Memory, Agrarian Reform and Labor in the Aguán, Honduras

396 Pages·2017·3.44 MB·English

by  Andres Leon

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Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center
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Andres Leon
Graduate Center, City University of New York
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Rebellion under the Palm Trees: Memory, Agrarian Reform and
Labor in the Aguán, Honduras

by

Andrés León
City University of New York, Graduate Center

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New
York
2015
© 2015
Andrés León
All Rights Reserved

ii
This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in
satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Professor Marc Edelman

Date Chair of Examining Committee

Professor Gerald Creed

Date Executive Officer

Professor Kate Crehan
Professor Katherine Verdery
Supervisory Committee

Professor Michael Watts
Outside Reader

The City University of New York

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Abstract
Rebellion under the Palm Trees: Memory, Agrarian Reform and Labor in the
Aguán, Honduras
by
Andrés León
Advisor: Marc Edelman
On December 9, 2009, the Unified Peasant Movement of the Aguán (Movimiento Unificado
Campesino del Aguán; MUCA) occupied over 20,000 hectares of oil palm covered lands in the
Aguán region in the Honduran northern coast. This was the latest, and probably most dramatic,
chapter in the region´s tumultuous recent history. This dissertation explores this history and the
process of creation of the Aguán region from the perspective of a set of impoverished peasant
families that migrated from different parts of Honduras towards the Aguán from the 1970s
onwards, in search of a better present and future.
It asks about the processes by which the region went from supposed “empty” space in the
1960s, to centerpiece of the Honduran agrarian reform in the 1970s and 1980s and the principal
location of the country’s palm oil industry in the 2000s and site of one of the most intense
agrarian conflicts in Latin America at the same time. I argue that by analyzing at the particular
history of the palm oil industry in the region, we are able to look at the ways in which agrarian
structure and political power come together.
Four are the main threads that hold together this argument: 1. The perspective of passive
revolution to approach the process of state formation in postcolonial Central America; 2. The
tension between labor capture and flight as a way of approaching the topic of agrarian reform, in
the midst of different processes of dispossession and struggle; 3. The consolidation on the
ground of the global palm oil assemblage and the move to the center of the region´s life of oil
palm monoculture and; 4. The process of creation of historical narratives in the Aguán, as the
tension between individual and collective memories.
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For each one of these threads, I combine my own ethnographic observations based on
eleven months of fieldwork, with different secondary sources and the broader set of theoretical
and scholarly work that deals with the topics of primitive accumulation and dispossession, state
formation, political ecology and oral history.

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To Neil, who never left
A las enanas Alicia y Jimena, para poder disfrutarlas más

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Acknowledgments
It feels like a very long time since I decided to move to New York to begin my doctoral studies.
Much happened in a relatively short period of time and it would be impossible for me to
acknowledge all the intellectual debts and social relations that sustained, nurtured and allowed
me to finish this dissertation. I would like to begin by thanking my dissertation committee: Marc
Edelman, Katherine Verdery and Kate Crehan. I am deeply grateful of everything they taught me
– both in the classroom and outside of it – and the patience, encouragement and trust that they
always showed me and my work. Throughout my writing I constantly reminded myself of
professor Crehan’s contention that one should try to emulate Gramsci’s mode of enquiring,
rather than quoting him every other line. Also, as professor Verdery constantly reminded me,
that one should be very careful about not being a victim of the mask of the state and look at the
relations, never at the things. Professor Edelman has been more than an advisor in this process.
He accompanied me even when he was going through rough paths in his own personal life and
provided more support than I could ever have imagined. If in my own work I can be half the
professor and advisor that he has been to me, I will be more than happy. I would also like to
thank Michael Watts for so generously agreeing to taking on my dissertation as an external
reader and writing such an encouraging evaluation.
Leaving Costa Rica and moving to New York was not an easy process. However, the
vibrant human and intellectual community that I encountered in the Graduate Center made the
whole thing worth it. Professors Ruthie Gilmore, Don Robotham, Michael Blim and John Collins
were crucial in my process of learning to navigate graduate school and U.S. academia. In his
short period of time in New York, Vinay Gidwani was also a constant source of inspiration.
A particular space in my heart –and mind– is reserved for Neil Smith. Before his
untimely passing Neil was always a friend, quick to ask how I was doing and have a chat. He was
also part of my second exam committee and definitely much of the little that I know of
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geography and the uneven development of capitalism came from conversations and reading with
him. He will forever be an inspiring and undying presence in my own work.
I would also like to thank everyone in the department of anthropology, particularly Ellen
DeRiso, whose dedication, good humor and patience – even when confronted with slightly
nonsensical queries – was fundamental in the whole process.
I also had the luck of getting to know some wonderful fellow students in the CUNY
Graduate Center, who always showed easy and unending solidarity and warm friendship. Special
thanks to Preeti Sampat, Emily Channell, Margarite Whitten, Neil Agarwal, Saygun Gokariksel,
Ahmed Sharif and Mark Drury for sharing smiles and tears and showing with their example that
academia, as lonely and endeavor as it can be, can also be very much about sharing and caring
for each other. I would also like to mention the Graduate Center Marxist Reading Group, which
became an always welcomed haven for wide politically engaged readings, discussions and well
deserved drinks afterwards.

