Abstract
This article explores the life, work, and gender relations of the patronas, women cooks in the banana camps. Until now, their contributions were never really considered central to the success of the monumental 1954 General strike, which was initiated in the banana growing regions of Honduras. The patronas defied the constraints of the traditional banana company enclave and expected gender roles in other parts of the country; they identified as working-class women and allied with workers to win the strike, all while making a life for themselves and their children. My research, based on oral histories, proposes that they are predecessors of and contributors to the radical tradition of the region, and their histories inform contemporary women workers and leaders of the present.
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