Novel · A way to begin
Prisión verde
Not translated into English
Ramón Amaya Amador · 1945
Synopsis
In the Bajo Aguán valley, on the north coast of Honduras, cattle ranchers who have sold their land to the banana company become day labourers on the Culuco plantation. Under violent foremen, the workers toil in the banana plantations of the thirties and forties, and their shared suffering gradually makes the strike their weapon.
Context
Written in Olanchito between the last months of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, the novel first appeared weekly in the weekly newspaper its author edited, then in volume form in Mexico City in 1950: hence the two dates given by the sources. A university edition, prefaced by Longino Becerra and reissued since 1974, changed its language and added characters and an interrogation chapter; a Honduran essayist reproached it for this in 2024.
Who it is for
A novel of denunciation, in Spanish, with strongly typed characters; no French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the author's best novel and as the first banana novel of Honduras; José Antonio Funes ranks it among the ten key books of the country's narrative fiction.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.