Sierra Negra Community Washed

Diana Rivera Castro’s father collected coffee from the Nahuatl communities in Sierra Negra, Puebla. As a child she would ride the truck with her father and get to know all the families. As she grew up she got interested in roasting, cupping, and agronomy. After school she applied for and got hired by the state as a community coffee technician in charge of organizing and supporting three different ‘field schools’ throughout her region. Ojo de Agua, La Cubmbre and La Guacamaya. Since her involvement these groups have come together to export their coffee for the first time in 2023 under the Good Coffee Program, after which they formed into a cooperative.

Before coffee, to support their families, members of these communities would migrate each year to the border to work in agriculture—staying for months at a time to work in the fields, often receiving less pay than they were owed. By investing their savings to renovate 50-year old coffee plantations they inherited from their parents and grandparents with the rust-resistant Costa Rica 95 cultivar, these young people hoped to generate enough income to improve their quality of life and support their families without having to migrate north each year. In 2020, the group joined the equipment program by the Rural Development Secretariat, where they were able to obtain mowers, pulpers, and drying tunnels as well as participate in the field school, where they received processing training. In 2021, they participated in the Puebla of Pride quality competition for the first time. In 2022, their coffees scored among the 30 best in the competition. By 2023, this small group of young people who years ago had no knowledge of coffee production occupied 6 of the 10 best lots in the competition with coffees scoring as high as 90.25 points. Today, as a result of their investment in their coffee production, these young people no longer separate from their families to migrate for income.