BIOPOLITICS AND FOOD SHORTAGES IN BANANA PLANTATIONS: THE CASE OF MAMITA YUNAI,CARLOS LUIS FALLAS, BANANOS, EMILIO QUINTANA, AND PRISIÓN VERDE BY RAMÓN AMAYA

Abstract

There are different modalities of food shortage. One of them derives from the conditions of labor explotations of workers in banana plantations. This situation is represented in Mamita Yunai, Bananos, and Prisión verde. The control over the bodies of the workers—following Foucault’s concept of biopolitics—is expressed, among other practices of the capitalist transnational corporation, through the monopoly of the distribution and consumption of food. The submission to or rebellion against these practices of food control are the two possibilities that banana plantation workers have at their disposal.