The Tular Mines

"Formally, we are from two communities: Las Minas and El Tular. But since our communities are very small, and very close, in reality it is only one: Las Minas Tular."

We are located beyond Mercedes, the municipality where Cafesmo is located. It is an isolated area, covered in pine forests, in the middle of which are our coffee farms, and obviously our hamlets as well.

The hamlet of Las Minas is the smallest. There are only eight houses and 25 inhabitants. We all work in coffee farming. El Tular is larger. There are a few shops there for buying basic necessities, and also the primary school where the children from both communities attend. The children from Las Minas walk about 40 minutes to get there. To go to college, the young people have to travel to Mercedes, or even to San Marcos for technical or vocational studies.

Although most young people prefer to stay with their families and work in the fields, we have very strong bonds within our communities; we are very close-knit. This dependence on one another greatly contributes to creating an atmosphere of peace and harmony. We celebrate birthdays together, and recently we had three weddings. We don't have a pastor or priest in our community, so we organize Mass together.

But we spend most of our time in our other temple: the natural temple of our farms. We work hard. Our work is tough and requires a lot of effort, a lot of discipline, and long hours. The mountains in the area are steep; it's not easy to get the coffee out. There isn't much labor available, so we have to do all the work ourselves, even during harvest time. And it's cold in the pine forest. Summertime is pleasant, but when it rains, during the rainy season, we sometimes suffer from the weather.

However, we don't complain. On the contrary. We don't have a boss giving us instructions, we're never stuck in traffic, we never have to sit in an office for long hours without being able to move. Ours is pure freedom. We breathe fresh, clean air, and we always take our time to eat peacefully because we live in harmony with the gentle rhythm of nature and our biological clock.

We also have many fruit trees. In the forest where the coffee grows, we don't need them for shade, but we grow the fruit for our own consumption. Similarly, we have some cows, some pigs, and of course chickens. We keep the chickens for eggs and chicken meat as well.

The cool climate of our forests provides an excellent environment for producing high-quality coffee. The beans ripen more slowly, and there's less need for solar or mechanical dryers during the drying process. We regularly combine our coffee at Cafesmo to prepare consistent, high-quality batches. This allows us to join forces and present ourselves as a group, thus expanding our options for consolidating and selling our product.