Episode One: “An Iconic Logo” and Formatting/Outline

Part I: Brainstorm

1. Audience
My audience consists of the general public. Casual listeners, those interested in history,
those interested in food, those interested in economic history, those interested in U.S.
history and the history of the Americas. My goal is to tell a story that breaks down, or at
least complicates our connections with bananas and South America. I also want to
explore complicating our relationships to food and provide a story that explains the
complexity of the production of food and that it takes a lot of work for food to end up in
grocery stores and the systems for getting food there are not natural and were something
we chose (for good and bad).

2. Format:
This will be a radio-narrative style podcast including interviews with historians (and
scientists) who are experts in each topic. Where applicable, there will be clips of
contemporary interviews (radio or TV).

3. Frequency:
This will be a limited series with roughly six episodes. Episodes will be released
biweekly on Tuesdays.

4. Length:
The episodes will span between 45 minutes and an hour (depending on content) allowing
them to fit into commutes, the time to make dinner, or chore time.

5. Organization:
The podcast will focus on the history of the United Fruit Company and will start in the
present and work backwards. The first episode will be on the Chiquita logo and Carmen
Miranda, the second on UFC interfering in governments, the third on the great white
fleet, the fourth on conditions on UFC plantations, the fifth on the start of UFC (in
Guatemala land concessions and rail leasing), and the sixth on how bananas arrived in the
Americas.

6. Purpose/Driving Concept:
The purpose of this podcast is to breakdown the complicated narratives of what we see as
‘everyday objects’ through the example of the banana. By examining the banana my hope
is to challenge the expectations of “tradition has always been this way” and to examine
the systems of extractive capitalism. Bananas will be the draw, as many people do not
know that bananas are not native to the Americas and do not know the stories of fruit
conglomerates, included UFC. By providing new information, the podcast will hold the
interest of the audience for each new episode.

7. Title:
Banana Capitalism
 8. Publication:
Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, SoundCloud, and any other available options. The
podcast will also be hosted on its own website, a link to which will be on my storymap of
the same name.

Part II: The Pitch

My podcast is called “Banana Capitalism” and it is about the history of bananas in the western
hemisphere through the lens of the United Fruit Company. It is a limited series of six episodes
that will be released biweekly on Tuesdays. Each episode will focus on a different topic within
the main narrative of the United Fruit Company. The episodes will work backwards through
time, starting with Carmen Miranda and the Chiquita Banana logo. Other episodes will include
UFC’s interference in the governments of the “banana republics,” the Great White Fleet, the
conditions on UFC plantations, the start of UFC, and on how bananas arrived in the Americas.
The intended audience consists of the general public including casual listeners, those interested
in history, those interested in food, those interested in economic history, those interested in U.S.
history and the history of the Americas. The purpose of this podcast is to breakdown the
complicated narratives of what we see as ‘everyday objects’ through the example of the banana.
By examining the banana my hope is to challenge the expectations of “tradition has always been
this way” and to examine the systems of extractive capitalism.

Part III: Outline of “An Iconic Logo”

Introductory Audio for all episodes:

First 15 seconds of clip, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carmen_Miranda_e_M

%C3%A1rio_Reis_-_Alo..._Alo....ogg
Audio will get slightly louder before cutting out

Narrator: Hello and welcome to Banana Capitalism. I’m Katie and over the next six episodes we
will uncover how one company, the United Fruit Company, created a banana empire in the
Americas and how that empire has left a lasting cultural impression on how we all think about
bananas. In this episode we will start with how bananas became to be so instantly associated with
Brazil. To answer that question we have to travel back to the 1930s and 40s to the career of an
actress and singer.

Audio file from 0:52 – 1:08, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carmen_Miranda_e_M

%C3%A1rio_Reis_-_Alo..._Alo....ogg

Narrator: That was the voice of Carmen Miranda, singing Alo Alo, release in 1934. Miranda was
a Brazilian singer and actress who overtook the United States in the early 1940s. Miranda is best
known for incredible fashion, bright dresses and hats of fruit, elaborate headdresses made
famous by the 1943 film The Gang’s All Here. Miranda was also a practical entertainer who
cultivated her image to her greatest advantage. Not only did her unique sense of style come to
represent all of Brazil, it came to represent anywhere south of the U.S. border. This was the time
of FDR’s Good Neighbor policy, and Miranda became a goodwill ambassador meant to promote
intercontinental culture. This association in the minds of the U.S. general pubic led to a
homogenization of Latin American cultures in Miranda’s image. But whose image was that?

