What the banana tells us about US history

Summary

Throughline (NPR): "What the banana tells us about US history"

Date: March 31, 2026
Hosts: Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei
Featured Guests: Dan Kopel (writer, historian), Victor Acuna Ortega (Professor Emeritus, University of Costa Rica)

---

Episode Overview

This episode explores how a seemingly humble fruit—the banana—serves as a window into American ambitions, imperial expansion, and entrepreneurial daring in the late 19th century. Through the story of Minor C. Keith, an enterprising American who built a Central American railroad and accidentally triggered the "banana boom," Throughline exposes the intertwined history of US business interests and the transformation of Central America into what would be called "banana republics."

---

Key Discussion Points

The Symbolic Banana and U.S. Expansion

• Opening theme (00:35): Bananas are everywhere in American life today, but most don't know their history is deeply tied to America's expansionist era, notably the "Teddy Roosevelt era."
• Rund Abdelfatah: "Bananas... help us understand a key part of American history, the Teddy Roosevelt era, when at the turn of the 20th century... the idea of what constituted America and its sphere of influence started to expand far beyond its borders." (00:39)
• Dan Kopel: "It's the era of machismo, of doing things. The world belonged to them. It was theirs for the taking." (01:10)

Enter Minor C. Keith: From Brooklyn to Central America

• Minor Keith’s background (02:57):
  • Keith grew up in Brooklyn, became a Texas cattle rancher before heading south to seek his fortune.
  • Dan Kopel: "It's a very common motif in America for sort of patrician or urban types to sort of become cowboys." (02:57)
• The post-Civil War context (03:27):
  • Railroad and communication booms entice ambitious men to seek new frontiers.
  • "They were gold rush people. Basically all these American business people were trying to find some form of gold." (03:47)
• Decision to look abroad (04:36):
  • The US railroad industry was dominated by established moguls, prompting Keith to look for opportunity in Central America, specifically Costa Rica.

Railroad Through the Jungle: Difficulties and Desperation

• Costa Rica’s landscape (06:15):
  • Dense, undeveloped rainforest made building a railroad a formidable endeavor.
  • Victor Acuna Ortega: "He faced technological challenges, environmental challenges, and financial challenges." (07:04)
• Early workforce and obstacles (07:18):
  • Initial labor pool was drawn from Costa Rica’s small population, but "many began to realize just how difficult and, and dangerous it was." (07:18)
  • The construction site was hazardous: mud, falling trees, rampant disease.
  • Hundreds, then thousands of workers—Costa Rican, Italian, Chinese, and others—died.
  • Memorable quote: "They are tearing the jungle down with hand tools." (07:38)
• Recruitment of prisoners (09:25):
  • Keith recruited American prisoners from New Orleans, promising pardons. Out of 700, only 25 survived to receive them.
  • Dan Kopel: "25 out of 700 people would die." (09:41)

The Relentless Entrepreneur and His Deals

• Keith’s determination (10:11):
  • Keith recruited Jamaican laborers, more suited to the tropical climate, keeping the project alive.
  • Both Keith and the Costa Rican government went broke; conventional wisdom would have been to give up.
  • Dan Kopel: "At this point, most people would just throw in a towel and go home." (10:38)
• Spectacular negotiation (10:51):
  • Keith secured a massive loan in England (~£1.2 million, equivalent to $150–200 million today).
  • Negotiated a highly advantageous deal: a 99-year concession on the railroad, 800,000 acres of tax-free land, and full control of the port at Limon.
  • Dan Kopel: "He says, I'll build the railroad for free. In return, you give me 99 years concessional on the route. I have 800,000 acres of land, tax free alongside the tracks, and I have full control of the port at Limon." (11:06)

Birth of the Banana Boom

• Bananas as sustenance, then opportunity (12:16):
  • Keith initially grew bananas to feed workers, but soon recognized their commercial potential.
  • Dan Kopel: "It's really easy to grow. ...You can create a plantation with rows after row of banana trees. And from that plantation you can create a nation of banana trees." (12:54)
• Shaping a country—and a company (13:13):
  • By railroad’s completion in 1890, Keith launched a banana export business.
  • Helped found United Fruit Company, which set up infrastructure and essentially controlled communication, transport, and trade across Central America.
  • United Fruit earned the nickname "El Pulpo"—the octopus—for its far-reaching influence.
  • Dan Kopel: "Keith sort of became known as the uncrowned king of Central America." (14:21)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On American entrepreneurial spirit:
  "What Minor Keith understood was that if you build infrastructure in these places where there is no infrastructure and you make the right financial deals, by hook or by crook, honestly or dishonestly, you are going to get very rich and you're going to get very, very powerful." (Dan Kopel, 05:35)

