Q'ejna

Angelina Mendez

Small-scale producer

Angelina Mendez Torres is a first-generation coffee producer in Concepcion Huista in the Huehuetenango region. She produces coffee on her land Q’ejna which means “old house” in the local indigenous language Mam. Many other farms also in the area are named similarly due to a few old houses which used to be housed by soldiers and which still remain on these lands. During the harvest Angelina makes sure that only the ripe cherries are picked, which means she needs to make two separate picking passes on her farm. The floaters are separated from the cherries which are then depulped on the same day as they have been picked. The coffee is fermented in tubs for 36 hours and washed. The coffee is then again left to soak in clean water for 10 more hours and eventually dried on patio for six days. “I was born and grew up in a family where our financial situation was difficult and from the age of 15 I had to migrate to other places for three years. After, I was able to buy my land but didn’t have the resources to plant the land right after. Later I was able to do it through the support and the microcredit from the cooperative I am part of”, explains Angelina. Angelina is part of the cooperative El Sendero which provides coffee producers support and information around Concepcion Huista in the Huehuetenango region. The cooperative was formed in 2016 and it has 196 coffee producing members of which 62 are women and 134 are men. The cooperative focuses on gender equality within coffee producers and supports especially young coffee producers. Angelina says, “Because I am a woman and from a Mayan heritage speaking Popti language, it has been very hard for me to train and learn more about producing coffee. But through the help from the cooperative I have been able to learn more and train myself in different areas to be able to also sell my coffee.”