Story
At twelve years old, in 2016, Alvin Rodriguez was among a cohort of courageous, determined young people from El Volcancito, Santa Rosa, Guatemala who chose to act upon the egregious water contamination perpetuated by the Escobal Silver Mine. After surveying hundreds of water sources in dozens of communities, the proven levels of environmental harm drove the group to peacefully protest, continuously blocking trucks from entering or exiting the mine. Despite confrontations with riot police, the group remained steadfast, continuing to occupy the area 24 hours/day—for years. Although the complexity of the situation exceeds what we can adequately cover here, the Indigenous Xinka community galvanizing these efforts did eventually achieve an aspect of its broader ambitions when, in 2017, the Constitutional Court suspended the mine’s operating rights pending a proper consultation process.
As an active participant in this process, Alvin Rodriguez became entrenched in his community from a very young age, and when he began setting his sights on coffee production, in 2019, he was able to receive help and encouragement from friends—most notably Romeo Jiménez, who had experience exporting coffee to Canada. By 2021, Alex Reynoso—a leader of the Cafe Colis Resistencia representing Xinka coffee producers in and around Mataquescuintla—facilitated Alvin’s introduction to Semilla, and from that point on, he has made massive strides in terms of both volume and quality. We first represented Alvin this past fall, with a honey-processed lot, and are so happy to bring him back with this washed blend of Pache San Ramon and Yellow Catuai varieties grown on his farm, La Cienega.
Since borrowing processing equipment from a friend and losing half of his 25-quintal harvest in his first year of production, Alvin has gone on to receive his own depulper and to conduct fruitful experimentation with water-saving anaerobic fermentation techniques for his washed and honey-process lots. With the region’s conspicuous scarcity of potable water, the biggest upside of anaerobic methods is undoubtedly conservation and reducing contamination, but it has helped add more roundness and focus to his coffees’ flavour profiles as well. In this particular lot, ripe cherries undergo an initial 24 hour washed fermentation before de-pulping and then experiencing a secondary anaerobic dry fermentation in sealed plastic bags for another 36 hours. The coffee is then dried for 14 days, first under direct sunlight and then in a more temperature-stable covered plastic tunnel.
As we’ve conveyed in our descriptions for other offerings from the Cafe Colis Resistencia group, the struggles of this region’s residents are well-documented. Beyond CCR’s active protest of the illegally built Escobal mine owned by Canadian-based Pan-American Silver, the group’s name also makes reference to the region’s local fame for growing cauliflower (“coliflor” or “colis”), a resilient crop that— like coffee—grows extremely well in the sun-drenched mountains of the Jalapa Department. Yet due to water scarcity, erratic conditions associated with climate change, and plant diseases like roya, coffee yields have dramatically declined in recent years. Outputting between 200-250 quintals (~100 lbs) of cherry per hectare 10 years ago — Mataquescuintla now averages only 50-80 quintals per hectare.
On top of that, smallholder farmers in this area face challenges stemming from systemic government corruption. Citing the Escobal protests as a false flag, Anacafé’s (the Guatemalan National Coffee Association) abandonment of the area has taken with it resources like soil analysis, agronomic training, and global market access, leaving producers to navigate these difficulties completely on their own. For these reasons, Semilla considers their investment in this Indigenous land-defending group the most impactful of all their projects, and we remain driven to support it.
The continued emergence of young producers like Alvin is proof that coffee retains its potential to motivate, organize, and offer meaningful income potential, even amidst massive difficulty in seemingly every respect. We are thrilled to support and represent producers like this.
In the cup, we taste hazelnut, honeydew, and butterscotch.
