Leonardo González

The work Nemagón consists of the act of writing on a wall the word that gives the work its title using the material of green or ripe bananas. The word is written with a modern font, without serifs and in capital letters. The work is a call to remember the effects of the pesticide known as Nemagón, a chemical compound widely used on the banana plantations of Central America, even though in 1977 its use was prohibited in the United States after various studies revealed that the pesticide was sterilizing the workers who were coming into contact with it. After its prohibition in the United States, the producers of this chemical focused their interests on countries with lower environmental standards, mostly located in Latin America and Africa. According to a number of sources, this pesticide was used without precautions and the workers, especially the men, came into direct contact with it by inhaling it during the workday when they were mixing it and applying it to the land. In some cases, the secondary effects were even worse than sterilization, to the point of producing conditions such as cancer or birth defects.