Getting to La Victoria is a very challenging but rewarding journey.
La Victoria is one of the highest and most remote communities in the area. The access routes usually receive very little maintenance. When we add Hurricane Agatha—which hit this area hard in 2022 causing the closure of roads, floods and landslides—getting to this area can be quite an odyssey.
Another factor that directly affects the life of this community is the lack of telephone and internet signal. Producers have to look for a signal outside of town to be able to establish any communication.
More than 10 years ago, the indigenous population in the area was very strong, as well as the native language, Mixe, but over the years, globalization and access to better job opportunities in the central cities has reduced this population to almost zero—and along with it, the original language.
La Victoria has a high level of plant diversity on the coffee farms compared to other coffee-growing areas. The producers of the area use native trees such as ice-cream bean trees and/or avocado to shade their coffee trees. These trees provide not only shade, but also various benefits such as food, ornamentation, medicine, construction materials, and water collection.
The producers from the area usually keep a distance of 2 meters between rows and 1.5 meters between seedlings. Between each row, they usually place a plant that serves to separate the rows and keep the coffee trees apart.
Other big challenge here is labor costs that have quadrupled over the last 2 years and an important component in the area is that our presence as ready and enthusiastic buyers here means we are invested in these coffees continuing to be worth it for producers, since their existence enriches the entire coffee-drinking world. We really don’t see other buyers here with any kind of consistency at a similar scale, and we see immense importance to supporting these communities’ work. These coffees are absolutely worth it, and we anticipate a continued growing recognition of that worth with each new season.
There are many obstacles for the almost 200 inhabitants of this small mountain community, but despite all, they continue to thrive. They continue making the most of the altitude and richness of their lands to produce better coffee at bigger volumes, and create better job opportunities for young people to slow down migration to the cities and intervene in the disappearance of this ancient community.
