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

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the help of community development NGOs. Its purpose was to support the agrarian cooperatives that were no longer receiving state funding. The other service and export co- ops in San Juan function similarly. The UCPCO began with the assistance of NGOs in 1992. Similar to UCA, UCPCO reorganized abandoned Sandinista Agricultural Cooperatives (CAS) from the revolutionary period. UCPCO is unique in that it seeks funding independent of transnational export firms. It receives direct financing from the buyers or from nonprofit development organizations such as EcoLogics Development Fund of Cambridge, Massachusetts. UCPCO dismissed its entire board of directors just before our arrival in San Juan. They were found to have embezzled and committed fraud. The UCPCO was left bankrupt and sought the support of larger farmers in order to rebuild. Nevertheless, it was able to keep the majority of its membership. The UCPCO is not an exception; all cooperatives in San Juan have at some point marred their reputations because of corruption and deceit. This behavior is pervasive in many aspects of Nicaraguan life. In December 2003, the former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman was convicted of embezzling international aid that was sent to Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch. I will revisit the theme of corruption below. Corcasan is the oldest existing cooperative in San Juan. It was formed in the 1960s to help smaller coffee farmers access farm inputs and lines of credit. Corcasan’s administrative building was attacked during the Sandinista insurrection for supposed ties to the Somoza regime. Today, Corcasan tends toward the pro-U.S., Liberal faction of the national government. In my experience, Corcasan is the best-equipped cooperative in San Juan. They receive ample support from state agencies and their exporter is a Nicaraguan 204
firm, CISA/AGRO. Corcasan has its own dry processing plant, a coffee cupping lab, vast storage facilities, and a fleet of technicians who travel in pickups and on motorcycles. Corcasan was managing a coffee quality development project funded by the Instituto de Desarrollo Rural (IDR) while I was there. This project funded the first internet café in San Juan. Corcasan held many trainings and public events in the community. The mayor of San Juan is a member of the cooperative, along with many prominent coffee farmers in the region. Prodeco-op is at an entirely different level than the other three local co-ops. According to unconfirmed accounts, their manager was in charge of the UCA in the early nineties. When the UCA went bankrupt because of an administrative scandal she kept her contacts and buyers and formed Prodeco-op.It is one of the two largest exporters of organic and Fair Trade coffee in Nicaragua. I was told that only a handful of farmers control the majority of the decisions. Prodeco-op is notorious for controlling interactions between outsiders and the member-farmers. Although the local co-ops were critical of Prodeco-op’s conduct, I found that they too exhibited some of the same behaviors, albeit on a smaller scale. According to Tito Rivas, general manager of the UCPCO, Prodeco-op has around 2,000 member-farmers, but only 39 delegates represent them in the cooperative’s general assembly 75 . The cooperative structure is a requirement for group organic certifcation and for exports to Fair Trade certified markets. It can be a model for community building, but it 75 The cooperative general assembly is a mandatory meeting of the entire membership It is typically mandated to be a yearly gathering as determined in the statues of articles of incorporation and by-laws of a certain co-op. Most co-ops will elect delegates to represent subsections (base-level co-ops) within the second-level co-op, thus making the actual governing body a smaller group of participating individuals. 205
Page 1 and 2:
Patrick W. Staib Candidate Anthropo
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COFFEE AND THE COUNTRYSIDE: SMALL F
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I heartily acknowle
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Informal Economy in San Juan del R
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Preface La sabiduria y la constante
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aftershocks of a war in this commun
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This chapter brings the reader into
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Introduction: The Fieldwork I first
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I had visited Matagalpa in 2000, wh
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agricultural extension agents 3 in
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Figure 1. Map of Nicaragua showing
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Nevertheless, San Juan was the idea
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Telpaneca today is a depressed muni
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Figure 2. Electoral map of San Juan
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espondents reported that at least o
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In my experience assisting small-sc
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fieldwork, including surveying, int
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crop aggregation meeting simply bec
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The following chapters are an overv
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Don Amado raised his family of six
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once-bustling colonial center of Nu
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One afternoon, while sitting on his
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Chapter 1 Regional Identity Formati
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Vásquez’ records indicate that t
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The native Segovians apparently coo
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The role of native Segovians was ke
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thousands 22 of passengers to Nicar
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The Pueblos de Indios stood in the
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industry leader and an advocate for
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The mid to late 1980s proved to be
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The Indigenous Revolt of 1881 and I
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These communities appear to have es
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sectors of society forced rural com
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Nationalist writers Gámez (1889),
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San Juan farmers’ understandings
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Sandinista Revolution made signific
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Sandino’s Influential Rebellion A
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Migrant workers in the Babilonia go
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In an ironic turn of events, the Sa
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Somoza regime and U.S. economic and
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The high ideals of the Sandinista r
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three special zones. Las Segovias,
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economic activity for rural communi
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Over time, some members wanted to g
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Chapter 3 Personal Histories of Agr
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to talk about the confiscation of S
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mountains, El Malacate, El Majaste,
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transport between Samarkanda and Sa
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high-altitude farmland. Don Mundo,
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areas. The Contras were former Guar
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effort. As Don Ramón put it, “la
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The project was called Huertos Fami
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who is president of the Carlos Fons
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Part Two Development: International
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I consider how organic coffee fits
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Small-Scale Agrarian Communities, D
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Although the ideological justificat
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(Richards 1985; Dennis 1987). Latin
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dominated much of Third World expor
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depleting natural resources or degr
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communities experience tensions and
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I sat in and helped facilitate seve
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urning. When the wind was calm, our
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Marvin was involved with a rural en
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Hurricane Mitch and the Internation
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Conclusion Because the plant and th
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The Farmers of Las Grietas Upon mee
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stonemason and carpenter for local
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for work in the past five years? If
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for Danilo, but not as closely as w
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The lives of these three families h
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Adrian was able to invest in a bene
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employee dormitories. The large far
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Wiwilí. Danilo had to show proof o
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in Nicaragua, and I encountered it
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from the training in production tec
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farmers who receive pre-harvest fin
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award committee, in 2003 and 2004.
