Fincas Santa Anita and La Florida

My stay in Guatemala has come to an end.  I have fallen in love with the people and the land in Guatemala.  Despite how hard life is for so many people Guatemalan's have an amazing gift of keeping a smile on their face, the happy latin music turned up loud and everything bright and colorful.  Even though the poverty is obvious, it seems like it would be pretty easy to travel in Guatemala and not really understand the magnitude of the struggle that people face daily.  I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to hear stories of many different people and learn about the various struggles that Guatemalans face.  I hope that  I am able to do justice in sharing the stories that  I have heard and that my travels will have at least a small impact on the lives of some of the people that I have met.

As I recall my time in Guatemala and look through my notes of all of the stories that I have heard of struggles and sorrow, I am happy to have two somewhat brighter tales for the end of my journal. My last weekend in Guatemala I had the opportunity to visit two amazing coffee farms.  Finca La Florida and Santa Anita have very different histories, but similar struggles today.

Finca La Florida  http://www.fincalaflorida.org/  was started by a group of campesinos who decided to squat a vacant farm.  Originally there were about 40 families that started the squat.  They were members of a labor organization that was attempting to get attention to the fact that it was becoming nearly impossible to find work due to the coffee crisis, and if they could find work they were either not paid, or payed less than what was reasonable.   After a long struggle the people of La Florida were able to purchase their land at a reasonable price without interest.  Today La Florida is a cooperative finca, one of the few in the country.  The community grows coffee, and bananas.  They also raise bees and have started growing macadamia nuts and  bamboo to make furniture.  They are completely organic and primarily sell their coffee fair trade to a company in Holland.  They have started an Ecotourism project where people can stay on the farm and help with the crops and eat meals with a family in the community.

Grafting coffee plants at La Florida

On our tour of the farm we watched people grafting coffee plants.  Apparently the Caffea robusta is a larger coffee plant that produces a lesser quality coffee than the Caffea arabica.  They graft the C. arabica tops onto the C. robusta roots so that the plant is more vigorous and grows a bit larger. The farm was beautiful and the feeling of everyone working together for the common good of the whole community was everywhere.

The hotel at Santa Anita

The other finca I had the opportunity to visit was Santa Anita. http://www.santaanitafinca.com/.  The finca was started by a group of ex-guerillas after the peace accords were signed. Part of the peace accords included a fund to loan money to ex-guarillas who wished to buy land instead of moving into the cities.  32 families live in the community.  Each family has a house and a plot of land to grow food on, as well they are all involved in the production of the coffee and they have also started an ecotourism project that provides work for various women in the community.  They also give tours and talks about the history of Santa Anita to bring in a little extra cash as well.  It has been a struggle for the members of Santa Anita to pay off their loan, they are currently in negotiations to have the interest canceled on their loan to make it at leas somewhat more of a reality for them to keep their farm. The people of Santa Anita sell their coffee to Just Coffee  http://www.justcoffee.coop/growerscoops.

The feeling at Santa Anita is very different from that of La Florida.  All of the common buildings are covered in beautiful radical murals.  They are not shy in talking about their history and the history of Guatemala.  I asked if they taught about the war in the schools in their community because even though it was a 36 plus year civil war, it is not included in any of the history books in Guatemalan schools.  Of course they do teach the history of the war at Santa Anita, they have different people from the community share stories with the children so that they can know the true history of their country. 

Mural at Santa Anita

Just a few years ago the people of Santa Anita finally got a clean water supply.  Before they were hauling water to their houses from a creek for many years, then they had a pump system that workded sometimes. Now that they have gravity fed water life has become a lot easier for the community.  I can´t put into words how beautiful the land is at Santa Anita, the people are equally as beautiful. Their lodge is stunning and the food is amazing.

It is an interesting conundrum that both of the communities of Santa Anita and La Florida are in.  Since it is so uncommon for people to be paid a living wage (or paid at all in many cases) it seems like a good idea to form a cooperative and sell fair trade coffee.  However, relying only on coffee as an export crop seems to prove to be a risky venture in this day and age.  There are many factors that make it difficult.  Growing coffee is agriculture, some years there is a bad crop, or some years everyone has a good crop and the price drops.  Farmers that are fair trade and organic are able to get a better price selling their coffee, however they need to pay an insane amount of money to become certified, and then to maintain their certification.

