By Claudia Tolan, former Weaver Street Market Merchandiser. This article originally appeared in our March, 2007 newsletter.
I was fortunate to be invited to join an Equal Exchange Co-op trip to Chiapas, Mexico to meet with coffee cooperatives in the area. I also met with human rights groups and other grassroots organizations that are active there.
When people ask me to describe my trip to Mexico I don’t know where to start. Probably because in those seven days I saw so much, listened to so many stories and learned so much about Mexico and its history of violence, oppression, grassroots communities, uprising, and advancement. I saw first-hand the extraordinary amount of work that is necessary to grow coffee, and how much sweat, blood, and tears it takes to put those precious coffee beans in a bag ready to cross the border and finally arrive to make our daily cappuccino. I learned that fair trade is not just a fascinating concept, but the only possible way out of poverty and migration. That working in a coffee cooperative is the only alternative to a life of misery and exploitation. That if globalization means the takeover by corporations of markets, government, and countries, it can also mean international grassroots movements connected by fair trade, organic production, and respect for human dignity and our Madre Tierra (Mother Earth).
Our group of eight consisted of three representatives from Equal Exchange and five gringos (including me) from food co-ops. It was a magic number; we bonded from our arrival at the airport through the long meetings with all our fantastic hosts, and hearing their amazing stories of hardship under the oppression of the landowners, the coyotes, and the government. We got emotional listening to their heartbreaking and compelling personal experiences. We panicked (and laughed) through the sea of mud that we had to keep at bay in order to get to the houses where the families invited us to spend the night. We got used to the local concept of time. Every time one of the members of the co-op would start a meeting with, “I would just like to say a few words…,” we would smile at each other and patiently prepare for a few hours of incredible testimony.
From the members of the executive committee of CIRSA (Don Pedro, Julius Cesar, and Don Pascual) and the members of the oversight committee (Filiberto and Isidro) we learned that their objectives include the following:
- conserve and improve the fertility of Mother Earth through organic production
- recover culture thru family, community, and co-op
- achieve food self-sufficiency
- obtain fair prices for products
- improve the quality of life for farmers
- unite efforts to overcome challenges
We also met with Father Joel Padron Gonzalez, a Catholic priest who helped to found CIRSA in 1991. He was incarcerated by the Mexican government in an effort to stop the movement, but was released after 49 days, even though he refused to condemn the land re-appropriation by the indigenous population. At the news of his arrest, 12,000 people from the villages in the mountains marched on foot for days to get to the capital where he was jailed. On the sixth of November, Padre Joel was released. On the eighth of November, la Communidad Indigena de la Region de Simojovel de Allende Sociedad de Solidaridad Social (CIRSA) came into being.
Today, 27 communities form CIRSA, with 27 delegates who meet monthly. Their activities include the operation of a store, warehouse, cafeteria, and trucks for transportation of the coffee; coffee roasting, sales, and organic certification; recruitment of members and training and educational events; and the development of production projects, such as coffee for domestic sale.
We saw the Zapatista community of Oventic, where a large sign indicates, “The good government Zapatista in rebellion: Here the people mandate and the government obeys. Slowly we move forward.”
We also learned how all these grassroots movements, the coffee co-ops, liberation theology (the rebel Catholic movement), the human rights movement, and the women’s co-op that produces amber jewelry and clothes are all connected. They participate in the largest grassroots movement in the history of Mexico, the “Otra Campana” (the other campaign).
There was so much to experience that all I can say is it was the most inspiring trip of my life! Although I hope that others will have the same opportunity, I know now that promoting Equal Exchange coffees to Weaver Street Market customers is my contribution.
Note: Select Equal Exchange coffees are on sale this weekend, July 22-24, 2016, for $6.50/lb. Look for Bird of Paradise, Peru Medium Roast, Mind Body and Soul Blend, and Midnight Sun Blend.