These are the public holidays in Honduras:

There are a couple of days that are not days off for the people in general, but in which school and college students do not attend classes:

The Children’s Day is a day off only in primary schools, and the Student’s Day only in high schools. It is common for high school students to take the rest of the week off, the “Student’s Week”. Even more common is that, besides Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, students take the rest of the week off, the Holy Week.

Public holidays are not always granted as stated above, sometimes there are long weekends intended “to promote domestic tourism.” The problem is the government never plans these changes with anticipation and when in doubt people cannot make plans in advance.

Also commemorated as a special days are:

Days of advocacy for different causes:

Days of celebration for union-based organizations and professional people:

January 25 marks the Honduran Women’s Day, celebrated in memory of a historic date in which a major political conquest was achieved by the female population of Honduras, whose political rights were recognized through Decree No. 29 of 1955.

Through this presidential decree, approved by the administration of Julio Lozano Diaz, Honduran women could enjoy their political rights and get recognized their right to vote and to participate in the political activity of the country, thus going beyond the domestic space to an electoral and public arena.

The first time Honduran women participated in national elections was in the period from 1957 to 1963 when Ramon Villeda Morales was elected. Some limitations established at that time were for example, that only women who could read had the right to vote, despite most women were illiterate at the time.

Another negative aspect was the limited participation in elected offices. Unfortunately at present, although there is the Law of Equal Opportunities, women today, like yesterday, are still voting for male candidates, denying opportunities to many capable and honest women.

Women must conquer those political spaces by means of struggle and organized strategy. These spaces are not be accepted as gifts that presuppose gratitude and submission, but as gains achieved by their own efforts.

The women’s movement for their rights

Women’s movements in Honduras date from early last century. They are subsisting and expanding every day, despite the divisions, weaknesses and difficulties they face permanently.

From the 20’s comes the first women’s organization known as “Women’s Cultural Society” directed by Graciela Garcia and other known leaders who fought tenaciously for the vindication of Honduran women.

This movement promoted various cultural activities, contributed to the organization of workers and maintained the struggle against the 16-year dictatorship of Tiburcio Carias Andino.

The decade of the 50’s saw the begining of the Federation of Honduran Women’s Associations, inspired by the international suffrage movement. They fought together with other women for political rights, in the pursuit of achievements in the legal arena, leaving unresoveld the achievement of full citizenship.

It is from that time that our country witnessed the creation of a series of structures that had the primary purpose of giving protection to women and to assert their rights.

Interestingly, seven decades after these major battles and achievements, women are still demanding the same rights, in maquiladoras and other fields.

The historical contribution of the women organizations that have worked in the promotion and protection of the rights of Honduran women should be recognized and made visible, because here in Honduras, as in Central America and most of Latin America, the contribution of women in our history have been obscured.

Female activism

Among the women’s organizations that make efforts to assert the rights and achievements of women we could cite: Movement of Women for Peace “Visitacion Padilla”, Feminist Collective of University Women, Center for Women’s Rights CDM, Center for Women Studies-Honduras CEM-H, Honduran Association of Rural Women, Black Women Link, Association of Honduran Rural Women, Women’s Movement of the Lopez Arellano Residential Zone MUMUCLA, and Coordinator Block of Southern Women, among other valuable organizations.

Source: Vida Laboral, Edition #13.
Taken from La Tribuna, of January 25, 2011.

This novel is certainly one of the most popular in Honduras, not for the perfection of the author’s literary art, but for his courageous denunciation of Honduran workers exploitation by the U.S. banana companies.

The author, Ramon Amaya Amador, worked for some time in the banana plantations sprinkling poison. When he practiced journalism he denounced the workers exploitation he witnessed by first hand, and for that reason he won the antipathy of the dictatorial regime of Tiburcio Carias Andino —a tyrant who defended the interests of the banana companies— so he had to leave the country in exile.

Ramon Amaya Amador used his banana field experience in the writing of this novel. The author’s 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.

According to writer Armando Garcia, the book Prision Verde “has been the most persecuted in the country. For a long time it was an evidentiary exhibit for imprisonment. The old men of my town still lower their voices to the mere mention of its name. Many times it was buried in the solitude of the yards after the Coup d’Etat.” (Armando Garcia, 1997).

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.

