I found this week’s readings quite interesting for the most part. In all honesty when I saw the “Bananas Are Our Business” sections I thought that it was a bit ridiculous but reading about it was actually really fascinating. Every once in a while, as I was reading, I would just stop and think… this is about bananas. I mean clearly there were other factors but it was a bit incredulous at first. It was really interesting how something like the United States importing bananas for their nation’s consumers turned into the monopolization of the industry and then lead to them having so much control in a foreign country. I wonder what would be different today had the United Fruit Company not been so involved in the economy of Latin American countries. What really got to me was how the United States used their fear of communism as a reason to drive out the Guatemalan president, Arbenz.

Augusto Sandino’s document “Political Manifesto” was also captivating. The way that he wrote really held my attention. It was a very intense read, clearly he had a vision for the future of Nicaragua and how to get it.