Elmer Mancía Lemus, Finca El Mojón

As a child, I helped my father, and later I worked with him full-time. My father had his own small plot of land, so I'm a second-generation coffee farmer.

Now, I work with my own family. I have a wife and three children. The boys, as well as my wife, help out when they can, especially during harvest season. We pick the coffee together, and while I continue working the land, my wife and children focus on the drying process during the day, when I'm not there.

They also help me throughout the entire process before I take the coffee to Cafesmo. I feel fortunate to have my family, because without them I wouldn't be able to dedicate enough time to processing quality coffee. I would simply harvest the entire crop and take it to a cooperative in bulk.

I'm very proud of my family, and I also hope that at least one of my children will continue working with me until I retire and take over the farm. The farm is our source of income, but it's actually much more than that. Coffee is our livelihood and our passion, all in one. It also allows other people to earn an income when they come to pick the beans during the peak of the harvest season.

When we've worked hard all year, and then we find out that a roaster somewhere in a faraway land has bought some of our coffee, we're filled with pride, and sometimes I try to imagine the people enjoying a cup. Maybe they're sitting by a fireplace because it's unimaginably cold where they live. Or maybe they're sitting on their porch, enjoying the sunset.

Although I don't know them, and although we probably wouldn't understand a word of each other's language, I'm sure we'd have a great time sharing a cup of my coffee at a café near their house, wherever in the world they live. Coffee connects us; coffee helps us forge a bond, regardless of culture or origin.

My wish for the future is to continue improving the facilities on my farm, because that will help me grow even better coffee, and that, in turn, means a more sustainable source of income for my own family and for the next generation.