About Edy Robles Sosa
Edy Robles Sosa has spent his entire life working with and living around coffee. Born in Cusco’s San Antonio community, he’s the son of coffee producer Marcelino Robles. He learned the art and science of producing fine coffee on the family farm Yanamonte (Quechua for “Black Mountain”). After years of hard work, he bought 4 hectares of land in front of his parents’ farm where he now grows his own coffee, focusing on the Bourbon, Typica, and Caturra varieties.
The community of San Antonio where Edy lives is a very remote part of the Peruvian Andes. To get to this community we have to fly to the city of Cusco, then travel by truck on a network of dirt roads for 8 hours to the road that connects San Antonio with other neighboring communities. From there, we walk another hour, steeply uphill, to Edy’s farm Yanamonte.
Edy manages his farm carefully. He uses different types of shade trees depending on the age of the coffee trees they co-plant with: younger trees get temporary fruit trees like avocado or citrus as shade, whereas trees over 5 years old switch to leguminous ice cream bean trees to increase nitrogen content and water retention. For fertilizer he uses island guano, phosphate rock, and organic compost made with coffee pulp and organic waste from his house. In addition to coffee he also grows corn, unchuca (an edible root native to the Andes), and cassava. He also has a donkey and other farm animals.
Edy, like his family and community, speaks Quechua. During harvest time they practice Ayni (an ancient Inca labor-share custom), allowing them to harvest communally without additional migrant labor.
Most of the houses in San Antonio are located an hour walk from the nearest road, so during harvest time producers transport their coffee via mule, horse, or foot. Edy usually uses his donkey or borrows horses or mules from his parents to transport his coffee.
During harvest, Edy’s days start at 5 am. He harvests for 2 to 3 days straight before depulping and processing. Until a few years ago, Edy didn’t have a motorized depulping machine—he and his family had to do it all manually, which took until midnight or later. The arrival of the motorized machine was a huge labor-saver.
Edy works every day in Yanamonte for one reason: to give the best possible education to his daughters (5 and 2 years old). They are why he and his wife decided she would move with their daughters to the city of Calca (4 hours from San Antonio) for better schools, telephone signal, and internet. Edy visits them every weekend and whenever else he has free time. Although it’s difficult for him to live away from his family, he knows that it’s the right decision for their future. 
