Portillo, Suyapa G. (2020) Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), xxxiv + 385 pp. $55.00 hbk.

This book, more than any other recent publication about Honduran history, not only deeply contextualises the social and political development of Honduras after the 2009 coup, it simultaneously offers deep historical perspective for characterising the outcome of the recent November 2021 general elections. Honduras's first woman president is the head of a left-leaning electoral coalition consisting mostly of post-coup parties and leaders who defeated traditional parties and is committed to a transformational overhauling of decades of traditional and right-wing clientelist politics, a culture of economic corruption and machista ostracism of marginalised gender orientations. The book is clearly written, and very readable for a range of audiences. One target audience, mostly academic, is concerned with a range of interdisciplinary literatures: labour history, social movements, gender, and complicated and multi-layered relationships between the recent past and present through varied concepts of memory, in Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere. Another audience for this book, potentially a much broader one, is the non-specialist one interested in the origins of the coup in Honduras in 2009, and the current situation there, given the international coverage in the media and social media during the last few years and during the November 2021 elections. A particular audience is the general one in Latin America and the Caribbean that is interested in the history of radical movements in Central America and their current status vis-à-vis the Left in the region. The book's title, its preface and introduction, and especially chapters 6 and 7, entitled ‘La Huelga del 1954: Labor Organizing in the Banana Labor Camps’ and ‘Contemporary Movement Leaders Reflect on the Legacy of the 1954 Strike’, neatly capture the author's main purpose and the book's major arguments: to connect, characterise and ground the resistance and social movements in Honduras after the coup of 2009 in the roots, character and legacies of the 1954 banana strike and its historiography and generational memories, even when the book's reach extends to the Honduran past of the 1890s, especially focusing on the country's north coast and its banana economy. strike was transformative for workers and brought national attention to their issues and lives on the north coast. Ultimately, the strike dramatically challenged the export economy and resulted in improvements for workers. It brought respect from a previously recalcitrant Honduran government that was reluctant to challenge foreign domination, and it generated momentum for the labor movement and the continuation of liberal reforms. More importantly, the banana-worker strike and the general strike that followed allowed working-class Hondurans to envision a broader struggle, awakening a sense of possibility and change; the emergence of a radical politics among banana workers created opportunities for all working-class people. Among other workers, the strike movement renewed a commitment to leftist principles and ideals that had long been suppressed. (p. 3) the working class in the banana fincas has transmitted the memory of the 1954 strike by modelling the leftists' organizing processes, charting the formation of the movement for their children and grandchildren in stories and sometimes in nonverbal ways. The memories are shared in patronas' kitchens, in the bajos de los barracones (the areas underneath the barracks' stilts), in the workplace, and by workers with sons and daughters as they enter the workforce in the fincas or the packinghouses. In union halls today, the memory is passed down with pride to demonstrate resilience, survival, and triumph over injustice. The strike is also invoked with some caution to convey the power of the company, the reach of US foreign intervention, and the overzealous Honduran state, which protects the company more than workers. These memories are passed down among union members, their families, their communities, and many others, constructing a collective value and belief in justice for workers. Memories, passed down in secrets and silences, have been important to historicize the movement, develop consciousness and solidify their identity as radicals, organizers, and movement builders. The resistance movement of today is looking back to past organizing efforts as sources of inspiration and as proof that were valiant resisters in their past, despite repression. (p. 228) This is a fascinating and bold argument on its own, but also because it engages what might be termed ‘banana republic’ historiography and general narratives about the so-called ‘classic’ banana republic in ways never seriously done, particularly in chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5, which mostly cover the period between 1944 and 1957. Given the publicity associated with the 2009 coup, and its continuing legacy today in Honduras and far beyond, the book's accomplishment is superbly relevant to Honduran scholarship and contemporary debates beyond it, not only to a very broad academic audience in the United States and beyond, but for an educated general public as well. In fact, it freshly links Honduran history to the present in ways that virtually no other history book about Honduras has done. Finally, more specifically, the book engages with literatures on gender and race in the historical context in the Caribbean world of agro-export cultivation and production by using oral histories and often nuanced reading of the meagre archival record on these matters for the period focused on the 1940s to late 1950s, the narrative illustrated with wonderful photos of workers and patronas never before seen. This is a major and unique contribution to modern Honduran and Central American historiography.

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