The Che Guevera library at Santa Anita

It is unfortunate that there is absolutely no incentive for coffee finca owners to become fair trade and organic.  There are not many other options for people living in these places.  Many of them have little to no education.  The community of Santa Anita has built two schools a elementary and middle school that children from the community can attend as well as children that live in neighboring communities.  I have heard numerous people in Guatemala say that the way to end the poverty and struggle that they face is through education. Middle and High School is not free in Guatemala, therefore many of the poor children are unable to afford to go to school.  The mountain school provides scholarships to send children to middle and high school.  They are also building a library for the communities of Nuevo San Jose and Fatima.  It is difficult for children to study when they live in a tiny house with many people.  They can not afford books, or the bus fair to go to Columba where there is a small library.  If  you want to donate to the library fund or the scholarship fund you can do so here... http://www.escuelamontana.org/projects_3.html   Also I will be doing a presentation when I return home about my trip and will be collecting donations for these projects as well.  I have been very fortunate to have my travels be a part of my school, I feel as though it is my duty to give back to the communities that have taught me so much.

My host family in Nuevo San Jose: Rony, Josefina, Fabiola & Angelica

Trabajadores and labor laws in Guatemala

Volcan Santa Maria and Santiaguito

 Back at the Mountain School.... it was nice to have a little time in the city, but I am really happy to be back to the simple country life.  This week I have the same teacher and  family as I did in 2004.  It is a very interesting perspective.  There are of course more kids in the house, I honestly can´t figure out how many people live there, at least 12.   My host mom Ana speaks Mam (a Mayan dialect) as well as Spanish. She is very sweet, we laugh a lot and talk about simple things.  There are many children in the house, however I usually interact with Angelica and Ronny.  Angelica is 11, she loves it when I bring books to the house for her to read.

Angelica and her Grandma Ana

The schools are a new thing in the community.  There are many people who can not read or write, also middle and high school are not free here, many families can not afford to send their kids to school after primary school.  The Mt. School runs a scholarship program to help pay for kids to go to school.  It is great to be getting to know the families in the community.  It is a good exchange.  Us being there gives them work that they enjoy and can do at home with their kids.  

The stories are endless of injustice and exploitation of  the workers in Guatemala. During my first week at the Mt.School Edwin Lopez came to speak to us about his struggle at the finca Nueva Florencia.  In March 1997 the workers at the coffee finca attempted to organize.  They were not being paid the legal minimum wage.  They were also not receiving their Christmas and summer bonuses which are required under Guatemalan´s minimum wage laws.  As soon as the workers started to organize they were fired from the finca, denied access to health care, denied  access to  water, they were not allowed to cut firewood (they cook food over fires), their electricity was cut, and their children were expelled from the local school. The workers were blacklisted and were not able to get work on any of the other fincas.

In Guatemala as long as the workers continue to live on the Coffee finca they are able to take legal action against the finca owner, as soon as they move they loose those rights.  The workers had obtained legal help from the Catholic church, and won more than one court case against the finca owner. The first court case they won was in 1999.  The court ordered the 38 families to be rehired, but the finca owners did not pay any attention to the order. There is no agency that enforces the courts orders in Guatemala.

The court system is very slow in Guatemala.  For many years the courts would claim to have lost their documents, every time they won a court case the company would appeal.  In 2004 they exhausted the legal process in Guatemala. Even though they had won all of their court cases they still had not received any justice.  In 2006 they presented their case to the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.  At this point many of the families had left the finca because they could no longer take the threats and the hard life.

All through this time the finca owners were harassing the people.  Edwin went to D.C. to testify for the Inter-American court, and when he returned home his house was fenced off.  Workers were being imprisoned on false charges of theft.

In 2009 they won the court case in the Inter-American court. The Guatemalan government acknowledged that they did not provide the resources to help the people in their struggle.  Therefore the government is providing money for the people to purchase a small amount of land.  Edwin expressed that although he was glad that they are finally getting some justice, he is upset that the company owners still are not paying a dime, it is the government that is providing the money.

2 years after winning their case they are still looking for land that they are able to buy.  They received Q800,000 which is not enough to buy land that they can farm on.

The story of the communities Fatima and Nuevo San Jose (the two communities next to the mountain school) have very similar stories.  The people of Fatima worked for weeks without receiving pay.  When they demanded pay they were fired and again denied access to the finca.  The owner made threats to the workers when they were attempting to take legal action, he told them that they could go ahead and try, but he was rich and would be able to pay off the officials.  The workers eventually ended up taking a small settlement, and were able to buy the land that they live on now because the Catholic church owned the land and gave them a loan.

These stories are just one of many.  Today the minimum wage has been raised to Q63 (Quetzals, there are about $8 to 1Q) for a days work for one person.  It is rare that a worker on a coffee plantation will get paid this. According to Edwin, coffee pickers get paid anywhere from Q25-Q50 for 100lbs of coffee.  A family of 5 (yes including the little kids) can pick up to 200lb of coffee a day in a good year.   That means the most a family of 5 gets for a long, hard day of picking coffee is Q100.  That is about $8. Even thought the standard of living is a lot lower in Guatemala, it is very, very difficult to get by on Q100 a day.  That also does not include paying transportation to get to the finca, and keep in mind the coffee picking season is only a few months, after that there is little to no work to be found.

