Denman Island has an incredible opportunity to learn more about these topics from Neydi Juracán, the National Coordinator of the Guatemalan Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA). Join Neydi at the Back Hall on Sunday May 12th at 11 am to hear about solidarity trade coffee and Mayan resilience. Come taste this delicious shade-grown “fair trade plus” Guatemalan coffee, grown in a regenerative polyculture, and learn about food sovereignty struggles in Guatemala.
The CCDA was founded in 1982 during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war to defend the rights of workers on large coffee, sugar and cotton plantations, to recover lands taken from the Mayan communities over the past centuries, and to promote and recover Mayan culture and spirituality. The CCDA is a major force in Guatemala’s Indigenous-led struggle for land reform, food sovereignty and cultural survival.
It wasn’t until after the armed conflict ended in 1996 that the CCDA was able to work more freely on the issues of land reform and livelihoods. The CCDA used the Peace Accords to obtain land for member communities in the Lake Atitlán region. Some purchased the coffee plantations where their families had been farm workers for generations. Today, those plantations, reorganized as cooperatives, produce Café Justicia, a “solidarity trade” coffee, processed by the CCDA for fair prices to producers and exported to Canada and other countries. Profits from Café Justicia help finance the CCDA’s ongoing work for land reform, community development and an end to impunity and corruption in Guatemala.
The “plus” in this fair trade coffee product is the relationships that go beyond paying fair prices to producers, to strengthening the participation of women and youth, and supporting CCDA’s work in defending the land rights of Indigenous communities across Guatemala. Neydi has said that the objective was “to develop an alternative that went beyond just fair trade, beyond just paying more for the coffee… We want people to know where this coffee comes from”, and that in buying this quality coffee, “you are also supporting labour rights, and also the rights of women, youth, Indigenous people and small farmers”.
Join other Denman Islanders interested in the cross-border struggle for social, economic and environmental justice, and enjoy sampling fair trade “plus” coffee. Gift boxes and bags of coffee will be available for purchase.
Neydi is on a speaking tour of BC from May 2-18, co-sponsored by BC CASA-Café Justicia, CoDevelopment Canada and the BC Council for International Cooperation. For more information on the CCDA, visit their website. For information about Café Justicia, visit their website.
