As you know, I’ve been working on putting together episodes for my YouTube coffee channel, Behind the Beans (man I love saying that name!). In my upcoming episodes, I’m going to talk about what coffee picking is like, how a typical day goes, and then spotlight 2 or 3 of our pickers. I think it’s going to be awesome.
I have filmed quite a bit of it already. The last couple of days I have worked alongside two different pickers, filming them in action, and “interviewing” them (that alone is worth tuning in for, cause it’s all in Spanish!). It has been eye-opening and truly educational. It may have given new life to my stay here.
The first picker I filmed was Negro (just a nickname people!). He is a little man (more pequeño than me-see picture below!), 59 years old, and always in a good mood. He has picked coffee his whole life and worked in construction. As you’ll see in the video, he is very difficult to understand, even if you know Spanish, and it doesn’t appear that he makes any effort to enunciate when it’s pretty darn obvious you’re struggling. It’s actually pretty hilarious. But if you laugh too much, he’ll think you understand, which then makes you laugh even more. God bless him. He is so nice to us gals, shares his delicious sweet coffee with us in the morning, brings us candy, and even brings food for the dogs.
The second picker was Papo (again a nickname). He is 60 years old and the foreman at the farm. Again, similar story. He has been picking coffee since he was 5 and also worked in construction (he and Israel built the house I’m in right now). He’s a bit gordo and jolly, kind of like a Puerto Rican Santa Claus.
That’s just a bit of random background info. It’s pretty amazing that they are doing such physical work at their age. Even more amazing is what I learned in the interview. They both actually love picking coffee and love working. Papo called it therapy. I couldn’t actually get out of either of them a single negative comment about the work. Could it be that they really love it that much?! I was like ‘what’s the worst part?’ and they just drew a blank. Subsequently, I drew a blank. I was astonished. We girls could probably name 10 things we don’t like about it (starting with bugs, mud, and hills), but they couldn’t come up with one! There was such a genuine enthusiasm in their faces when they talked about their work.
Equally if not more interesting was their answer to “what do you think about all day when you’re picking coffee?” Both of them looked a bit confused by the question and answered “I think about picking coffee.” What? I start rattling off things that I think about, hoping to inspire a new answer, but Papo gave me nothing. Negro eventually said he thinks about having a girlfriend…ok, now that’s more like it! Then it made me think, wow, they are just so zen, so in the moment, so everything I try to be, and yet my mind goes a million places…mmm, like having a boyfriend ;)
My conversations with them have got me thinking about their work in a larger context. The passion with which they spoke about their work made me realize that what they do truly is a respectable and admirable thing. They are proud of what they do, and why shouldn’t they be? They are the reason we can drink coffee every morning. It has me thinking how sad…no, tragic… it is that we Americans really place so little value on agricultural work. In America, you’re supposed to get the best education possible and then get the highest paying white collar job you can find. Well what would happen if, in my ideal hypothetical world, we all got an education? Then what…would we all be too good to be farmers and then go starving? Or shall we just continue down this path toward more synthetic and genetically modified food?
Agriculture is the most valuable industry there is, if you base value on real wealth (food) instead of a symbol for wealth (money). And yet the farmer, especially the small farmer, continues to lose importance in our society and is even looked down upon. How have we let this happen?
I don’t really know. I am still trying to wrap my head around it, though the more I do, the more disheartened I become. Looking for answers…anyone have any?
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