Christal

In the poem “The United Fruit Company”, Pablo Neruda critiques North American corporations of dominating and exploiting Latin America and laments the negative influence that these companies have had on the region. He conveys these messages through biblical allusions, the use of symbolism and personification of the dictators in Latin America and the extended metaphor of the United Fruit Company. Neruda’s use of the name of a North American company as the title of the poem highlights the poem’s focus on the capitalism that a dominant corporation like the United Fruit Company represents. The title can be seen to demonstrate the overbearing influence and domination of North American companies as even Neruda’s criticisms of these very corporations and his mourning of the loss of Latin America have been labelled with the company’s brand name. The United Fruit Company was a United States corporation that traded in tropical fruit grown on third-world plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. In the original version of the poem in Spanish, the intentional use of a mixture of Spanish and English words in the title is also significant because the inclusion of English words can be seen to be symbolic of the influence of the United States on the Latin American region as the linguistic encroachment parallels the corporations’ encroachment on the region’s power and gain in dominance and stature. The inclusion of the word “United” in the title is also ironic because despite the usually positive connotations of being joined together for a common cause, the differences between the two have been widened as the United States has reaped the benefits through exploiting Latin America. The poem begins with a biblical allusion to the story of Genesis. Neruda changes the original story in such a way that mankind has no longer been given the responsibility of the earth but rather, it has become the domain of large corporations’ power and misuse as they destroy the land and its people. The religious diction is used satirically as it portrays the idea that the capitalist corporations have created their own rights to parts of the world: “United Fruit Inc. reserved for itself the juiciest, the central seaboard of my land, America’s sweet waist.” The companies appear to assume a sense of ultimate righteousness as they assert their rights to conquer and control, “ravaging coffee and fruits for its ships” while taking no heed of the “Indians collapsed” and the “lifeless fruit”. The mention of re-baptism in the lines “It rebaptized its lands the “Banana Republics”” suggests that through their act, the company has ‘cleansed’ the countries, exerting their assumptions that capitalism produces the best outcome. The United Fruit Company controlled vast territories in Latin America and became a monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be known as the ‘Banana Republics’. Hence, in context of the poem, the re-baptism represents the monopolization of the Latin American countries by North American multinationals which are symbolised by the United Fruit Company. The renaming of these countries gives them new identities whereby the nations are not described as independent states but as ‘property’ which is renamed by the controlling forces of the corporations. The biblical tone is also ironic in light of the companies’ exploitation. The personification of the flies equates the Latin American dictators (Trujillo, Tacho, Carias…) to flies, pests which are associated as being attracted to garbage and decay. The lines “flies soaked in humble blood and jam” symbolizes how the actions of the dictators have made them complicit in allowing these corporations in exploiting their people, causing the ‘humble blood’ of their people to be spilt in exchange for the production of the companies’ jam. The personification of “drunk flies” metaphorically suggest that the dictators are drunk with power, so intoxicated that they neglect the damage that is being done as they “drone over the common graves”- the mass graves of their people who have been forced to their deaths as a result of their incompetency. The grotesque metaphor of “circus flies” mocks the dictators’ lack of ability to decide their self-destiny as they allow their resource-rich countries to be reduced to the “Banana Republics”.