Amaya Amador began his story in the atmosphere of one of the companies’ offices, in which a “gringo boss” —Mr. Still— was trying to convince the landowner Luncho Lopez to sell his land to the banana company. In his attempt he was helped by two Lopez’s friends: Sierra and Cantillano, who had already sold their land, and tried to influence their friend to do the same, but he refused stubbornly.

After the meeting with the landlords, enters Mr. Martin Samayoa looking like homeless after wasting the money given to him by the Company for his land, hoping that Mr. Still would give him a job as a foreman, but Still despised him and sent him to find work as a laborer. Discouraged by the snub and with no money, Samayoa was lucky to meet worker Maximo Lujan, who took him to live in his house —a miserable crowded place where he lived with another plantation workers— and also got him a job sprinkling poison.

The foreman of the company, which gave the job to Samayoa, and for which Maximo Lujan also worked, was a Honduran who spoke with gringo accent, because his servility was so pathetic he wanted to imitate his gringo bosses, attitude which earned him the contempt and ridicule of those who worked for him, although for obvious reasons they did not dare to tell him that in his face.

In each book’s episode there is always some injustice done by the Company that causes outrage among plantation workers. But not everyone has the same awareness of their situation, some people have become accustomed to oppression, they see it as something normal in the world and do not complain. But Maximo Lujan’s group is becoming increasingly socially conscious. Contrary to proponents of indiscriminate violence as a response to oppression —like old Lucio Pardo- Lujan proposes that working class’ victory lies in its ability to organize, and that until they have created their own political party and brought down the dictatorship there cannot be a substantial improvement in the lives of plantation workers.

Lujan reads worker newspapers, he reads them out loud in the social gatherings at night with his comrades, those newspapers confirm his revolutionary beliefs and offer him new perspectives. The death of a comrade —Don Braulio— who also sprinkled venom— caused indignation to workers, it made them think. Facing the dead body of his comrade, who died from tuberculosis in the middle of work, Lujan says, “This man was one of the many deceived and exploited. He put his life force in the plantations, first with the desire to make a fortune and then by the need to earn a crust. He was eaten by the banana plantation! He died standing with the hose in his hand, serving the foreign masters.”

On traditional political parties: the National Party and the Liberal Party, Lujan says, “They have the same essence: oligarchy; they suffer the same disease: demagogy, and they serve the same master: the Banana Companies” … “In politics we need something different than traditional caudillismo, different than cronyism, than the paternalism of personages. We need to translate the aspirations of the working masses into a political ideal, and we need to translate this ideal into a real workers’ party, a real revolutionary party. We must not believe in idol-men. Our history is full of their promises.”

Women are also victims of the banana companies’ capitalist oppression. Poverty forces many female plantation workers to engage in prostitution. Gringotized Captain Benitez rapes and impregnates Catuca Pardo —a Lujan’s group’ woman— abandoning the resultant baby. A gringo boss —Mr. Jones— falls in love for Juana —another woman of Lujan’s group— but as she has a husband she rejects his advances. Given this situation, another gringo boss decides to send someone to
kill the husband, clearing the way for his comrade. After time, Juana makes a deal of regular sex with the gringo in love, in exchange for some money and a job as a poison sprinkler. She did this in order to help Catuca’s son. Juana never knew who killed her husband. Americanized Captain Benitez was also involved in this murder.

Estanio Parraga —the banana company lawyer— convinces landowner Luncho Lopez to work as a banana independent producer, coming to terms with the company. Luncho Lopez is excited with his new role as a banana entrepreneur, but the company does not give him the agreed supplies and this causes him to fall into ruin. At that point he realizes the company deceived him to make him fall into bankruptcy and force him to sell his property. But Lopez still stubbornly refuses to sell. Given this negative, the National Party’s government intervenes and threatens to take away his land by force. Luncho Lopez dies of sadness, because he had been a great defender of the nationalist dictatorship. In that moment he realized the stateless attitude of government authorities.

The other landowners, Cantillano and Sierra, also end up in ruin after being cheated in business by Estanio Parraga, who besides being the company’s lawyer was also a representative in Congress. Sierra and Cantillano ended up looking for jobs as laborers in the company, sharing the same misfortune that first felt upon Martin Samayoa.

Workers’ situation worsened with the rising prices of grocery store products, owned by the same banana company. The government collects taxes on workers in order to build schools and hospitals, yet they do not receive any of these services. And they are not allowed to protest and form unions.

