i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

aftershocks of a war in this community had still not worn off, fifteen years after peace
was settled. Impressively, among the farmers with whom I worked were both former
Sandinistas, or compas, and Contra soldiers. Many of them had fought against each other
in nearby arenas of battle. Because I too lost family and loved ones as a result of that war,
I find it significant that these people can work to heal past wounds by supporting each
other in generating productive activity, managing land, and conserving the local
ecosystem.
My background plays an important role in this effort to better understand current
development modes in Nicaragua. I am a first-generation U.S. citizen born to a German
father and a Nicaraguan mother. My parents both struggled to overcome the poverty of
post-WWII Germany and Somoza-era Nicaragua and eventually emigrated to the United
States. My academic inquiry into the history of injustice and exploitation in poor, Latin
American nations comes directly from my parents’ influence and my ethnic background
as a multicultural and transnational scholar.
Chapter Overview
In this dissertation I stress how and where Segovian small-scale coffee farmers are
included in the design and implementation by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of
alternative and/or sustainable forms of economic development. The farmers of Las
Segovias may appear to be passive recipients of charitable and governmental programs
that aim to improve their lives. However, this research shows that the farmers of Las
Grietas, in particular, are actively contesting, reinterpreting, and adapting external
influences on productive and marketing practices along the lines of norms and values that
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