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This comprehensive look at contemporary life in the small Latin American nation allows high school students and general readers to explore the many facets of Honduran life and culture. More and more Hondurans and scholars today are becoming aware of the diversity in the nation, and are realizing that rather than a single, homogeneous culture, Honduras is made up of many different cultures. Gold incorporates this contemporary cultural consciousness in her treatment of Honduras's regional and linguistic diversity as well as in her descriptions of Honduras's indigenous communities. Key elements of the work include a look at national identity and cultural diversity, as well as an in-depth study of indigenous Honduras. Other chapters examine religion, as well as daily routines, cuisine, dress, media, sports, festivals, literature and oral storytelling, traditional crafts, visual arts, and music and dance. Ideal for high school students studying world culture, Latin American studies, and anthropology, as well as for general readers interested in the subject, Culture and Customs of Honduras is an essential addition for library shelves.

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Bananas, the most frequently consumed fresh fruit in the United States, have been linked to Miss Chiquita and Carmen Miranda, "banana republics," and Banana Republic clothing stores-everything from exotic kitsch, to Third World dictatorships, to middle-class fashion. But how did the rise in banana consumption in the United States affect the banana-growing regions of Central America? In this lively, interdisciplinary study, John Soluri integrates agroecology, anthropology, political economy, and history to trace the symbiotic growth of the export banana industry in Honduras and the consumer mass market in the United States. Beginning in the 1870s when bananas first appeared in the U.S. marketplace, Soluri examines the tensions between the small-scale growers, who dominated the trade in the early years, and the shippers. He then shows how rising demand led to changes in production that resulted in the formation of major agribusinesses, spawned international migrations, and transformed great swaths of the Honduran environment into monocultures susceptible to plant disease epidemics that in turn changed Central American livelihoods. Soluri also looks at labor practices and workers' lives, changing gender roles on the banana plantations, the effects of pesticides on the Honduran environment and people, and the mass marketing of bananas to consumers in the United States. His multifaceted account of a century of banana production and consumption adds an important chapter to the history of Honduras, as well as to the larger history of globalization and its effects on rural peoples, local economies, and biodiversity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Banana Culture - What The Western Love of The Banana Meant For Honduras
This book contains much valuable information for anyone interested in the business/corporate culture of Honduras, and the way that American government and business interests have negatively affected the lives and well-being of the Honduran people.


The author does an excellent job of explaining the problems with banana fungus and how the wonder treatment from the West - pesticides sprayed through high-powered hoses, the bananas then dipped into acid baths to take off the residue of the pesticide, had a long-term impact on the Honduran agricultural workers.Some of them claim that they sweated blue dye from their pores, ruining mattresses, sheets and clothing - the health problems were far more dire, including early death from respiratory illnesses.

Big Business
To us they are just bananas, but to Honduras they were a major source of income until big business got involved.If you want to see how big business can destroy a source of income for many small farmers and destroy the local environment, then this is the book for you.Read about how promises were made but not kept by big business.See how business "leaders" were doing just fine but local workers were struggling to make a living.Healthcare or benefits, for the local worker, why?The struggle goes on for the local Honduran people while the banana business just moved on.

Banana for Banana Cultures
I very much enjoyed this book!It offers some interesting insights into the history of banana production in Honduras from an agro-ecological perspective.The impact of pathogens on patterns of production is not often highlighted, and this book does just that.

However, this work also attempts to do too much and in the end (in this case, quite literally -- in the Conclusion), it doesn't do enough of all that it sets out to do.A tighter analysis on the role of the state in banana production would have improved the overall analysis.A sharper historical perspective would have also served this purpose.Furthermore, a wider discussion of the issue of memory in the Chapter on Prision Verde would have made a discussion of collective memory add a new and interesting dimension to the overall project.

In sum, the book is very interesting and the moves the author makes (including the literary analysis, as well as his highlighting the trials of producers in the face of plant diseases, etc.) result in making this work a very interesting read!This book is worth having in any collection of works on Central America! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good cultural reference
I read this book to learn about the people and culture
of Honduras.It was very very informational and
well rounded.I was very pleased with this book as
a cultural reference tool. ... Read more

