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 populationis that of about 2,000 people. It is lled 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 inthe Angostura Dam.

Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia, founder of Mayan Harvest Co ee, works with producers who are family and neighbors in the town of Bella Vista inorder to improve their harvesting and processing practices and in returnget more competitive prices for their co ee. 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 co ee groups. Women’s Co ee or “Cafe de Mujeres” is a group of women farmers thatreside 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.