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

waste my time with the smaller farmers because they barely produce and don’t
sustain the organization.)
Doña Rosa replied, “Es la idiosyncracia de los productores. (It’s the idiosyncrasy
of the farmers.)
“No,” replied Santos, “¡es la indio-syncracia de los productores! (No, it’s the
indio-syncrasy of the farmers.)
No one replied. Santos’ racist play on words was indicative of his prejudice
against indigeneity and campesinos alike. Santos’ racially oriented remarks reflect a
general sentiment among the educated and affluent classes of the region that campesinos
are ignorant and unmotivated, that those characteristics are ‘indio,’ and that the Agrarian
Reform of the Sandinista era only made them more dependent on government support
and international aid. In my opinion, in order for alternative or sustainable development
to gain acceptance in this region, it must work to break down traditional hierarchies and
racist attitudes, rather than reinforce them.
El Naranjo Preschool Project: A Case Study of Social Premium Funds
After the 2003–2004 harvest season, the UCA general assembly voted to invest their
social premium funds from the export of Fair Trade certified coffee in the construction of
a preschool at El Naranjo. The UCA’s social premium fund for that season’s Fair Trade
export was US$5,000—5% of the total value of fair-trade-certified coffee sold.
According to Napoleon Polanco, the UCA president at the time, “Es la comunidad más
pobre de la UCA. Decidimos brindarles este bien para mejorar el nivel de vida de su
juventud. (It’s the poorest community in the UCA. We decided to give them this asset to
improve living conditions for the youth.)”
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