[Audio file: Clip of interview with Brazilian historian, saying something to the effect of:
Miranda based her look off of Baiana culture.]

Narrator: That was [name of historian]. I sat down with them to find out more about Miranda’s
life.

[Audio file: Interview highlights: Miranda’s birth in Portugal and childhood in Brazil. Her early
jobs and then transition into singing. Miranda’s popularity in Brazil on stage, airwaves, and TV.
The Broadway gig that brought her to the U.S. (and the president of Brazil’s help), her work in
the U.S. and transition to Hollywood, a discussion of FDR’s good neighbor policy. Keep
included filed to about ten minutes, will include Narrator asking questions.]

Narrator: Now I knew the outlines of Miranda’s life. But where did bananas come in? And what
exactly, was her famous “Baiana” image?

[Audio file: Interview highlights: explanation of Afro-Brazilian culture in Bahia (a northern state
in Brazil), specifics of Miranda’s use of this culture form a musical she did in 1939 (Banana da
Terra), quick explanation of racism/colorism in Brazil. This leads into a conversation of the
criticism Miranda faced in Brazil (from being “too black” to “selling out”) and in South and
Central American and the Caribbean at large (she didn’t “look like a Cuban woman,” she
portrayed all cultures as the same) Included file between ten to fifteen minutes and will include
Narrator questions.]

Narrator: So as Miranda’s popularity was growing in the U.S., she was facing rising criticism
back at home. Only a year after leaving for the U.S. she visited Brazil and faced so much
criticism in newspapers and in the upper-class, Miranda did not return to her home country for
fourteen years. But how else did she respond?

[Audio file: Interview highlights: discusses “They Say I’ve Come Back Americanized” and
“Bananas is My Business,” they were some of the last songs recorded in Brazil, the impact/
reaction, where the line of bananas and business came from. About five minutes.]

Narrator: Now we know how Miranda herself came to be associated with bananas, but what does
any of this have to do with the United Fruit Company? At the time of Miranda’s rise, the United
Fruit Company was also very powerful. Not only did they have banana plantations throughout
the Caribbean, Central, and South American in countries now nicknamed the “banana republics;”
they had their own fleet of giant cargo ships known as the Great White Fleet, which they also
used to make an extra buck by marketing the shipping voyages as cruises. Even though they had
cornered the market for bananas in the Americas and were in Europe as well, they still focused
heavily on marketing.
[Audio file: Historian focusing on the unite fruit company. Interview highlights: UFC’s early
marketing, marketing through the great white fleet, bananas as a health food, cartoonist Dik
Browne and his Miss Chiquita Banana logo, similarities between Miranda and the logo, the
logo’s popularity (it is the name of the successor company to UFC), how popular it became in
the minds of the U.S. public (costume patterns). About fifteen minutes long]

Narrator: So there you have it. The United Fruit Company’s concerning with monopoly led to the
hiring of cartoonist Dik Browne, who took inspiration from Carmen Miranda’s fruit-oriented
attire, and the Miss Chiquita Banana was born. The logo was changed in the … to an image of a
woman in a fruit hat, a move that moved the logo’s image even closer to that of Miranda’s.
Through the logo that looked like a Brazilian singer, and that signer’s own visual connection
with bananas, came our popular association with bananas and Brazil. All of this, even though
bananas are not native to Brazil, or even the American continents. How, then, did the United
Fruit Company build a banana empire? Tune in in two weeks for our look at one of the ways the
United Fruit Company sustained and defend their empire: government interference.

Outtro: Until next time, I’ve been Katie for Banana Capitalism.
Outtro Music: Fades in over ending line, goes for about 30 seconds.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NO_TABULEIRO_DA_BAIANA_(1936).ogg

Potential Interviewees:

Geoffrey Jones (Co-author of The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in
Guatemala)
Marcelo Bucheli (Co-author of The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in
Guatemala)
Peter Chapman (author of Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World)
Kathryn Bishop-Sanchez (studied Carmen Miranda’s look)
Deborah R. Vargas (author of Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda)

Part IV: Cover art and description

“How did bananas become a year-round fruit? Why do we associate bananas with South
American sun? Find out all that and more with Banana Capitalism, the deep dive into the United
Fruit Company and the creation of a Banana Empire.”

Cover Art:

Bibliography
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Bucheli, Marcelo, and Ian Read. “Chronology.” United Fruit Company - Chronology. United
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“Carmen Miranda.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 30, 2021.

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