Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882–1923

Notes

Notes Abbreviations AGCA Archivo General de Centro América ED-FRUS Executive Documents, Foreign Relations of the United States exp. expediente [at the AGCA, refers to a single document] IAG Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Guatemala, 1909–1929 JPAV Jefatura Política de Alta Verapaz JPI Jefatura Política de Izabal leg. legajo [at the AGCA, refers to a bundle of documents] MF Ministerio de Fomento MGJ Ministro de Gobernación y Justicia MRE Ministerio de Relaciónes Exteriores NAB National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives Building, Washington, DC NACP National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD paq. paquette [at the AGCA, refers to a bundle of documents held together by a piece of twine] RG24 Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel RG59 Record Group 59: General Records of the Department of State RG84 Record Group 84: Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State RG101 Record Group 101: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Introduction 1. Unless otherwise stated, the term “Latin Americans” is used in this book to mean “mestizos”—Spanish-speaking individuals of mixed Spanish and Amerindian descent. For example, the Garifuna are Latin Americans of African descent who speak their own language in addition to Spanish and English. 2. El Guatemalteco, January–December 1884; unless otherwise indicated, all Guatemalan newspapers cited are part of the Collección de Venezuela, Hemeroteca de la Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala, in Guatemala City. See also Castellano H. B. to Jefe Político de Izabal, 11 January 1921, JPI, paq. 1, no. 157, AGCA. 3. Edward Reed to William P. Kent, 14 May 1909, RG84, vol. 138, NACP. 4. M. F. Friely to Bucklin, 31 March 1911, pp. 1–2, RG59, IAG, box 3835, dispatch no. 187, NACP; “Memorandum to Dr. Rose Regarding Guatemala,” p. 1., RC, RG101, series 319, box 31, folder 183, NACP. 5. Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, 17, 19, 37; Linebaugh and Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra, 61, 77, 179, 206. Also see Benjamin, Hall, and Rutherford, The Atlantic World in the Age of Empire; and Clifford, “Diaspora,” 302–38, 320, 321. 6. For studies on labor and the coffee industry in Guatemala, see McCreery, “Coffee and Class,” 438–60; McCreery, “Debt Servitude in Rural Guatemala,” 735–59; Cambranes, 500 años de lucha por la tierra; and Smith, Guatemalan Indians and the State. The only secondary source that mentions railroad laborers participating in the 1897 revolutionary movement is Lemus, Monografía del Departamento de Zacapa, 144–45. 7. Examples of this orthodox view include Kepner, Social Aspects of the Banana Industry, 181; García, “El movimimiento obrero en Guatemala, 1900–1954”; Sagastume , “La empresa de los ferrocarriles de Guatemala”; and Balcárcel, “El movimiento obrero en Guatemala,” 23. The exception to the orthodox view can be found in Oliva Medina, Artesanos y obreros costarricenses. 8. For examples of historians who have overlooked African American workers in Latin America, see Spalding, Organized Labor in Latin America; Conniff, Black Labor on a White Canal; Gaspar, Limón, 1880–1940; Bourgois, Ethnicity at Work; Acuña Ortega, Historia general de Centro América; Chomsky, West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica; Gordon, Disparate Diasporas; Harpelle, The West Indians of Costa Rica; and, most recently, Putnam, The Company They Kept. Exceptions to this trend include Kepner, Social Aspects of the Banana Industry; Guerra-Borges, “Comunicaciones internas y puertos,” 547–58; and, most recently, Brown, The Panama Canal. Also see the works of the scholars mentioned in note 19. 9. The most recent contribution to this task is Brock and Fuertes, Between Race and Empire. 10. Putnam, The Company They Kept, 57. 11. Burns, The Poverty of Progress, 86. 12. El Guatemalteco, January–December 1884; James F. Sarg, United States Consular Agency, 7 January 1885, RG24, ED-FRUS, vol. 2368, p. 68, NAB; El Norte, 7 February 1893, 30 April 1893, 10 June 1893, and 17 June 1893; El Ferrocarril, 14 March 1894; Agustin Cordero to Ministerio de la Guerra, 17 October 1893, MRE, leg. 7597, Ferrocarril Norte, pp. 4, 7, AGCA; F. J. E. Ortiz, Dirección del Ferrocarril al Norte, to Ministerio de Fomento, 21 March 1894, Ministerio de Fomento, Superintendencia Ferrocarril Norte 1894, leg. 15811, AGCA; El Ferrocarril, 19 April 1894, 23 April 1894, 18 July 1894. 13. William T. Penney, “Notes and Comments on Travels through Mexico and Central America, being the personal happenings...