Guatemala, La Resistencia
Farmers: Antonieta Donis, Rigoberto Garcia, Bernardo Pacheco, Carmen Donis, Mauro
Quinteros, Ismael Quinteros Hernandez, Julio Cesar Hernandes, Mario Salazar, Walter Juarez, Irineo Ramirez and Juan Jose Torres.
Region: Mataquescuintla and surrounding communities
Processing: Washed
Varietals: Pache San Ramon, Catui, Anacafe 14
Flavour Notes: cranberry, wafer, toffee, citrus
About La Resistencia Blend
The La Resistencia blend is made up of coffees from core members of the Cafe Colis Resistencia group who have been instrumental in the organizing and struggle against the Escobal silver mine, constructed without the approval or consent of the indigenous Xinka peoples who inhabit the land. Each of these producers has been involved in the effort to find an international market for their coffees - and thus a more sustainable price - since 2018 when our purchasing first began in the area.
While the transition has been gradual over the years, this year each of the coffees in this blend and all of the coffees Semilla purchased were processed in central processing stations or in the homes of each smallholder, a big step towards producing their own quality coffee. Through local non-governmental agricultural support groups, the members were able to receive multiple Penagos eco-pulpers and install them in strategic locations for depulping and processing. Due to the extreme lack of water in the area, these eco-pulpers are a key tool in making home processing possible.
2022 marked the first year for Semilla offering a blended lot from the Cafe Colis Resistencia Group. Semilla’s goal from the beginning with this group has been to purchase all the coffee available, every year. With less coffee available overall this year, and increased buy in from roasters supporting the project, we were able to achieve this in 2022 and hope to continue to add more blended lot options to our menu for the upcoming years.
In the Mataquescuintla region, it’s estimated that crop outputs per hectare have reduced from around 200-250 quintal (one hundred pounds) of cherry per hectare ten years ago to 50-80 quintal per hectare today. This precipitous drop is locally attributed to climate change as the intense drought and dry conditions that have become the norm have both halted plant maturity and encouraged the rapid spread of roya and other diseases like fiebre amarilla.
Our support for this group is fundamentally tied to their ability to make a profitable income as smallholder farmers in a region and country where they face countless obstacles from soaring input costs and local gatekeeping of information through to corruption and violence. As such, we set fixed base prices for the group for all the coffees in consensus and conversation with the producers about what they need to make for the extra investment to make sense, and add a premium for quality that makes them some of the highest compensated producers in their region, relative to their cup scores. That means that the vast majority of this blended lot received microlot level prices of 1850 Quetzal / quintal, a price usually seen paid by buyers for only the finest microlots in Guatemala.
Beyond the desire to see these producers run profitable farms, we’re also fundamentally interested in supporting them to lend solidarity to their struggle against the Canadian-based Pan-American Silver and their illegally built and locally rejected silver mine, Escobal. More information follows below, including a quote from Don Miguel Rodriguez, a member of the Xinka parliament and one of the first producers Semilla purchased from.
“It’s a little hard for us because the truth is the government has always put and is now putting into all of the Ministries people that go against the Indigenous population. We have this problem that what they’re looking for is to eliminate the right of consultation by saying the international conventions don’t have validity. They put in the majority of the ministries people in favour of this position, that are always in favour of the corrupt that do things by talking with the Indigenous population.
"We believe that legally we will have to come out victorious in this but as we know there always exists the power of force that the large business owners have here in Guatemala. We know it’s not easy because they look to criminalize all those who lead the Resistencia and there are many ways in which they try to intimidate us to make us withdraw. But we’re in the battle and we ask of God that all will go well, and for those of you outside the country I ask that you give us a hand in going against what this mine is doing to our environment and the natural resources and all the laws they are breaking. Really, they won’t leave us in peace and they are finishing our natural resources.
We’re going to continue fighting until we see where we end up. We hope the government of Canada can also realize what they’re doing and what is happening here in Guatemala —they haven’t done it legally and they haven’t consulted us. We hope you can publish this in all your means of communication, all that is happening here in Guatemala. There is a lot of fear but we won’t give up because of that.”