In order to be able to organize a union  person needs to have worked for a company 3 times.  When a worker gets a job at the company they have to sign a contract.  Companies will have the father put his name down the first time, and his son´s name down the second time.  They well do all that they can to avoid having people work for them more than 3 times. It is almost impossible for people to unionize.

There are a few cooperative fincas in the area.  I am going to go and visit two of them this weekend. The Santa Anita coffee finca is run buy ex-guerillas from the 36 year internal armed conflict.  santaanitafinca.com
We are also going to La Florida coffee cooperative..... more on these soon.

 There are so many issues surrounding coffee it is overwhelming.  Sometime around 2000 was the ¨coffee crash¨ where the price of coffee took a nose dive.  People here say the cause was because the world bank gave Vietnam a whole bunch of money to grow coffee and it flooded the market.  It seems as though there are many reasons that the "coffee crash" happened.  Global economics are complicated.  However coffee is the number two imported commodity in the United States after oil. 

Yesterday I went to the finca near the school.  They have tons of land, but don´t produce much coffee.  When the coffee crash happened they cut down all of the shade trees and planted avocados.  The unfortunate consequence was this made the coffee plants produce less coffee since coffee hates to grow in the direct sun, and they don´t have any experience growing avocados so they only produce small avocados that they can not export.  There are only 7 people that currently work on the finca right now.  The finca is 3 million cuadras (one cuadra is 20 meters squared).

avocado

I toured the farm with my teacher Abby who lived on the finca when she was a girl. The farm feels abandoned.  It was fun to climb around the old buildings with her and hear stories about how she used to sneak into the garden of the owner when she was a girl and eat the raspberries that grew there.  We were climbing around and peering into the windows of the old casa grande, you could tell that she got into mischief on the farm when she was young.   She told stories of how the finca used to be a great place to live and work.  They had a school and animals and the workers were treated good.  During the the war they moved from the finca because it was becoming too dangerous as both the guerillas and the army were setting up camp at the finca.  They couldn't tell what side was better because they both were saying the same thing.  Sometime after war the finca changed owners and now it is run by a woman who also owns another finca near Antigua which she has turned into an ecotourism farm.  She has let this finca go to the wayside since she makes so much more money at the other farm.

 It is really difficult to see fallow land in a country where one of the major problems is land distribution.  If people only had access to land to grow food for themselves or to raise some animals there would be way less malnutrition and poverty. 



Hopefully before I head to Ecuador I will have time to upload all the pics of the fincas and other adventures.
Love to you all and Go Los Empacadores!! 

So I have been in Guatemala for over a week now.  Please excuse any typos I may have, navigating this Spanish keyboard is new to me, and my spell check only speaks Spanish, so we will have to live with mistakes until I find an English speaking computer.


I have enjoyed the week in the Mountains at  Escuela de La Montaña. http://www.hermandad.com Getting there is quite the adventure.  Guatemala is famous for their chicken buses.  They are old school buses from the U.S. that are painted bright colors.  These buses set records for the number of people they can pack into them, as well as their speed, and how loud they play music. You have not been to Guatemala unless you have been on a Chicken bus.  Trying to find the right bus is the beginning of the adventure.  All of the Ayudantes (the people who are the helpers on the bus, they take your money and put your bags on the roof) are shouting where the buses are going COLOMBA, COLOMBA, COLOMBA!

Minerva bus terminal in Xela

After finding the right bus and a little section of seat to sit on we are finally ready to go. The ayudante hoists peoples belongings on the top of the bus and climbs back in the bus as it is going full speed down the mountain.   It really is amazing how many people can pack on a bus!  I think that the laws of physics are suspended on Guatemalan roads.  50 people in a pick up, no problem, you have to see the ayudante acrobatics on the top of a school bus barreling down the mountain to believe it.  Landslides are common and there are rarely signs to warn drivers to move to the next lane, all of a sudden the bus is on the other side of the road and a few honks of the horn is all that the oncoming traffic has as a warning sign.  As entertaining as this all usually is, unfortunately it is not uncommon for there to be accidents.  Whene there is an accident the results are usually disastrous.  It is amazing that a collision between two vehicles can result in hundreds of injuries or deaths. Guatemalan newspapers are not shy about showing the carnage from the wrecks.  Bodies in pools of blood covered only by a tarp are often on the front page of the newspaper.

The XelaJu bus in Colomba

I have so much to share from the past week it is hard to know where to start.  I think I am going to begin with a brief history of Guatemala, it is very complex and I am sure I will be adding a lot more as I learn along the way. I just want to give folks a little bit of a context of why things are the way they are here, and in order to understand the oppression that people face today it is important to understand a little bit of the history of the country.

