| Antonio is a grown man, many years past the age of his retirement, but his love for coffee and the land on which it grows drives him to continue working. “I am from Aguadas, Caldas, and was brought [to this plantation] by an uncle when I was 18 years old,” he told me. “I was illiterate and learned to sign my name when I was 22, with a teacher who taught me at night.” Today, Antonio is the manager of a beautiful coffee farm.
When he first arrived at the plantation, Antonio learned to handpick coffee and tend to the mules that transport the fruit. His uncle moved from the area shortly after he brought Antonio there, and left the boy behind with the new farm owners. While he and the owners got to know each other, Antonio continued picking coffee and tending to the mules. But the new owners had problems with the farm, and sold it. However, they recommended Antonio to the next owners, and he continued working hard and learning as much as he could about growing coffee.
After a while, Antonio married and had three children who grew up with him in the coffee fields. As his children grew, Antonio continued progressing in his job, eventually becoming the boss and driving a jeep. He taught his children how to drive and perform all of the tasks he knew how to do. “I would take them out to drive the jeep when they were 8 or 9; I loaded the car with wood and went out…and I would run into my boss who would ask if they had a driver’s license…when I least expected it he would show up and would reprimand me, but thank God nothing eventful happened while we drove around these slopes.” Antonio loves this land. He studies it carefully, and schedules the plantings and socas, or cuttings, according to the phases of the moon. And he has learned from nature while cultivating the coffee, which has led him to employ agricultural biodiversity. He says that is why there are no large ant hills or pests in his coffee bushes. In addition to coffee, he grows trees and other crops, such as plantains, oranges, tangerines, lemons, Peruvian guava trees, passion fruit, corn, potatoes, and yucca. |
He farms because he enjoys it, and because he knows that the fruits of the crops provide his family and the workers with their daily sustenance and the ingredients for refreshing beverages after a hard day’s work. The workers who tend to the coffee live among the crops in white houses with red doors, a bounty of flowers, and impeccable kitchens. Coffee pickers work Monday through Friday, and on weekends they go into town to visit their families, have fun, and rest. When we arrive at the matarratón trees on a hill above a schoolhouse, Antonio continues his story. “When the time came to send the first [son] to the army, my wife cried,” he says. “I was happy. I told myself, ‘Let them take him away and send him back a man, and teach him to be brave.’” He speaks happily about his children until he mentions his third-born child, and lowers his voice to talk about the motorcycle accident that killed his son a few months ago. I am accompanied by my daughter, Isabella, who is helping me take pictures, and I feel pain in the bottom of my heart. All of sudden, a cell phone rings. For the first time that I’ve ever witnessed, this small device that has meddled so much with our lives rings at the perfect time, snapping Antonio back to life and happiness. It’s his son-in-law asking if Antonio can come by and pick up him and his son. One can tell that Antonio likes to help others, and with a big smile he replies that he will pick them up shortly. After his three-year-old grandson and son-in-law join us, we continue talking and taking pictures of the coffee bushes. Once night falls, Antonio muses that, at his sixty-some years, he is healthy because “here [on the coffee lands], I get up at 5:30 and walk. The days go by without me noticing I don’t even feel the weeks. Sometimes, I don’t even feel like going home. This land means everything to me.” |
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