Víctor Interiano (aka Dichos de un bicho)

In Jorgito el colonizado: aventuras con la United Fruit Co. (2019), Salvadoran-American artist Víctor Interiano reimagines the beloved children’s character Curious George as Jorgito el Colonizado—a small capuchin monkey struggling under the weight of a massive sack of bananas stamped with the name United Fruit Co. The bright pop-art aesthetic, with its cartoonish lines and saturated colors, contrasts sharply with the gravity of the subject: the exploitation of Central American labor and land under the dominance of the banana industry during the mid-twentieth century.

By transforming the curious and playful George into a burdened laborer, Interiano exposes the colonial subtext embedded in seemingly innocent Western children’s media. The monkey’s shadow, stretching into the shape of a human figure, becomes a haunting visual metaphor for the dehumanization of workers in the so-called “banana republics.” The artist’s adaptation situates this violence within the visual language of nostalgia—making the critique accessible, even disarming, while never losing its edge.

For Banana Craze, Jorgito el colonizado epitomizes the project’s interest in how the banana circulates as both commodity and cultural symbol: cheerful on the surface, oppressive underneath. Through irony and reappropriation, Interiano transforms a familiar childhood icon into an anti-colonial allegory—revealing how stories of innocence often conceal histories of empire.