Word: zamoranos
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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Dusty and footsore. Ulises Mejía trudged through the jungles and over mountains, straight across Honduras. At last he reached his goal, knocked on the door of the famed horticulturist, Dr. Wilson Popenoe, head of the School of Pan-American Agriculture at Zamorano. The school was not scheduled to open for two months, but Ulises had come to beg for admission. Last week Ulises, now a prize pupil, was receiving the best training in farming that Central America offers...
Costing $750,000 to set up and $150,000 a year to run, the Zamorano school is a princely gift from the great United Fruit Co. to the restive people of its banana empire. Tuition is free. So is everything else, including clothes and elaborate dental work. Most of the 122 students come from poor Central American families of Indian blood, who could not possibly afford a U.S. education for their sons. Said one father of a successful applicant: "It was like winning the lottery...
Keenly aware of the distrust with which it is regarded throughout Central America, the United Fruit Co. leans over backward to keep the Zamorano school above suspicion. It has announced that it will not employ the graduates in its plantations. The school does not teach banana culture, admits no students because of political connections, markets no surplus produce for fear of being accused of exploiting the students' labor. Said one relieved staff member, long a United Fruit employe: "We feel as pure as missionaries here...