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

Towards the end of my fieldwork they were awarded a development grant from the
Instituto de Desarrollo Rural (IDR) and had successfully secured buyers for their coffee.
Tito was optimistic about their ability to expand production and acquire more members.
Corcasan
Corcasan, Cooperativa Regional de Cafetaleros de San Juan del Río Coco R.L., was one
of the most first cooperatives to restructure after the electoral loss of the Sandinistas.
Corcasan reformed in 1994 with 87 small-scale and medium-scale farmers. Corcasan has
benefited from projects sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB),
USAID, and Pasa-Danida (Denmark). Corcasan’s main building, which houses
administrative office, a coffee cupping laboratory, and the centro de acopio (storage
facility), is prominently located near the entrance of San Juan. Corcasan also owns a
beneficio húmedo on the east side of town, on the road heading to Quilalí. They also have
a beneficio seco in Palacagüina.
Danilo Gonzáles was a member of Corcasan when we first met in 2001. He later
explained to me that the Corcasan had operated since before the Sandinista period and
tended to serve the wealthier class of coffee farmers in the region. According to him,
Sandinista insurrectionists attacked the Corcasan headquarters repeatedly. While UCPCO
and UCA are predominantly Sandinista organizations, Corcasan is predominantly
Liberal. 81 Unlike most of the other second-tier cooperatives, Corcasan did not form to
support the Sandinista era agrarian co-ops. This may be why Corcasan received
81 “Liberals” refers to members or sympathizers of the PLC (Partido Liberal
Constitucional). The two presidents after Doña Violeta, Arnoldo Aleman and Enrique
Bolaños, were Liberal. This was also the party of the Somoza regime.
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