The ‘stained’ identify the banana montuvio people

Ecuadornews:

The manabitas plantain people repeatedly wear their opaque clothes that have lost their original color due to a blackish layer spread on the garment. Acquire that tone by the fall of a thick substance that pours the product and that is impregnated as rubber on clothes.

For that aspect that they present t-shirts or pants, the banana trees are known in Manabí as the stained ones. It is a popular pseudonym in the montuvio town to identify the people who work in the packing houses and plantations.

Marcelo Solarte, owner of a collection center in the canton El Carmen, says that the banana trees are forced to use shirts and shirts several times for the days from Monday to Thursday. The stained clothing collections appear on the clotheslines of the infrastructures and are a form of control for the owner of the place. A shirt hanging on a nail attached to the wall is a sign that the banana tree is in full day, says Solarte, while stacking a bunch of the product in the La Feria sector, in El Carmen.

The workers of the farms even go out into the streets of that city to perform personal errands with their stained clothes. They wear the guayabera shirt and wear the machete to the belt. Alfredo Cedeño, historian manabita, points out that the origins of the stained people go back to the man of the field who, for his work, wore his hat, machete and infallible white shirt.

Now the new generations of banana trees hardly use that traditional clothing and try to use the garments already in boning. According to Carlos Rodríguez, another banana tree, at least uses about 10 shirts for his weekly days in the plantations. Plantain workers also have their own stories and although they always have to do with crises, they take them as experiences of the trade.

One of those situations has to do, for example, with the winds and the winter that hit the region. They see in those times the banana bushes fall to the ground. In the La Raíz site, Luis Cedeño says that six years ago the harvest is abundant throughout that area.

This sector has been characterized by having a good banana production, but at the moment the climatic alterations -mainly due to the lack of rains- represent a risk for these products.

According to Marcos Veliz, another farmer, several banana plants have already fallen on his farm. He has a young banana tree and in these months he expected to make the first harvest, but a large part is on the ground. The same happens in three other farms in the area.

Another situation facing the banana trees and that is part of their history is the demand of a fair price for export boxes. At the moment, there are several costs and they ask for controls. Galo Marquínez, another producer, pointed out that farmers live abandoned, they pay taxes even though they are the sustenance of families. “At present it does not reach at all and I believe that while there is not an integral attention we will continue affected”.

The banana of El Carmen is one of the most desired in the province of Manabi and in the country, and that is why the producers believe that it also has a cultural and commercial value. A productive chain in which they are protagonists. In that area there are some 6,000 people who are directly engaged in harvesting and packing the product.

In El Carmen three varieties are produced: barraganete, dominico and maqueño. Of the 40,000 hectares planted with this production in the country, 40% corresponds to Manabí.

Producers

In El Carmen, around 12,000 people from rural areas are engaged in banana cultivation. Sectors In more than eight mountain enclosures, the economy revolves around the production and sale of plantain.

In Manabí At least 50 chick factories in Manabí use bananas that are treated by the ‘stained’. Sale Banana production of Manabí is sold locally, in other cities and goes for export. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/manchados-pueblo-montuvio-bananero-intercultural.html