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time farm staff. Danilo, on the oth
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were able to accumulate large tract
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natural resources, to conserve, pro
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The growers share a collective resp
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Danilo, Maragojipe does not thrive
Page 167 and 168: In August and September, farmers fo
Page 169 and 170: gallon bucket of coffee cherries, a
Page 171 and 172: section with smaller Catuaí plants
Page 173 and 174: The beans turn from a pale green to
Page 175 and 176: Rainforest Alliance and the Audubon
Page 177 and 178: Figure 5. Depulping coffee with mot
Page 179 and 180: engañar facilmente (They [the brok
Page 181 and 182: farmers are not adept at these proc
Page 183 and 184: The International Cup of Excellence
Page 185 and 186: Organic Farming Responsibilities In
Page 187 and 188: The Nicaraguan Rural Development In
Page 189 and 190: unsuccessfully combated, can only b
Page 191 and 192: Organic Fertilizers Many coffee far
Page 193 and 194: community. This means, for example,
Page 195 and 196: application. Most farmers had not e
Page 197 and 198: They returned that evening empty-ha
Page 199 and 200: Danilo’s fields as we talked with
Page 201 and 202: converting to organic production. H
Page 203 and 204: in their cooperative and communitie
Page 205 and 206: organizational strategies present m
Page 207 and 208: Part Three Outcomes: Cooperative Or
Page 209 and 210: organizational models that have bee
Page 211 and 212: coffee farmer, and José Manuel Mor
Page 213 and 214: El estado cuenta con nosotros porqu
Page 215 and 216: company” (la empresa) when talkin
Page 217: their estimated yield should cover
Page 221 and 222: earning higher prices for their far
Page 223 and 224: funding package. Corcasan brought i
Page 225 and 226: The credit model from banks and mic
Page 227 and 228: green coffee that weighed 412 quint
Page 229 and 230: This is not an exact measurement, b
Page 231 and 232: only for a few select farmers. That
Page 233 and 234: Tito is Heberto’s oldest son. He
Page 235 and 236: Towards the end of my fieldwork the
Page 237 and 238: Danilo received several of the bene
Page 239 and 240: prohibited on this farm).” Some f
Page 241 and 242: One afternoon in August 2006, near
Page 243 and 244: single gas station in San Juan. Bro
Page 245 and 246: camp, was only 30 kilometers away.
Page 247 and 248: emote parts of the community to fin
Page 249 and 250: apparently the more diligent farmer
Page 251 and 252: Chapter 8 Community-Based Campesino
Page 253 and 254: campesinos y del ecosistema. No hay
Page 255 and 256: Nosotros en la Procaoc vendemos apa
Page 257 and 258: have the capacity to supply the dem
Page 259 and 260: instructor, actually instructs farm
Page 261 and 262: transparencia (There’s problems w
Page 263 and 264: waste my time with the smaller farm
Page 265 and 266: Javier Vanegas, accountant for the
Page 267 and 268: conversation provided a foundation
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carpenter; and Jorge, the assistant
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“Nosotros [Guillermo Hernández]
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en el servicio. (They gave it to me
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The cooperative model for export ag
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day went on. The music changed to l
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would ask me about my research and
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familiar with the community of Guan
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houses and additional farmland, but
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statement was in reference to Corca
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colonial history in Chapter 1), the
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Conclusion Regional Segovian identi
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production and marketing of organic
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economic development programs. In t
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capacity of their fellow farmers. T
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encountered in trying to conserve r
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Benjamin, Medea 1987 Don’t Be Afr
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Enríquez, Laura J. 1991 Harvesting
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Guido, Clemente 1989 Los Conservado
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MAGFOR 2004 Estrategia para la reco
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Redford, Kent H. and Allyn. M. Stea
Page 309 and 310:
Turner, Terence 1991 Representing,
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Appendix EL SIGÜIENTE COMUNICADO R
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