Courtesy of the Library of Congress
in the late nineteenth century North American gained contracts to build railroads throughout Latin America. As compensation they received favorable land rights from national governments that overtime lead to development of lucrative banana plantations. As the story goes first camp the railroad construction company and then the demand for workers to perform the labor. Railroad contractors the less expensive workers in former British colonies in the Caribbean and US workers from the towns around the port cities of New Orleans, Mobile, and Galveston. The promise of higher paying jobs then they could find elsewhere persuaded mostly lower caste black workers to migrate in large numbers to Latin America from Colombia to Mexico. In most cases these itinerant workers did earn more in the Caribbean basin and they received better working conditions then in their home countries. Migrating proved an effective strategy for social mobility. After the completion of the railroad some stayed on as railroad workers while others turned to jobs working in the banana industry. First came railroad construction, the demand for workers to perform the work, then came the labor demands of the banana industry.