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Chapters: Copán, La Llorona, Culture of Honduras, El Puente, National Anthem of Honduras, Cadejo, Virgin of Suyapa, Lluvia de Peces, La Ceiba Carnival, Academia Hondureña de La Lengua. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 74. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. It was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. The city was located in the extreme southeast of the Mesoamerican cultural region, on the frontier with the Isthmo-Colombian cultural region, and was almost surrounded by non-Maya peoples. Copán had an occupational history that spanned more than two thousand years, from the Early Preclassic period right through to the Postclassic. The city developed a distinctive sculptural style within the tradition of the lowland Maya, perhaps to emphasize the Maya ethnicity of the city's rulers. The city has a historical record that spans the greater part of the Classic period and has been reconstructed in detail by archaeologists and epigraphers. Copán, probably called Oxwitik by the Mayans, was a powerful city ruling a vast kingdom within the southern Maya area. The city suffered a major political disaster in AD 738 when Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, one of the greatest kings in Copán's dynastic history, was captured and executed by his former vassal, the king of Quiriguá. This unexpected defeat resulted in a 17-year hiatus at the city, during which time Copán may have been subject to Quiriguá in a reversal of fortunes. A significant portion of the eastern side of the acropolis has been eroded away by the Copán River, although the river has since been diverted in order to protect the site from further damage....More: http://booksllc.net/?id=83621 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2609 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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Honduras has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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The contributors to this volume have addressed issues of systematics in pottery analysis that perplex archaeologists wherever they work. These issues are not approached by setting forth rules or by adopting a how-to approach but rather by example as the various researchers give the background to their work, explain their method, and present the classified pottery from their investigations. An in-process statement of what we are learning from pottery about chronology, interaction, and the nature of regional cultural development, this volume can be used by archaeologists working in southern Mesoamerica and northern Central America, who will find it valuable for comparative analysis, and by archaeologists dealing with issues of systematics in pottery analysis in different culture areas but facing many of the same problems that researchers do in Honduras. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Radio Swan was a pirate radio station based in the Swan Islands, a group of islands in the western Caribbean Sea, near the coastline of Honduras. Under the "Radio Swan" and "Radio Americas" names, the station was in operation from 1960 to 1968. In 1960, Radio Swan commenced unlicensed transmissions in May as a commercial radio station (CIA Inspector General (1962) pp. 9-10, 15, 27-28, 93; Anonymous CIA operative,1991; Montaner, 1999) operating with a power of 50,000 watts on AM 1160 and on shortwave with a power of 7,500 watts on 6000 kHz. The importance of this island was in its location and proximity to the island of Cuba, because on March 17, 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had approved covert action to topple the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. As early as October 30, 1960, the Castro government sent reconnaissance flights over Swan Island and the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala (CIA 11-3-1960). ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Radio America is a radio station operating in Honduras since 1948. It currently operates out of both Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Radio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing (modulating) some property of the radiated waves, such as amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves pass an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. This can be detected and transformed into sound or other signals that carry information. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Radio Club de Honduras (RCH) (in English, Radio Club of Honduras) is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in Honduras. RCH was founded on July 26, 1958, to support the scientific and technical interests of those in Honduras with an interest in radio. Key membership benefits of RCH include a QSL bureau for those amateur radio operators in regular communications with other amateur radio operators in foreign countries and sponsorship of amateur radio operating awards and radio contests. RCH represents the interests of Honduran amateur radio operators before Honduran and international regulatory authorities. RCH is the national member society representing Honduras in the International Amateur Radio Union. ... Read more

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In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.
When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.
Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled. When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique despairs of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her.
Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can–clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.
With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother’s side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.
Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, Enrique’s Journey is the timeless story of families torn apart, the yearning to be together again, and a boy who will risk his life to find the mother he loves.



From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (66)

the best migrant story yet
I have read umpteen books over the last six months on the subject on migrants leaving their Central American or Mexican homes for a shot at the dream of living in Ther United States. The ones that come here are predominantly wonderful loving parents ready to work hard and send the money they make back to the families so they can survive a little better than most of the people left behind to the abject poverty in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala etc.

Their stories are always tragic full of loneliness, abuse and death. The people attacking them are robbers, gang members and renegade police officers, each countries el migra, ready to put a hold on the dream A hold is all that it is. These people are determined to run away from the poverty their lives have given them, willing to risk life and limb to reach loved ones who have gone ahead. I have to highlight Enrique's Journey as the one most exceptional tale that I have read on this subject. While other authors too have travelled with migrants to trace their stories and steps none have done it as efficiently, none have laid bare the awful tragedy or shown the determination of the people she followed so graphically than journalist and authorr, Sonia Nazario. Having met seventeen year-old Enrique's she goes about back-tracking, following up on every detail of his story from visiting his home town, interviewing his relatives, riding El Tran de la Muerte and witnessing for herself the terror of bandits on the roof of the train carriages, of people falling or being knocked from their perches to fall on the rails to perish or to lose a limb. She stopped and interviewed the priests that helped the migrants with food and shelter, the ones that stood in harms way to help strangers. In short everywhere Enrique went so did she.

The story she wrote is adapted from the news story she earned a Pulitzer prize for and takes the reader along on the torturous decisions that humans make to leave their small children to give them a better life and how those same separated children so often turn to drugs and crime before making the decision to travel to America to find their family. We feel the agony of the attacks on the physical bodies - Enrique was thwarted seven times before finally reaching the promised land - and we gather into our souls the love expressed by the folk that help those worse off from themselves as they throw food and clothes to the trainriders. For the priests and health-workers that administer spiritual and physical food Nazario shows a side of humans that I have not seen described in other border crossing tomes. She brings indignation, faith, a feeling of hopelessness that one cannot do more and intense feeling to her writing. I shed a tear or two in the dramatic tale of Enrique's Journey

love it!
Super fast delivery! I was very impressed. I would buy from zonibooks again in a heartbeat. Thanks!

Not the best...
Although the book has received numerous awards, and great reviews from critics, which I don't really see why, I hated it. The book is trying to garner sympathy for illegal immigrants. Simple as that. Sad story, simple story, not something I'm ever going to read again.

Very Fast!!!
The purchase was easy and the product arrived very quickly....would buy from here again! Thank you!

An immigration reform is desperately needed in the U.S.
If you are not sure why theres such a big debate over immigration reform, this book will give you a glimpse at why a family may choose to migrate to the U.S. This book was an easy read, I couldn't put it down. The journey some immigrants take is dangerous, even deadly and yet some people live in such poor conditions, that they risk their own lives in search of jobs in the U.S. I highly recommend this book. ... Read more