Mención aparte y en español para mi familia hispanoparlante neoyorquina, que con un ron,
una bailada de cumbia o una cena siempre me hizo sentir un poco más en casa. A Andreina
Torres, Julio Arias, Irene Osorio y Ryan Mann-Hamilton; pero sobre todo a Rocío Gil y
Martín Cobian por haber estado siempre para lo bonito y para lo no tanto y haberme
aguantado y ayudado mucho más allá del deber.
En Honduras también me encontré las puertas y los brazos abiertos de muchas
personas. En Tegucigalpa Gilberto Ríos y las demás personas de FIAN Honduras (Danielito,
Nelly, Esteban y Claudia) fueron fundamentales para poder desarrollar mi trabajo. Adelay y
Javi siempre me ayudaron con un lugar para dormir y unas muy necesarias salidas a conocer
Tegucigalpa de noche.
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En Tocoa me gustaría agradecer el apoyo brindado por Juana Esquivel y todo el
equipo de la Fundación San Alonso Rodríguez, así como el del padre Colatto en la Parroquía,
al profesor Tifre y al Chele.
El centro fundamental de mi trabajo en el Aguán siempre fueron las personas del
Observatorio Permanente de Derechos Humanos del Aguán, quienes sin preguntarme mucho
me abrieron sus casas, me invitaron a sus comunidades y me regalaron sus historias. Al profe,
Rodolfo, Daniel, Rigoberto, Irma, Consuelo, Marta y don Pedro, muchas gracias por hacerme
sentir siempre bienvenido; sin ustedes definitivamente no habría tesis y mi conocimiento de
Honduras y del Aguán sería muchísimo más limitado.
Me sería imposible mencionar a todas las personas que me ayudaron en la Guadalupe
Carney, el Mocho, el Despertar, la Nueva Vida y Luzón Palmeras, así que me conformo con
mencionar algunos nombres: Odilio, doña Jesus, la familia Morales, la familia Ulloa, Iván,
Chago, Marcial, Lastenia y las López. Las palabras no son suficientes para explicar mi
agradecimiento, pero espero que este trabajo, de una u otra forma, sea un primer paso en esa
dirección.
Me gustar’ia también agradecerle a Pedro Marchetti y Jenni Casolo por haberme
recibido en su casa en Ciudad de Guatemala, contarme sus historias y darme acceso a tanta
información. Creo que encontrarán en estas páginas un reflejo de nuestras discusiones.
Finalmente me gustaría agradecerle al excepcional grupo de personas en Costa Rica
que en sus relaciones me permitieron llegar hasta aquí y sin quienes sería definitivamente una
peor persona, o cuando menos una más aburrida. A Checho, Marito, Jorgito, pero sobre todo a
la Adri por siempre estar y acompañarme en todo este trayecto, aun cuando no estaba muy
claro que era lo que estaba haciendo. No me queda más que esperar tener la posibilidad de
pagarles con la misma moneda.
A la familia Herrera por abrirme las puertas y permitirme apadrinar a las enanas;
terminar la tesis rápido para ver si las disfruto antes de que crezcan demasiado siempre fue
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