The Little Coffee Co-op that Could!

Out of the tragedy of the massacre in the small indigenous town of Acteal in Chiapas, Mexico in 1997, Las Abejas (an indigenous Christian pacifist organization) did not respond with revenge but instead an increased single minded commitment to resistance and creating alternatives. Among the many projects they started maybe the most successful is their coffee co-op known as MayaVinic (Mayan Man). The men in their culture harvest the coffee while the women focus on handmade artisanry. The women’s co-op is known as MayaAntsetik (Mayan Woman).

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A Time to Care

The first time I went was Holy Week, 2000. Some of us visited Tzajalchen, a remote mountain community of a few hundred indigenous people who had lost family and friends in a Dec. 23, 1997, massacre. On that day they heard the gunfire on mountainsides across the valley. Hours later their worst fears were confirmed. Even so, they were resolutely committed to nonviolence. Though agreeing with the Zapatista objectives, they shunned weapons. They called themselves the civil society of Las Abejas (The Bees). Like bees in a highly functioning community around their queen, so, they reasoned, were they around their Divine Queen.

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