When a crane driver died in an accident, a gringo boss gets mad at the deceased for spoiling the machine worth thousands of dollars, shouting angrily: “I’d rather have a hundred of these bastards dead!”. This causes great indignation to workers, who are fed up with humiliations, so they decide to strike. And they appoint Maximum Lujan as director of the strike, who accepts the charge,
even when he thinks the strike has been made prematurely.

Lujan was right. What happens next confirms it. The strike was quickly suppressed by the military. Lujan’s comrades are taken as prisoners, and he is killed and buried beneath a banana tree.

The old Lucio Pardo, in revenge for Lujan’s death —to whom he loved as his own kid— produced the derailment of a rail-car with important company people on board: a gringo boss —Mr. Foxer— two foremen: Encarnación Benítez and Carlos Palomo, and the Colonel who killed Lujan. They all die in the accident.

The gringo bosses wanted to give and exemplary punishment, and used torture to make Lucio and his friends confess, to no avail. But the ex-landowners, Sierra and Cantillano, are not so strong, they confess under torture a crime they didn’t commit. They were about to kill Sierra and Cantillano when Lucio Pardo, in order to free the innocent, appears before their torturers to confess he was the author of the attack. Lucio Pardo dies hanged by the military.

The novel closes with the friends remembering Maximo Lujan and his legacy: “The green prison is not only darkness. Maximo lit here the first revolutionary torch. Hundreds of siblings are now responsible for keeping it upright.”

Buy the book Prision Verde here on Amazon.

Pech believe their ancestors had communication with Aliens.

This race, which once occupied part of the municipality of Catacamas, retains its own language and cultural elements, their average height is 1.65 m, they have strongly built bodies, clear brown skin, slightly oval face, straight hair and very thin and sparse mustache and beard.

They maintain the ancestral authority of a chief, although in recent years they have downgraded him to the level of a mentor, for his moral strength, because now communities are managed by tribal councils.

Even when the chief exercised absolute power, I was able to observe in a Pech community how the highiest tribal authority reached decisions through consensus. It happened in La Danta, Culmi, in 1971, when I asked him about whether or not to launch a development project, the chief then observed one by one the faces of a dozen people who were under his command. His aides did not speak, but he interpreted their countenance and answered according to the majority criterion.

Until that year they still held an entrenched community life: They had forests, crops; beekeeping, poultry and swine farms, all in common. This ancient practice has been weakening, but by then, when a couple married or decided to cohabit, the entire community built their house.

The Pech are one of the rare native cultures in the world who believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life, as revealed in recent years, but with a lot of reservation, by tribal elders to young leaders.

Each tribe had a special personage, called “Wata”, who was the repository of ancient wisdom. He selected his successor, who also had to keep secret all this knowledge.

Even when the tribe had its chief —as it is still the case in Nueva Subirana— he consulted many issues with the wise man. In practice there was one authority in charge of earthly activities and one in charge of spiritual matters: the “Wata”.

This important figure had supernatural powers and such wisdom that he could predict events and cure diseases with rites, plants and animal substances, according to tradition.

Although it seems unlikely, the Pech hold the belief that the “Wata” had communication with spirits from other planets, as revealed in recent years by elders of Santa Maria del Carbon, according to the testimony of the head of the Federation of Pech Tribes of Honduras (FETRIPH), Carlos Alberto Lopez Catalan.

There is even a particular story in the Pech tradition about a space odyssey of a “Wata”.

“Before this era, an alien visited a Pech community and revealed that in the ‘Seventh Planet’ lived another “Wata”. The people got together and asked their spiritual leader to visit this beautiful place in order to be convinced of the existence of the alien “Wata”. After a dangerous odyssey, the Indigenous leader met his rival, confronted him, was defeated, but with the help of a goddess could return alive to Earth according to Indigenous mythology.

The “Wata” dominated nature but ceased to exist after the Spanish conquest, which tried to destroy their culture and abolished Pech religion converting them to another faith, said Lopez Catalan.

Faithful to their tradition, the leader said that the Pech still believe there are “humans on other planets” but “powerful governments don’t want this to be known in order not to worry Mankind, because a possible conquest of Earth cannot be ruled out”, according to his thinking.

