MEXICO

Bella Vista is a small municipality in the heart of the Sierra of Chiapas, in the South of Mexico, bordering the country of Guatemala. Its population is that of about 2,000 people. It is filled with beautiful landscapes of green highlands and rich clay mineral soil. It is also about 200 km away from one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in Mexico, located in the Angostura Dam.

Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia, founder of Mayan Harvest Coffee, works with producers who are family and neighbors in the town of Bella Vista in order to improve their harvesting and processing practices and in return get more competitive prices for their coffee. Rosalba works tirelessly to provide a livelihood to its members by providing them with medical and dental assistance. Her organization has grown to be around 100 producers, about 60 of which are women.

She has intentionally divided her production into three coffee groups. Women’s Coffee or «Cafe de Mujeres» is a group of women farmers that reside in the municipality of Bella Vista. This sector is in the regions of La Rinconada, El Progreso, Union Progreso and Barrio Montana communities. Rosalba expressed that in the area, there is a lot of «machismo», male chauvinism, and sadly this results in women being isolated. With this project in mind, she hopes to improve the image of the women producers by promoting their work.