Several miles from Oaxaca’s coast, a two-hour bumpy climb into the misty mountains leads to the small village of Xanica. The sweet smells of banana, mango, vanilla and plum trees surround this picturesque village of 700 inhabitants. Inside his shop, Guillermo Lopez Sanchez, one of the 400 members of the Productores de Café la Trinidad Cooperative, is sawing and polishing a decorative bright wooden saddle.
Guillermo works on one of his many trades
Carpentry is just one of the five income initiatives of La Trinidad, which is to date the largest cooperative ever supported by the Oaxaca Community Foundation. For ten years, the group’s principal source of income has been its coffee, sold both in the United States and Europe. It is currently working on obtaining organic certification, but the process is long and costly. “We know that things don’t happen overnight,” Guillermo points out.
The cooperative has also had success in both harvesting large oyster mushrooms, and initiating a honey project, which not only provides a source of income, but benefits the coffee, too, through pollination by the bees. The processes are very specific and require strict care. The mushrooms, for example, are housed within organic cases made of sawdust to retain humidity, and the members have built a smoking device to keep the bees away when extracting honey.
Guillermo is hopeful that they will be able to build new greenhouses with the Oaxaca Community Foundation’s support.
Though successful, Xanica`s people are constantly faced with the challenges of the unpredictable forces of nature that they so depend on. The rainy season has been slow to come this year, delaying some of their harvests. However, support from the foundation will allow several members, including Guillermo, to reconstruct greenhouses where they grow produce for personal consumption. Without dependency on high rainfall, greenhouses can yield certain crops year round, while also protecting against drastic temperatures, dust and pests. This year, Guillermo has cultivated several batches of tomatoes, cilantro, radish, chard and beets.
Another initiative, which has been running for six years, is the town’s only stationary store, headed by Guillermo`s wife, Reina. The Papeleria Trinidad was started by Reina and 22 other women who pooled their money together to give the town a more convenient place for school supplies. In the future, the women hope to purchase a copy machine to service the community and gain more capital for the store. Guillermo and Reina`s daughter, Itzel, is only eight years old, but is already learning the tricks of the trade from both parents, as she helps out in the store and with the various harvests, while still finding time to play flute in the school band.
Reina and her daughter Itzel
“We want her to grow up well, and be healthy,” says Reina, noting that health care can be costly. It’s for precisely this reason that the community of Xanica has recently invested in health screening projects for cervical and breast cancer, something that was previously unavailable. ¨We just want to continue with the development of our products and our community,” Guillermo adds.
