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

crop aggregation meeting simply because I could give the cooperative president and
agronomist a ride to Quilalí. Another time I felt very fortunate to be able to assist Danilo
González’ father, Don Amado, after he had suffered a stroke. Danilo had to pay someone
to drive his father to Estelí for the initial emergency care because we were not available.
It cost him 800 córdobas ($50 US at that time). I drove Don Amado to his follow-up
visits while he was still mostly paralyzed and without speech. We made four trips to his
doctor in Estelí as he progressively improved. Don Amado later told me that he would
have died if he had had to take the bus to those appointments. Not only was I moved by
his gratitude, I was happy to provide help without cost to Danilo’s family because he
never accepted payment for us to stay in his house or on his farm.
At first, it was cumbersome getting acclimated this setting. However, over time I
realized that conviviendo (cohabitating) 13 meant experiencing the richness of Las Grietas
farmers’ lives. I carried a waterproof notebook and pencil wherever I went since much of
my data was collected while drinking beer with farmers at nine in the morning as they
picked, washed, and dried coffee. In the end, I was able to assist in community
development projects, cooperative general assemblies, internal inspection visits, direct
marketing of organic coffee to buyers in the United States, and defending a nearby farmer
community from illegal land seizure. All the while I was concerned that I was not doing
what I needed to be doing in terms of my research. What I came to realize was that this
involvement in the community and with individuals’ lives was the core of my research.
13 Conviviendo is the term that community members used in response to my explanation
of this research project. There is a long history of outsider activity in this community.
The small farmers of San Juan del Río Coco have experienced outsiders conviviendo in
their community during the Sandinista Literacy Crusade, the student-led coffee
harvesting battalions, and of course, the insurrections since Sandino.
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