The legacy of racism and injustice of course begins with the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.  Guatemala gained their independence from Spain in 1821 when they were briefly a part of Mexico.  They later gained independence from Mexico in 1823.  The first major export crops of Guatemala were cochineal and indigo. Both are used to make magnificent dyes (red and blue).  After the invention of synthetic dyes the export crops became coffee, sugar and bananas.  This is where the history of exploitation really amps up.  In 1898 the dictator Manuel Estraba Cabrera granted 40% of the land of Guatemala to the United Fruit Company (UFC).  As well as control over Punto Barrios (the major Atlantic port), the railroads, communication systems and electricity.

The next dictator Jorge Ubico who ruled around the 1930´s, was famous for establishing a brutal secret police and starting the vagrancy laws.  The vagrancy laws required peasants to work for 90 days without pay.  They had to carry cards on them all the time to document that they were working. Of course the peasants were working for UFC.

In 1945 thanks to the October revolutionaries Guatemala had its first democratic presidential election since it became a country.  Juan Jose Arevalo was elected president.  He dissolved the secret police, established labor laws, allowed for labor unions, established a literacy program, health care, social security, equal rights for men and women, equal rights for indigenous people and much more.  The years between 1945-1954 are referred to as the democratic spring or the 10 years of spring in Guatemala.

In 1951 Jacob Arbenz was elected president.  He started the Agrarian reforms.  At this time a vast portion of the land in Guatemala was owned by the UFC.  Arbenz expropriated land from companies who where not using their land. The idea was for this land to be used by the poor landless Guatemalans so that they would be able to grow their own food.  Much of UFC´s land at this point was not in cultivation.   The government offered the companies to either pay back taxes or sell their land for the price that they had said it was worth. They of course had been undervaluing their land in order to pay lower taxes.  As you can imagine the UFC was not happy about this.  They either had to pay back taxes or get paid way less for their land that it was actually worth. At the time U.N. ambassador Henry Lodge, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the head of the CIA Allen Dulles were all major share holders in UFC.

In 1954 a US backed coup takes place in Guatemala. Castilla Armas takes power.
Armas reverses the Agrarian Reform and installs a brutal secret police. This is all takes place during the height of the ¨red scare".  The U.S. was spreading propaganda about the former government being involved with communist countries.

In 1960 the internal armed conflict began.  There were many different organizations that were resisting the government at the time.  In 1982 they all united to form the URNG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity).  During this time Rios Montt was dictator.  He started the program ¨rifles and beans¨. The government would go into communities and say they either had to be with the government and they would be fed or if they were against the government they would be murdered.  Rios Montt among others was convicted of war crimes.  The atrocities that happened during the war are horrific.  People were put inside churches which were then set on fire, there were massacres of villages. Most of the casualties were indigenous people.  During this time the U.S. was funding the Guatemalan military and Guatemalans were being trained at the School of the Americas (Members of the Guatemalan military are still trained at the School of Americas today!). http://www.soaw.org/

In 1996 after 36 years the peace accords were signed. Up until this time around 200,000 people (mostly indigenous) were killed,  440 villages were razed,  1.5 million displaced, and 45,000 people disappeared.

It seems as though everything should be better once the peace accords are signed, but the violence was not over.  In 1998 Bishop Gerardi was murdered 3 days after he released a document that had the names of some of the worst abusers of human rights during the war.

Guatemala still exports bananas, coffee and sugar. U.S. corporate interest still influences the politics in the country.  People are paid wages that they can hardly live on, people are displaced from their homes in the interest of mining and agriculture.  I have heard stories of people having their basic human rights violated because they attempted to organize, but that is a story for another day.

Currently near the city of Coban there is a state of siege.  You can read more about it here.  http://www.guatemalasolidarityproject.org/

 Here are some other resources...
http://www.nisgua.org/home.asp



More soon....

Guatemala

Well.  Here I am in Guatemala.  Trying to figure out how to navigate the internet in Spanish and find the correct keys on a Spanish key board.  I am traveling for the next few months in Gutatemala and Ecuador, about one month in each place. I will be spending most of my time in Guatemala studying Spanish and learning about the lives and struggles of the locals.  The community that I am living in used to all live and work on a coffee plantation, when they attempted to unionize they were fired from the coffee plantation without being payed.  They were also black listed so they were unable to get work at any of the other coffee fincas.  After a long legal battle they eventually were able to receive some of their back pay which they used to buy the land that they are living on now.  Many of the people still work the coffee harvest when it is happening, but the pay is very low, often they are paid less than the Guatemalan minimum wage (which as you can imagine is already extremely low).  Women are paid half of what the men get for the same work.  The rest of the year the men travel to the larger cities to look for work.  Sometimes they find it, and sometimes they have just wasted the precious Quetzales (the local currency) on bus fare only to have not found work for the day. I have only been here a few days, so I still have a lot to learn and stories to hear.  I look forward to sharing my stories and adventures with you.