Taken from the book “Catacamas: Del ayer al año 2000” by Winston Irias Calix.

Lempira was an important leader of the Indigenous resistance against Spanish domination. His area of operations was a vast and rough territory in the southern half of what is now the Lempira department in Honduras.

The chronicler Antonio de Herrera described Lempira, whose name means ‘Lord of the Mountains’, as “of medium height, thick back and thick limbs, brave, courageous and intelligent. He never had more than two women and died at the age of around 38 to 40 years old.”

In 1537, after the death of Chief Entepica, to whom Lempira served as lieutenant, Lempira called a meeting of around 200 peoples with the purpose to fight together against the Spaniards; among them was the Cares tribe, traditional enemy of the Cerquin Tribe, to which Lempira belonged.

Lempira persuaded 30.000 men to fight for their freedom, and offered to be the captain who would lead them to victory, promising to face the greatest dangers, because he considered to be unacceptable for so many bold men to be subdued by a few foreigners.

The warriors were positioned in high and fortified places called “Peñoles” (Rocky Hills) by the Spaniards, having there the entire community provisioned with abundant supplies.

The main Rocky Hills of the Indian alliance were the Gualapa hill, the Congolon peak, Coyocutena hill, the Cerquin Rock, the El Broquel and Gualasapa hills.

But the most important entrenchment was undoubtedly the Cerquin Rock, lead by Lempira himself. The Spanish governor of the province, Francisco Montejo, understood that if he wanted to advance the process of conquest he needed to seize the fortress, for which mission he appointed Captain Alonso Caceres, who with his men besieged the Rocky Hill during six months, but the Indians, who were with their wives and children well stocked with food, bravely resisted the siege, causing Spaniard casualties with their arrows, arrows which had sharp stone tips.

Seeing the brave indigenous resistance, captain Alonso Caceres decided to take the fortress by treachery. He had a soldier to approach with his horse a rock where Lempira stood, and while Caceres was making peace proposals to him, another soldier riding on the rump shot him with his musket. The ploy was fulfilled to the letter, and at the death of the Indian captain, the large force that accompanied him scattered through the mountains, and shortly after surrendered to the Spaniards.

Chronicler Herrera narrates the treachery episode: “Captain Caceres ordered a soldier to be on a horse, so close as to have good aim with the musket, and to speak to him, admonishing him to admit the friendship being offered, and that another soldier on the rump of a horse would shot him with the musket. With these instructions the soldier talked to him and said his advice and persuasions, and the chief replied that ‘The war is not going to tire the soldiers nor frighten them, and that the one who can the most will overcome’ and saying other arrogant words, of more than an Indian, the soldier on the rump pointed at him when he saw the opportunity, and struck him in the forehead, even when he wore a very gallant and crested shako.”

Tradition says that Lempira fell at the site of Piedra Parada, near the Congolon Peak, although there is another place known as Piedra Parada close to Erandique, but field investigations lead to think the Indian hero died at Cerquin Rock.

The Honduran historian Mario Felipe Martinez has cast doubts on Antonio de Herrera’s version of Lempira’s death, after discovering in the General Archive of the Indies a certificate presented in 1558 before the Spanish authorities in Mexico by the soldier Rodrigo Ruiz.

The document is very important, because it confirms the real existence of Lempira —of whom some Hondurans of low patriotic fiber consider to be a legend— the name of the chief (referred to as El Empira), the description of the war and its stage.

The purpose of the soldier Rodrigo Ruiz in writing this certificate was to impress the Spanish authorities in order to obtain a pension for the last years of his life. There Rodrigo proudly tells the tale of his one-to-one battle with Lempira, armed only with his sword and shield, carrying his head as a trophy and receiving in his way out many injuries by the Indians, injuries that almost killed him.

Although Rodrigo supports his statement with the report of several witnesses —some supposedly were present- you can not trust the testimony of some friends of war ready to help his friend in a deed of twenty years ago.

For his part, Bishop Cristobal de Pedraza, who was noted for his defense of the Indians- in a date as fresh as the May 18, 1539 reports from Gracias to the King and Queen of Spain that in order to beat Lempira ‘some industry’ was necessary, ie, not a one-to-one combat, as Ruiz says.

Source: Evolución Histórica de Honduras. Longino Becerra. (2009) Editorial Baktún.