Vinzenz Aubry | Public Eyes
February 28–March 13
ACT lecturer Hector Rene Membreno-Canales’s Golden Cargo: Conquest of the Tropics examines the complex history of the United Fruit Company (UFC), a global banana exporter with deep ties to Greater Boston and MIT. The exhibition draws from several archives, including MIT’s Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collection, established in 1921 by the Department of Naval Architecture. Known colloquially as “El Pulpo” (The Octopus), the United Fruit Company gained infamy for its far-reaching control over labor, immigration, and agriculture throughout Central America. The exhibition pairs original artworks with archival objects, photographs, documents, and ephemera.
Hector Membreño-Canales, born in Honduras to banana plantation workers, weaves historical and autobiographical narratives while exploring UFC archives. The exhibition creates visual metaphors connecting collective memory with personal history through historical artifacts, archival materials, and museum collections.
A centerpiece of the exhibition is a ship’s bell from MIT’s Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collection, one of the nation’s oldest marine technology archives. The bell once rang aboard the S.S. Francis R. Hart, an oil tanker that flew the Honduran flag while serving the United Fruit Company. Hart, an 1889 MIT graduate, became president of the United Fruit Company in 1933 and maintained strong ties to Central America.
The photo collages in Golden Cargo feature altered and appropriated images from Harvard Business School’s Baker Library archive. This collection encompasses over 75 United Fruit Company albums, containing more than 5,200 photographs from 1891 to 1962. The exhibition contextualizes these images with historical papers and books.
Golden Cargo: Conquest of the Tropics examines the United Fruit Company’s local, national, and global impact. By the 1930s, the corporation had become Central America’s largest employer and private landowner, controlling 3.5 million acres across Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, and Ecuador. In Guatemala alone, the company owned roughly 42 percent of the country’s land—surpassing even the Guatemalan government’s holdings. Historians have characterized this period as the United Fruit Company’s attempt to purchase Guatemala.
Juxtaposing contemporary artworks with archival documents, the exhibition invites viewers to navigate between studio-created still lifes and institutional archives and artifacts.
This event is presented as part of Artfinity: A celebration of creativity and community at MIT.
