Guadalupe Gordillo Reyes’s farm, La Poza, is located in the Nuevo Paraiso community in the Mexican state of Chiapas, 5.5 hours from the Chiapas airport.
La Poza (Spanish for “The Pond,” after the pond that lies in the middle of La Poza) has an area of 4 hectares planted with Typica, Marago, and Costa Rica varieties. For shade and nitrogen retention she uses the native leguminous ice cream bean tree. For fertilizer she composts using coffee pulp.
Guadalupe has worked hard all her life to improve the productivity and quality of her farm. She and her husband divide labor and are both highly invested in improving their craft whenever the opportunity arises. Guadalupe knows that the best path forward is to study agroforestry techniques, which is why she always pays close attention to the training provided by field technicians and never misses a session.
Alongside coffee, La Poza also produces beans, corn, and fruits for family consumption. The farm has road access, so the bags of coffee are transported via truck hired for harvest time.
The Nuevo Paraiso community where Guadalupe lives is relatively close to large cities (only 4 hours from the Chiapas airport). One thing that makes Nuevo Paraiso different from the surrounding communities is that the majority of its coffee producers are women.
In recent decades, Nuevo Paraiso has suffered a massive migration of its male inhabitants to other countries in search of better job opportunities, leaving their wives and children on the farms. It’s very common today to see women managing the farms and raising their children alone. At first, this was a huge challenge, but over time it became clear that this was a task that they would excel at.
Nuevo Paraiso is characterized by its mountainous, high, but moderately flat terrain. Due to this, most farms have road access. Producers in the area usually either transport their coffees in their own cars, hire communal trucks to transport the coffee collectively, or call the collection centers to send a collection unit.
Nuevo Paraiso is located between 1400 and 1600 meters above sea level, and the predominant varieties in the area are Bourbon, Marsellesa, and Costa Rica. The producers’ farms are mostly located next to their houses. They also usually house their washing and drying stations in their homes.