• On the cost of enterprise:
  "Among the workers who died on this project were Keith's two brothers." (Dan Kopel, 09:09)

• On the labor catastrophe:
  "Once they get down there and they hear what's happening and they see what's happening and they see how dangerous it is, they begin going AWOL." (Dan Kopel, 08:41)
  "It was A total disaster." (Victor Acuna Ortega, 08:51)

• On bananas transforming America:
  "By the time the railroad was completed in 1890, Minor Keith was officially in the banana business. A few years later he would be the co founder of the United Fruit Company which would go on to grow beyond Costa Rica." (Rund Abdelfatah, 13:13)

• On United Fruit's impact:
  "People in these countries gave United Fruit the nickname El Pulpo—the octopus." (Rund Abdelfatah, 14:19)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:39–01:17 — Bananas as a historical lens for US expansion
• 02:57–05:35 — Minor Keith’s background and move to Central America
• 06:13–08:56 — Building the railroad: jungle, labor, and deadly conditions
• 08:41–10:11 — Labor crises, recruitment strategies, massive worker deaths
• 10:49–12:00 — Financial crisis and Keith’s extraordinary business deal
• 12:16–13:13 — The switch: banana farming as a business venture
• 13:13–14:21 — The rise of United Fruit, "El Pulpo," and Keith’s regional dominance

---

Tone & Style

• The conversation is vivid, fast-paced, and unsparing about the brutal realities of labor and power.
• Notably, the hosts and guests keep the story rooted in human consequences, personal ambition, and global change.
• There’s a clear throughline connecting the banana’s journey to American ideologies of expansion, exceptionalism, and capitalism.

---

Final Thoughts

Through the gripping, often harrowing tale of Minor Keith and the banana’s ascendance, this episode encapsulates how American entrepreneurship—and exploitation—profoundly altered Central America. More than a fruit, the banana emerges as a symbol of imperial ambition, with legacies still shaping global foodways and economies.

To hear more about how the banana came to dominate American kitchens—and what ultimately happened to Minor Keith—listeners are directed to the full-length Throughline episode "There Will Be Bananas."

---

Next Episode Teaser:
Next week, the show will explore the origins of birthright citizenship through the story of Wong Kim Ark.

---

(Ad sections, intro/outro, and promotional content have been omitted from this summary.)

Transcript

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Hulu. From the executive producers of the Handmaid's Tale comes the Testaments, a new Hulu original series based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, premiering April 8 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. For bundle subscribers, terms apply.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from Throughline and npr. I'm Rund Abdelfatah. Each week we bring you stories about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the US that began 250 years ago.

[Dan Kopel]

Right now, bananas are so ubiquitous in our lives that we can't imagine life without them.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Yeah, you heard that right. Bananas, as in the sweet tropical fruit that's become a mainstay of American breakfasts. Okay, so the reason we're talking about bananas is because they help us understand a key part of American history, the Teddy Roosevelt era, when at the turn of the 20th century, this was a

[Dan Kopel]

time when rugged men went out to make their name in the world.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The idea of what constituted America and its sphere of influence started to expand far beyond its borders.

[Dan Kopel]

It's the era of machismo, of doing things. The world belonged to them. It was theirs for the taking.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

So what's this got to do with bananas? Well, today on the show, we're going to tell you the story of how one American entrepreneur named Miner Keith helped bring the banana to the American diet by looking beyond the US's shores and becoming the uncrowned king of Central America. We'll bring you that story right after a quick break.

[Sponsor Announcer]

This Message comes from stamps.com shipping billing, app admin. You're managing all these things. Why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want with stamps.com print postage on demand and schedule pickups from your office or home. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust stamps.com go to stamps.com and use code NPR to try stamps.com risk free for 60 days. This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Your time is worth more than a waiting game. Carvana gives you a transparent offer for your car in minutes and picks it up from your door. Sell your car [e-mail] Pickup fees may apply. This message comes from Grainger. Grainger knows that if you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, the only thing more important than having the right safety gear is having it there when you need it. That's why you can count on Grainger for auto reordering, helping ensure your team members always have cut resistant gloves on hand and each shift can run Safely and efficiently. Call 1-800-granger click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[Dan Kopel]

Miner Keith had grown up in Brooklyn, New York and he had become a cattle rancher in Texas. You know, it's a very common motif in America for sort of patrician or urban types to sort of become cowboys.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is writer Dan Kopel.

