De La Gente

On Wednesday, we spent the day at De La Gente which means “From the People”. There are 30 members of the San Miguel Cooperative. The farmers are small-land owners with approximately three acres of land. Many of these farmers inherited their plots from their parents and grandparents. The farmers and their families cultivate, harvest and process their own coffee.

We walked to the farmer’s coffee plot where we learned the process of planting, cultivating and maintaining the coffee plants. We then had the opportunity to pick the coffee “frutas”.  In total we picked 20 lbs. of caturra and bourbon coffee beans. After completing the harvesting of the beans we went to the farmer’s home where we participated in the processing of our coffee beans. The shelling process is done using a bicycle hooked to a de-pulper. The beans were then roasted over an open fire by the farmer’s family member.  We all had the opportunity to grind the roasted coffee beans using a lava stone base and stone rolling pin.  These grounds were then used to make our coffee for lunch, which we all agreed was the best coffee that we had ever had. 

In addition to the coffee plants, they also grow corn, tomatoes, orange trees, avocado trees and other trees that they can harvest and sell. A technique that was learned in the United States was to grow other crops among the coffee plants to utilize the land, produce food that can be sold and ultimately protect the coffee plants from the wind and heavy rains.

We had the opportunity to have pepian con pollo, a traditional Guatemalan dish for lunch, prepared by the farmer’s family member. The food was good, but the hospitality shown to all of us by these farmers was unrivaled. 

After lunch, we chose artisan projects that we could participate in. Some did textiles and made bags, others did ironworking, some made lotions and others did woodworking.

During the woodworking project we meet Ruberto, the carpenter, and he gave us a ride in the back of his pickup truck along cobblestone roads – that at times were very steep – to get to his shop. Once we arrived at his shop, he showed us around and we began the process to make our wooden serving tray. The process to shape the wood using hand-held planes was very labor intensive and required great attention to detail. The end project was a wooden serving tray with glass base covering – a traditional Mayan fabric that they cut from a traditional shirt. While we were working on our projects, we told Ruberto that we were staying at Common Hope. He left us for a minute and returned with a newspaper from Monticello from October 2004, that had a picture of him and members of a construction company from Monticello that were on a mission trip at Common Hope. He told us that he and the others were constructing the buildings here. It was a proud moment for Ruberto.