Interview with Don Fidel
Rigoberto, the local coordinator for the Coffee Diversification Project in Mexico, sat down and interviewed Don Fidel, a producer and member of coffee cooperative CESMACH. Don Fidel speaks about his experience in the past farmer exchange in Nicaragua and what he looks forward to in hosting the upcoming exchange in Chiapas.
Good Afternoon we are here with Mr. Fidel, a producer from the community Laguna del Cofre. He participated in the intercambio that happened in November in Nicaragua. We are here to have a little chat to ask what impacted you most about your visit to Nicaragua?
What I liked the most about being there is that our brothers in Nicaragua are very well organized, they are in a collective. They know that when they are organized the work of the community is better. This is what I really liked and what I brought back because I want to create that here in the community. It is something that we are following up on and working on doing here at CESMACH.
What activities from your counterparts in Nicaragua grabbed your attention?
There way they produce coffee, banana, chayote and vegetables and their use of organic compost really impressed me and is something we are putting into practice here in the community and the organization.
Coming up, your partners from Nicaragua are going to visit Mexico. Now that you are ready and responsible for hosting, what do you want to share?
What I want to share is that we are also starting to form our organization within ‘la Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo’. This is what I want to share with them and how we can begin to form within us as partners of CESMACH talking about our coffee. I have promised to talk to them about the anxieties in forming CESMACH, to talk to them about why we organized, who were those that invited us to organize, who visited us, who gave us the tools and the money to start. This is what we want to share with them, how we formed the organization of CESMACH with three small communities- Cofre, Toluca and Nueva Colon, that make up CESMACH.
Also, as someone who has worked with this project and an Experimental Producer. What parts of your work do you want to share with your partners in Nicaragua?
First of all, I want to share my experience with coffee and a little bit about honey but not as much because my son is the one who primarily works with the beehives. I want to share more about how my experience with coffee changed.
Are you going to invite them to your farm?
Yes, the idea is to bring them to my plot and share.
Okay, thank you so much and thank you for sharing your time.
Thank you, we are happily waiting for our friends from Nicaragua.