West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870–1940 (ISBN 0-8071-1979-2) is a 1996 book written by Aviva Chomsky. It details the history of the U.S.-based United Fruit Company, formed in 1899 from previous railroads and banana-growing interests in Costa Rica. It also describes how the local workers developed their own parallel socio-economic system. The book was awarded the 1997 Best Book Prize by the New England Council of Latin American Studies. It also assists in telling the story of how indins suffered in the plantations they worked in and connnects to Rigoberta Menchu, who has won a Nobel Prize, and once worked in plantations similar to the ones owned by the United Fruit Company.
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