Boston
The shadow of the United Fruit Company still reaches across the globe today
About a hundred years ago, the Boston-based banana company, United Fruit, reigned supreme in Central America. It didn’t just own banana plantations, but also railroads and telephone lines. The company even dictated national policies and overthrew governments. For his podcast “Under the Shadow,” about US involvement in Central America, Michael Fox traveled to Guatemala, where he looked at the legacy of United Fruit and its impact on the global fruit industry today.
With strife behind them, a young migrant family prepares to seek asylum in Boston
Calling it a humanitarian crisis, Governor Maura Healey has activated the National Guard to support migrants at Joint Base Cape Cod and launched two welcome centers in Boston and Quincy. But the influx of desperate people is so great that families are flooding nonprofits and local hospitals.
The history of enslavement at Boston’s Freedom Trail sites is beginning to be told
Boston is a cradle of American history, and 4 million people a year visit the historic churches, graveyards and parks that make up the Freedom Trail to learn more about the country’s origins. But rarely do they hear the underbelly of that story: that slavery touched nearly every aspect of the society and the economy of Massachusetts during that period of time. But that is now changing.
How a Boston hospital transformed a Ukrainian child’s life
UN human rights groups have recorded over 500 children killed and nearly 1,000 injured from the Ukraine war. The Ukrainian hospital system has been overwhelmed, and only a fraction of injured children, like 6-year-old Karolina Daremyan, have been able to make the journey to the US for complicated medical procedures and rehabilitation.
