Santa Anita Cooperative - Coffee Finca

Sat, Feb 12, 2011

Many of the people living in this area are excombatants from the war. On Tuesday we met a woman named Gloria who fought with the guerillas for 8 years, from the time she was 14 years old. During the war her father and many other men, were kidnapped by the military and accused of collaborating with the guerillas; even though, at that time, people in her rural community were hardly aware of the conflict. Most of the men were never seen again. Her mother then had to support all eight children by working in the coffee fincas. When she heard that the military had returned to their village to round up the women, she refused to return and the family then moved from finca to finca as she was able to find work. Eventually their family fled to Chiapas, Mexico where they had relatives.

That year, Gloria had a group of friends who eventually revealed themselves to be guerilla soldiers who were recovering from various injuries and ailments. After listening to their stories, she decided she wanted to return to Guatemala and fight for her country and that’s what she did – very much against the wishes of her mother.

Her experience with the guerillas was very positive; although, the war itself was brutal. They taught her to read and write and gave her more and more responsibility as her abilities grew, so she had opportunities within the guerillas that she would not have had in Mexico or even in a traditional Guatemalan family. Men and women fought side by side and were respected equally. They cared for each other as sisters and brothers and passionately believed in what they were doing. She said the most difficult part was knowing that she would have to kill other poor campesinos – those who had been conscripted into the Guatemalan military. Those young men had no choice – they had to fight for the military or would be killed – and these were the foot soldiers against whom the guerillas fought.

Gloria is now a member of the Santa Anita coffee cooperative, a community made up of ex-guerillas who chose to band together and buy a small coffee finca with loan funds available as a result of the Peace Accords of 1996. They were able to secure a loan through the Land Fund and hoped to have the finca profitable in a year or two. Unfortunately, the finca had been abandoned for 13 years and it was in much worse condition than the owner represented. The harvests were not what they hoped and they were in danger of losing the finca because they had fallen behind on loan payments. They recently renegotiated the terms of the sale to more accurately represent the value of the property and forgive past interest due. The new terms are also at a more reasonable interest rate. It is still a large amount of money, and the finca is not making any of them rich, but they are working hard and have an agreement with a fair trade group in the U.S. to buy all their coffee each year at a fair price. They have also begun to add an eco-tourism component to their farm and are hoping that will bring in some needed money. It is an ongoing struggle for them to provide for themselves and their families. But they have hope.

This morning we visited Santa Anita finca and were given a tour of the property. When this group took over the finca 13 years ago they had to work hard to clear the land and rehabilitate the coffee plants. I knew that coffee needs to have shade, but I didn’t realize the delicate balance of when it needs more shade and when it needs more sun and how that affects the timing of their pruning. Also, I hadn’t realized that coffee needs to grow on hillsides (not on flat land), and the hillsides here at Santa Anita are incredibly steep. It’s amazing to think of these men, women and children here, clinging to the slope as they pick the ripe coffee beans. They climb down the hillsides with baskets strapped to the front of their bodies and pick until it’s full, then they have to climb back up with a full, heavy basket to dump it into the collecting bin. The work is back-breaking, and I certainly have a new appreciation for what goes into my morning cup of coffee.

Yesterday Jeff and I went for a walk with our teachers to a finca that is very near the school (this finca is not a cooperative). It was a beautiful morning and perfect for being out and about. Lupita explained to me how the finca used to employ 100 full time permanent workers, but during the coffee crisis, most of them lost their jobs. Now they employ 6 permanent workers, but of course there is a ton of work to be done to keep a coffee finca productive. During harvest time, men, women and children all work to bring in the coffee. They get paid 30-40Q for picking 100 pounds of coffee beans – that’s about $5. Because the finca is not getting the kind of care it got in the past, it’s not as productive as it once was, so they have to work even harder to pick enough to be able to live.

In addition to coffee trees, the finca also has a lot of flowering shrubs and trees, plus avocadoes and I think mango, plus they grow two different types of beans, one of them ejotes, or what we call green beans. Those crops grow on the flat part of the finca where it gets a lot of hot sun. The coffee, of course, needs to grown on the steep hillsides so this part of the finca would just sit idle if not for other crops that are grown. When we did get to the hillside where the coffee trees are, I was once again shocked by how steep it was. At least at this finca, much of the other production is assisted with machinery and the use of water to move the beans around.

The view from our neighborhood finca is incredible. We looked out over the finca to see the local volcanoes, Santa Maria and San Diego (or sandiagito as the local say because it’s much smaller than Santa Maria). The day was incredibly clear and we could see smoke rising from the top of San Diego as well as smoke rolling off its flank. Apparently it had erupted the night before and what we were seeing was the smoke off the hot lava that was flowing down the side. Jeff’s teacher, Abby, said that she can sometimes see the lava glowing at night from the window in her house. Cool.