The gods work in mysterious ways and my coffee prayers were answered ten fold. Our family visited a local coffee finca over the weekend and not only were they growing only organic coffee, it is also a community co-operative with a very interesting and heart wrenching tale of it's conception. I'll give you a summary of the historia (story) that was shared with us over a few beers on Saturday night. For those of you unaware, coffee definitely has a bloody past and this story is just one of many that have happened and continue to happen all over the planet.

Nueva Alianza sits on 650 Acres of mountainous land in the heart of Guatemala. It's a beautiful, but harsh landscape which begins with the long and bumpy road up to the community. We had a mini-bus drop us off at the start of the steep part of the road and the rest of the drive was in the back of our police escort truck. It was and probably will be the only time I was happy to be in the back of a police car. I was holding onto Freja tight the whole way as the road winded through banana and coffee trees, past little shacks with clothes hanging in the morning sun to dry. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the community of Nueva Alianza and unpacked our gear. The Eco-Hotel that we all stayed in had a beautiful sweeping view of the valley below, a view that was limited to the past owner of the finca as this was his old house that we were sleeping in. A giant mansion compared to the rest of the tiny abodes scattered around the hillsides, which is a good point to start from in the story of Nueva Alianza.

The community was made up of about 40 working families. We were told that women and children regularly carried up to 100 pounds of coffee up and down the narrow winding paths, while the men and older boys carried 200 pounds. Shattered were my illusions of the donkey and smiling man that accompany Nescafe's clever marketing. The smiles were there, but hiding behind the sweat on their brows and strain on there faces. Everything was relatively good for the people of Nueva, they were getting wages, they were working hard and content with their dueno (owner). It was after his death that the plantation started to fall apart.

One of the owners sons took over the plantation after his death, but didn't share the same love as his father. He had other parcels of land that took up more of his time. The farm went into default in 1998 and the workers were not paid for their work for a period 18 months. The owner knew that they really had no power. Under Guatemalan law, if they left voluntarily would not see any of their accumulated wages. So they persisted working the farm with no wages, surviving mostly by gathering wild plants for food. It was exhausting both physically and emotionally and some of the 40 families left to find work in the city. The remaining workers organized and sued the owner for their wages time and time again receiving little of what was owed. Eventually, the new owner declared bankruptcy blaming the declining cost of coffee in the national markets and owing by law, little if nothing to the workers.

The farm no longer operating, every family was forced of the land on which they lived for 3 generations. Through a series of discussions with the bankers, labor unions, and NGOs, they organized once more under Guatemalan labor laws and decided in secret to take back the farm at midnight on a December evening. The bankrupt owner caught wind of this, having gone to the farm earlier that morning and taking all of the equipment worth anything substantial, but it was still seen as a minor victory for the Campesinos (locals) that night. The next few weeks were spent under the threats of private security firms with automatic weapons hired by the previous owner's family. These hired guns were notorious for hostile takeovers, usually ending up in the deaths of some -if not all- the workers. The story had gained some attention and the families on the farm were spared this fate, although they kept 10 guards at the gate at all times, not allowing any strangers entrance to the land for months.

On condition with the bank for inhabiting and working the land, the workers were required to pay for $1.9 million quetzals ($250k) for the land. After the air of hostility settled, the workers applied and received a development loan from the sole governmental organization setup after the peace accords to help indigenous groups and begin buying back the farm for themselves and future generations. A victory in a country that usually doesn't favour the community organized resistances that they had staged. The old owners house was turned into an Eco-Hotel, realizing that tourism would be a good way to bring in capital and educate people to their plight and that of others. Over three years later, the farm was finally back in action producing equal the previous amount. The first step in this process included slaves of work to get the plants producing again, having been left dormant for 6 years. This however only produced the raw product, selling pennies in comparison to proceeded beans. Purchases of new and fixing of old machinery followed, all due to the former owners theft or lack of maintenance, and its a process that continues today with the help of numerous local and international NGOs.

Today, Nueva Alianza has many projects on the go and many more planned for the future. They realized that they could use the natural springs throughout the land to purify and bottle water for their community. It has now turned into a supply for not only Nueva Alianza, but many of the neighboring communities as well, including Xela, selling for 12Q ($1.75) a 5-gallon jug. They have a working Bio-Diesel plant, with plans to use only non-food producing plants grown on their land instead of relying on the cooking oil from nearby restaurants who -realizing the capitalist opportunity- have begun charging exhorbanent rates for their waste. They also grow macadamia nuts, harvested and processed year-round. All of the power for the finca is generated on site with a micro-hydroelectric system catching energy from a nearby waterfall. The families installed a solar water heating system, which should be operational soon. A school for children in the community was created and a satellite for Internet access installed. Politically, Nueva Alianza is run by a democratically elected board of directors. All major decisions go to a vote before the families and a women's co-operative operates as well, teaching women's empowerment and sustainable commerce to nearby communities. Did I mention, all of the coffee is grown organically? Several organic techniques are used in the process, including the method for keeping pests away by making a paste from chili peppers and spraying it on plants in the nursery. Organic fertilizer is also used, created from the leftover macadamia nut shells, fermented and mixed with nutrient rich dirt in the area.

It may sound like a dream, but it's not. Nueva Alianza is a working reality in the midst of the Guatemala jungle highlands. I personally didn't want to leave, but they are limited by the terms of the loan to 40 families, 30 of which stuck to their machetes and sticks and fought for the land that they deserved, the land they worked with no pay for 18 months, the land that was their home.

I was inspired by this story. It shows that anything is possible if you really want to make a dream a reality. I will take this knowledge and passion with me to Nicaragua where I see possibilities opening for us. If 40 families with nothing can organize and make it happen, we can too. All of us. Take the power back.

To learn more about Nueva Alianza, check out the website here: http://www.comunidadnuevaalianza.org.

But even better than that would be to go and visit it for yourself.