Ramon Amaya M

Social contributions
through his writing
Ramon Amaya Amador, wrote his best-known
work, Prisin verde (1950; Green Prison), a
novel that depicts the exploitative working
conditions of the typical Honduran banana
plantation in the 1930s and 40s.
Banana fields are described in the novel as a
green prison because of the mysterious
attraction they exerted on workers who live
there, who despite being exploited and
abused, felt the urge to stay working in the
plantations despite all difficulties.
The authors purpose, rather than making a
literary contribution, was to create a political
consciousness able to produce social changes,
improving the living conditions of Honduran
workers.

Social
Conscience
Amaya Amador grew up outside of the Standard Fruit Companys
banana plantations in his native department of Yoro. As an adult, he
spent time as a schoolteacher before working on the plantations
himself. There he became politically involved and became a union
organizer on behalf of the plantation workers.
In 1943 Amaya Amador founded a weekly newspaper, Alerta
(Alert), that served as a mouthpiece for the interests of the
Honduran working class. His leftist views led to persecution by the
regime of Gen. Tiburcio Caras Andino, and Amaya Amador fled to
Guatemala in 1947.
Amaya Amador became known throughout Latin America as a
prominent communist intellectual, and in 1954 he helped found a
clandestine Honduran Communist Party