Until 1946, the minority populations of West Indian and Caribbean origin, living primarily along the Atlantic Coast, were denied citizneship nad land ownership, and were ineligle for equal protection under Costa Rican law. This region, known as the Banana Coast, became accessible to foreign investors who, unlike the native Ticas, were able to purchase land and provide the capital to finance a banana export market. The Banana Coast is located on the border of Costa Rica and Panama. This area extends south of the Bribri Coast to the Sixaola River. The region contains the majority of the 200 banana plantations along the Atlantic border of Costa Rica.
Workers live in small villages and settlements along the central and lower Atlantic coast.
The workers involved in this struggle are primarily low-income laborers, mobilizing at the grassroots level, throughout banana settlements in the lower Atlantic region Costa Rica. Their struggle began in 1977, whne DBCP was outlawed in the United States for causing sterility among 60 California workers in an Occidental plant that manufactured the pesticide. Without access to the information that DBCP had been labeled as a cause of sterility and suspected carcinogen, Costa Rican workers continued working in banana fields laden with DBCP, without any additional protection or knowledge ot DBCP's harmful effects. Carmen and her fellow workers at a banana packaging plant in Costa Rica continually suffered from headaches, loss of vision and nausea. Carmen had worked in the banana industry since adolescence, packing fruit from dawn til dusk.