobierno como achichinques por estar al pago de la empresa.

Gente de origen africano reside en la costa norte de Centro América y por eso aparecen aquí muchos de ellos como trabajadores de la United Fruit, al lado de sus compañeros hispanos. Hablan inglés pidgin y español y residen en Costa Rica o los describe el autor como emigrantes de Honduras dirigiéndose a Panamá en busca de trabajo. Los aborígenes de Talamanca también aparecen en esta historia porque los campos bananeros invadieron en su territorio, el que habían protegido durante la época colonial. Se les considera orgullosos enemigos de los conquistadores españoles, pero su condición en los 1930’s se había reducido a una resistencia miserable.

Por cierto, el autor del Prólogo rechaza a los críticos de Fallas porque suprimieron este libro debido a su membresía en el Partido Comunista, desbaratado ya hace mucho tiempo.

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Latin America Uncategorized United States

FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

  1. Claim: Trump says he is going to shut down the border. Fact: It would be nearly impossible to shut down the entire border. He had backed off this idea already as of 4/13/19.

 

  1. Claim: Building more wall will prevent drug trafficking. Fact: Most drugs from Mexico come through official ports of entry.

 

  1. Claim: More immigrants are illegally crossing. Fact: The number of illegal crossings is down—and has been down…[D]ata show apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped sharply since a 2000 peak. In other words, even with the crush of Central Americans, the broader picture is still a downward one.

 

  1. Claim: Most illegal immigration is coming from the Mexico border. Fact: More illegal immigration occurs through people overstaying their visas…In 2016, an estimated 320,000 visitors to the U.S….who had temporary visas overstayed them. Most of these arrived by airplane.

 

  1. Claim: Trump has been securing our borders by building more walls. Fact: Not one new linear mile of border wall has been completed under Trump as of April 9, 2019. Questions arise on whether the new constructions represent a fence or a wall, and how to classify them if the new construction replaced an old one.

 

This information comes from The Los Angeles Times, “Five misconceptions about the U.S.-Mexico border,” reprinted in the Seattle Times, April 9, 2019, as “Close Up.”  The words in italics are mine.