[Dan Kopel]

I sometimes pretentiously like to call myself a thing biographer. I write about the histories of objects and I'm best known for writing a book called the Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Dan says this shift towards aggressive entrepreneurship started around the time of the Civil War when communication and transportation networks rapidly expanded thanks to advances in mining and agriculture, which enticed people to develop new lands. Railroads began moving people west and the world seemed ripe for the taking.

[Dan Kopel]

They were gold rush people. Basically all these American business people were trying to find some form of gold. So any business that could make them

[Rund Abdelfatah]

a lot of money, right? And Minor Keith, this city kid from a wealthy family who had tried his hand at running a cattle ranch, at being a cowboy, was at heart a budding entrepreneur. He wanted to make it really big, to be among the Carnegies and Rockefellers of the world. And he thought railroads might be business for him.

[Dan Kopel]

You know, in the United States there's a railroad building boom, but it's controlled by moguls, by conglomerates, by people who are already rich. There's not a lot of room for entrepreneurship. There's not a lot of room for a Brooklyn born Texas cattle rancher to sort of become a big wheel.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

So Keith decided to look beyond the US for opportunities. His uncle was working on railroads in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica and invited him to come there. At the time, there was very little infrastructure in Central America.

[Dan Kopel]

These were villages with dirt roads.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But people were determined to find a way to the Pacific through Central America. What Columbus had wanted to do. Why Central America?

[Dan Kopel]

Because of the unimaginable or imagined, let's say riches that might happen there.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Things like coffee, mineral, may be actual gold. And even though Keith knew pretty much nothing about Costa Rica, he figured, hell, why not? I can do this. This is my chance to make it big, whatever challenges may come. But on the flip side, he probably thought, if I build this railroad, then I'll have access to all those riches.

[Dan Kopel]

I think what Minor Keith understood was that if you build infrastructure in these places where there is no infrastructure and you the right financial deals, by hook or by crook, honestly or dishonestly, you are going to get very rich and you're going to get very, very powerful.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

If you're wondering why a government would open their arms to a fairly inexperienced foreign businessman, it's pretty simple. They needed the help. They wanted to find a way to export their coffee crops, the country's main export to Europe. And to do that, they needed to tap into their eastern coast.

[Dan Kopel]

And it was the jungle.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Up until the 1870s, most of Costa Rica east of the capital, San Jose, was completely undeveloped, just miles and miles of nearly impenetrable rainforest. The Spanish had made few inroads there. They'd killed and resettled some indigenous communities, but they didn't actually manage to build much.

[Dan Kopel]

Yeah, it's beautiful, but it's very rugged

[Rund Abdelfatah]

terrain, and every square inch is basically green. I mean, dense beyond belief. You look up and it's just webs of winding branches and leaves. Keith wanted to build a railroad through all of that, stretching 100 miles from San Jose to Limon.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

It wasn't an easy task. You have to say that.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Victor Acuna Ortega. He's a professor emeritus at the University of Costa Rica.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

He faced technological challenges, environmental challenges, and financial challenges.

[Dan Kopel]

I mean, this was really, really crazy.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In 1872, Kich began construction in Limon. At first, he recruited Costa Rica's population to build the railroad, which at the time was very small. But as the project got underway, many began to realize just how difficult and, and dangerous it was.

[Dan Kopel]

They are tearing the jungle down with hand tools.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

The work conditions were very, very hard because of the climate, because the tropical diseases.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Trees would sometimes fall on them. It rained a lot of the time, so they were often working in mud. If they got any sort of cut or wound, it could easily become infected. And mosquitoes were everywhere, some carrying diseases. So after a little while, Costa Ricans laid down their tools.

[Dan Kopel]

They were like, we're not going to do this because no job is worth dying for.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Construction stalled, and Keith was back at square one. He had to find workers somewhere else.

[Dan Kopel]

You know, luckily or unluckily, there's this huge immigrant population in the United States. And so Keith returns to the US and hires a couple of thousand Italian immigrants. And he tempts them. You know, he says, we're going to pay you a lot of money. We're going to give you a lot of work.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

He also brought workers from China and parts of Europe.

[Dan Kopel]

And once they get down there and they hear what's happening and they see what's happening and they see how dangerous it is, they begin going awol.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

It was A total disaster.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Hundreds died, then thousands, in part because these men had never been to the tropics, so they weren't used to the climate or its diseases. Work was just really grueling.

