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

the quality of the others).” Since there are only a few cherries per plant at this stage, a
few workers can cover Danilo’s entire thirteen manzanas in a week.
The intensive harvest occurs in three stages. That is, pickers pass through the
entire parcel three times before conducting the final pepena (as previously defined) to
gather all remaining cherries. Danilo feels that three passes is sufficient given that the
money he has to pay the pickers and the time he can spend on harvesting are limited. “La
uva se madura más rápido después de la primera pasada de los cortadores (The cherry
ripens faster after the pickers’ first pass), Danilo claims. “Parece que la planta le da
energia a las uvas verdes cuando ya no tiene la maduras (It seems that the plant gives
more energy to the green fruit once the ripe ones are gone).” This was not something that
he was taught by agronomists; rather it was the way his father had harvested coffee. “Así
lo hizo Don Amado, se dío cuenta que cortar le acelera el paso de maduración (That’s
the way Don Amado [Danilo’s father] did it; he noticed that harvesting sped up the
ripening pace),” Danilo added.
Picking coffee is both an arduous and a skilled task. Coffee pickers must take care
not to harm the plant or the unripe fruit while individually selecting the rojito or red
cherry at its peak ripeness. 58 Las Grietas farmers hire coffee pickers from the local
community. Students are out of school during the harvest so teenage workers are
available. Some parents will bring their children along if they lack adequate childcare.
Coffee pickers who work in Fair Trade certified operations earned ten córdobas per lata
(can) of picked coffee in the 2005–2006 season. This is equivalent to US$ 0.45 per five-
58 The term rojito is commonly used in development and training contexts to indicate the
stage at which farmers should pick their fruit, even though not all varieties ripen to a rich,
dark red. Several Arabica varieties ripen to a bright yellow. Nevertheless, the phrase solo
el rojito is used by farmers to exhort their pickers to select the ripest and juiciest fruits.
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