Uncommon Grounds Part 22

71.

The six countries forming the Pan American Coffee Bureau were Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

72.

Bourke-White's powerful 1936 Brazilian portraits of black coffee laborers reflected her newfound social conscience. She returned from Latin America to photograph faces of the rural South for You Have Seen Their Faces You Have Seen Their Faces, a collaboration with Erskine Caldwell.

73.

See chapter 2 for background on Bernhard Hannstein, Walter's father, and Erwin Paul Dieseldorff. See also the prologue and chapter 19 for contemporary information on the Hannstein finca finca run by Walter's daughter, Betty Hannstein Adams. run by Walter's daughter, Betty Hannstein Adams.

74.

In 1903 the price of Rio #7 beans fell to 5 cents per pound, but the dollar was worth more in those days, and the Rio bean was inferior to Santos #4, the standard in 1940.

75.

"Joe" was slang for the common man. There are two other theories, that "cuppa Joe" derived from a combination of Java and Mocha, or that it was named after Josephus Daniels, who served as secretary of the U.S. Navy from 1913 to 1921 and who banned wine at the officers' mess, so that coffee became the strongest available drink.

76.

During World War II, no Germans were taken to the United States from Brazil, since the program was perceived as an insult to Brazilian national sovereignty. In general, only smaller countries, such as those of Central America, could be forced to agree to it. (Of course, such governments also took advantage of the situation to grab land or get rid of political opponents who were conveniently labeled n.a.z.is.) Vargas created his own wartime internment camp for Germans and j.a.panese in the Brazilian Amazon.

77.

In total over 31,000 so-called enemy aliens were interned during the war, taken from their homes in Latin America and the United States, including 16,849 j.a.panese, 10,905 Germans, and 3,278 Italians.

78.

The age of the dictator appeared to be pa.s.sing. The previous year, Maximilio Hernandez Martinez and Jorge Ubico had been forced from power in El Salvador and Guatemala, respectively, as their restive citizens yearned for the freedom and democracy they had heard so much about during the war.

79.

As a Colombian, Uribe must have been exquisitely aware of social problems, since his country had recently begun La Violencia La Violencia, a decade of terror. Some 200,000 Colombians would die in the internal conflict.

80.

In Brazil the Gillette razor company took out a full-page newspaper ad to disclaim any connection with Guy Gillette.

81.

In 1950 Americans consumed an average of 177 soft drinks a year. By the end of the decade they would gulp 235 annually.

82.

As an adult, Joe Leahy would become a wealthy New Guinea coffee planter (see chapter 17).

83.

A jacu jacu is a Brazilian game bird notorious for flying directly toward hunters who whistle properly. is a Brazilian game bird notorious for flying directly toward hunters who whistle properly.

84.

The FTC eventually published its 523-page report, blaming the 1954 price hike on poor crop estimates, speculation at the coffee exchange, and inventory h.o.a.rding by large U.S. roasters. By that time, however, coffee prices were dropping and the matter no longer seemed urgent.

85.

United Fruit also was involved in the coffee trade. Its Great White Fleet offered weekly sailings that handled exported coffee from Colombia and Central American ports.

86.

The United States poured over $100 million into Guatemala between 1954 and 1960, but most of it went toward highway construction and other programs designed to help U.S. businesses. "Of all the many millions that we have spent in Guatemala," noted a U.S. senator in 1958, "little has trickled down to the two million Indians of the country, who are the people who really need our help. They are still poor, while the businessmen are prospering."

87.

John Hartford died in 1951 at seventy-nine, followed by ninety-two-year-old George Hartford in 1957.

88.

Such counterintuitive advertising also worked for Wilkins Coffee, a regional Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., roaster. In 1957 the firm commissioned local puppeteer Jim Henson to create seven-second television spots featuring Wilkins and Wontkins, two Muppets Muppets (from (from marionette marionette and and puppet puppet). In the ads Wontkins, a gruff naysayer, always refuses to drink his coffee, with dire results. Wilkins shoots, brands, drowns, clubs, slashes, freezes, and blows up his buddy Wontkins. In a typical commercial Wilkins asks, "Have some Wilkins Coffee?" Wontkins hesitates, "Well, I . . . I . . . ," so Wilkins. .h.i.ts him over the head a few times. "I'll take some," Wontkins growls. "Surprising how many are switching to Wilkins Coffee." Coffee sales soared, as did Henson's subsequent career.

89.

Ironically, Latin American countries exported their best beans and consumed cheap instant coffee, much to the chagrin of the growers, who coined the phrase, "Nescafe, no es cafe," meaning "Nescafe is not coffee."

90.

The name Tchibo Tchibo derived from Tchilling-Hirrian and derived from Tchilling-Hirrian and bohne bohne, the German word for bean.