[Dan Kopel]

Among the workers who died on this project were Keith's two brothers. You know, so this was deadly, not just for the poor souls who were sort of suckered into coming and working on it, but the guys at the very top as well.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Progress was slow and money was tight. A few years into the project, they were 30 miles from their end goal, San Jose. But Keith remained determined and desperate for workers. He decided to recruit prisoners, hopeless prisoners,

[Dan Kopel]

people in jail in New Orleans, people who have no way out. And he basically calls for volunteers and he says, anybody who volunteers helps me build my railroad to completion is going to get a pardon. 700 prisoners volunteer, but only 25 prisoners serve survive to get their pardons. 25 out of 700 people would die.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Minor Keith would find more. They died, more came. He was relentless. Eventually, Minor Keith figured out that if he brought Jamaicans over from the Caribbean, they would have an easier time working on his railroad, since they spoke English and were used to the climate. Thing is, by this point, Minor Keith had another problem. He'd burned through millions of dollars and was nearly out of money.

[Dan Kopel]

And the Costa Rican government, which is sort of funding this thing, partially also goes broke. I mean, at this point, most people would just throw in a towel and go home.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

That's the logical thing to do, probably.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

Mm.

[Dan Kopel]

But instead, Keith goes to England and

[Rund Abdelfatah]

he borrows £1.2 million, which is, I

[Dan Kopel]

think, about the equivalent of maybe 150, $200 million today.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Then he goes back to Costa Rica and proposes a new deal to the government.

[Dan Kopel]

This sort of crazy deal. He says, I'll build the railroad for free. In return, you give me 99 years concessional on the route. I have 800,000 acres of land, tax free alongside the tracks, and I have full control of the port at Limon.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Not a great deal for the Costa Rican government, but they were in a pretty bad position at this point and just like, needed to finish the railroad.

[Victor Acuna Ortega]

Minor Kid, he was a. A very good entrepreneur and he was too very able to negotiate, and he was able to put himself somebody indispensable for the Costa Rican government who was capable of finishing the railroad.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

So work on the railroad continued, and

[Dan Kopel]

at this point, Keith had, like, really managed to dig himself out of a hole, right?

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Absolutely. I mean, now he had the support of the country's elite, a workforce that could handle the Climate, total control of the port of limon and 800,000 acres of tax free land.

[Dan Kopel]

And what he did with that land at first was he grew bananas. And he didn't grow them to make money. He grew them to feed his workers, the ones who weren't dying by the dozen or

[Rund Abdelfatah]

as an American, Keith had little experience with bananas. They weren't really available in the US since they only grow in tropical climates. But around this time, some people were beginning to experiment with ways to bring bananas, this rare tropical fruit, to the United States. And after planting a few banana trees alongside the railroad, Minor Keith realized why

[Dan Kopel]

it's really easy to grow. You know, you get a few banana trees and from those few you can grow a farm. And from those farms you can create a plantation with rows after row of banana trees. And from that plantation you can create a nation of banana trees.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And that's when the light bulb went off. He had a lot of land at his disposal and soon he would have a railroad and a port all to himself. So Miner Cooper Keith set his sights on another potentially much bigger business opportunity. Bananas. By the time the railroad was completed in 1890, Minor Keith was officially in the banana business. A few years later he would be the co founder of the United Fruit Company which would go on to grow beyond Costa Rica. And Keith would go on to have his hands in everything. He ran the postal service in Guatemala. He set up a telegraph communications network throughout Central America, built rail lines between Mexico and Guatemala, Guatemala and El Salvador, connecting cities across the region. And he controlled ports all along the Caribbean coast of Central America. People in these countries gave United Fruit the nickname El Pulpo the octopus.

[Dan Kopel]

And Keith sort of became known as the uncrowned king of Central America.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Keith was the king. Bananas were catching on in the continental United States and business seemed good until it wasn't. That's it for this week's episode of America in Pursuit. Want to know what ended up happening to Minor Keith and how the banana came to dominate American kitchens? Make sure to check out Throughline's full length episode There Will Be Bananas. And make sure to join us next week when we explore the origins of something that's been in the news recently and has been a hallmark of American identity for over 150 birthright citizenship. He said, yes, I'm a laborer, I'm a chef, but I'm a citizen. And here's the proof. He had his certificates. He knew that he was born in the United States and that meant he was a US citizen. The story of Wong Kim Ark and the fight for birthright citizenship. That's next week. Don't miss it. This episode was produced by Kiana Moghadam and edited by Christina Kim with help from the Throughline production team. Music as always by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric. Special thanks to Julie Kane, Irene Noguchi, Beth Donovan, Casey minor and Lindsay McKenna. We're your hosts, Rund Abdelfattah and Ramtin Arablouei.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Thank you for listening. This message comes from SAP Concur Complete is the new AI powered solution from SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel that gives businesses the power to simplify their travel booking and expenses. Learn [e-mail] complete this message comes from

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

Bayer Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency and results that can be proven. This approach is integral to every breakthrough. Bayer brings forward innovations that save lives and feed the world. Sciencedelivers. Com.