Land Grab: Green Neoliberalism, Gender, and Garifuna Resistance in Honduras

3. Mestizo Irregularities, Garifuna Displacement, and the Emergence of a “Mixed” Garifuna Community

54 three Mestizo Irregularities, Garifuna Displacement, and the Emergence of a “Mixed” Garifuna Community Introducing Sambo Creek Sambo Creek is located on the north coast of Honduras, 20 kilometers west of La Ceiba. Sambeños trace their community’s foundation to 1862. According to local narrative, the first Garifuna families arrived by boat, originating from the communities of Guadalupe and Santa Fe in the department of Colon, stopping first in the Cayos Cochinos, and then arriving in the area now known as Sambo Creek. Local folklore states that the first arrivals encountered a Miskito man (called Sambo in English) along a creek, from whom they requested permission to clear the land and remain. According to this story, the man agreed, and so the community of Sambo Creek was born. Other Garifuna followed and it is estimated that 95 percent of the Garifuna population’s ancestors originated from other coastal communities, including Santa Fe, San Antonio, Trujillo, Iriona, Corozal, and Triunfo de la Cruz (Central American and Caribbean Research Council 2002). Sambo Creek appeared in government records by the 1880s, reported as having 25 manzanas (about 43 acres) under cultivation, and one school (Anderson 2009:51). With its proximity to La Ceiba, and extensive transnational ties, Sambo Creek has witnessed significant changes in infrastructure, demographics, and land tenure. La Ceiba is Honduras’s third-largest city and the capital of the department of Atlántida. The city’s population is roughly 174,000. Today the city serves as the heart of the tourist trade, having transformed Emergence of a “Mixed” Garifuna Community • 55 from a banana-exporting port to a link to the popular tourist destination of the Bay Islands. Sambo Creek’s population has grown steadily over the last few decades. In 1981 Carolyn McCommon (Anderson 2000:88) reported a population of 1,196, stating that 90 percent were Garifuna and 10 percent were mestizo . According to census data from 2000, the total population was 2,720, of whom 47.87 percent were Garifuna, and 51.03 percent “otros” (largely mestizos) (Anderson 2009:37).1 In 2002 Sambo Creek’s population was estimated by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council to be roughly five thousand, at least 40 percent of whom were mestizo (2002). This estimate likely included both Sambo Creek residents living in country as well as those living abroad. My estimates based on household surveying placed the population in 2002 roughly between 2,500 and 3,000. In 2005 Scheerer conducted a full census and reported 607 households and a total population of 2,891 (Carey Scheerer, unpublished data). In comparison to other Garifuna communities farther west along the coast, Sambo Creek is a “modern” community. By “modern,” I refer strictly to amenities. Many of such changes occurred within the last two decades. In 1982 Carolyn McCommon (Anderson 2000:85) described Sambo Figure 3.1 Sambo Creek, 2006. Photo by Keri Brondo 56 • Land Grab Creek as a: “traditional, rural, Black Carib village . . . there is no electricity, telegraph lines or sanitation service. Few houses have latrines or adjacent outhouses. Water is obtained from the river and hauled to homes in pans carried on individuals’ heads.” In 2002 community members remembered those days well, but this “traditional” “village-like” atmosphere was long gone. In the 1980s the road was paved between La Ceiba and Trujillo, and La Ceiba subsidized electricity for the community. In the early 1990s the municipality of La Ceiba built a potable-water and sanitation system. Moreover, the majority of traditional manaca houses (mud walls with palmthatched roof) began to be replaced with homes constructed of bloque (cinderblock). These new homes were typically financed through remittances . At the time of my research, the existing infrastructure included a stone-paved street, a health center, a primary school, a middle school, two Catholic churches, seven Evangelical churches,2 one communal center constructed with support of members of the community who live in the United States, a hotel in the urban area,3 and three hotels in the rural areas, two of which are on the coast. In March 2002 Barceló, a major Spanish resort chain, opened a resort location on the beaches of Roma, less than two miles from Sambo Creek and just slightly past the community’s ancestral limits. The resort structure was originally built in 2001 with investment capital from wealthy Hondurans from Tegucigalpa and opened that year under the name Caribbean Sands...