SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi, hello and howdy, and welcome back to Tiny Sidecar. I'm Kate, your host in the Sidecar Sidekick. This episode centers around women in coffee. Full stop. Women doing the work, leading, producing, building, and holding this industry together, often without the credit or the mic. You'll hear this conversation in both English and Spanish, because women deserve to tell their stories in the language that feels right to them. If you're not fluent in both, I recommend having Google Translate ready. There's a live conversation feature in the app that can translate in real time as the episode plays, so you can follow along without losing the meaning. You don't need to understand every single word to understand the power here. Listening, really listening, is a part of showing up. So grab your coffee, make a little space, and let's hear from the women shaping coffee from the inside out. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

So my name is Lucia Bewa. Um Colombian woman with uh coffee roots in my blood, even though I think that hasn't marked my coffee journey. And I basically have spent more than 12 years, uh like I had the privilege to spend more than 12 years documenting stories of coffee families uh throughout Central and South America. And yeah, I think when the whole journey began, I didn't believe that I was really fortunate and that I was getting an opportunity that I think not so many people have. And right now, like we're in 2025, and I think I have documented more than 500 stories of coffee families. And uh and now I realize like what a responsibility I had in my hands, my eyes, and yeah, I'm grateful, grateful to be able to be that person, to bridge those stories with consumers. And yeah, this industry has has changed changed me. So it's funny because I I come from a coffee family on my mom's side, and when I was born, uh my grandfather had already passed, my grandmother was alive, but they were no longer coffee farmers. So I think like I never thought of myself as like I'm also a farmer. I come from coffee until I started working on my book with Belong. So when I started working on my book with Belong, I first thought the book was gonna be only photos because I'm a purist and I'm a photographer. I was like, no way, like a photo can tell everything, I don't need stories. Uh but really soon I realized that how important it was to give some context to the names and the photos and the content and the spaces that I was documenting. And remember coming back from one of the trips and sitting at a coffee shop, kind of digesting the interviews and kind of like categorizing the different stories. And there was a particular story, it's the first one in the book, the name of the farmer is Juana Ramirez. And I kept reading and reading and reading my notes of that interview, and I was like, this story sounds really familiar to me. Like that why? So I kept reading and reading and I realized that it was the story of my grandmother. And that was a pivotal moment for me, uh, because I feel like I didn't have like a the right motivation behind the book, and I was losing that momentum at that point. Uh and then when that happened, and I realized like, oh my god, like my grandmother was a coffee picker, my grandmother was a coffee farmer, my mom comes from coffee, I come from coffee. Um, I think that that gave me a whole new appreciation for the women in my family, my mother's side, and but also disappointment. I remember calling my mom immediately and kind of like yelling at her and saying, like, why haven't we talked about my grandmother's story? Why haven't we we haven't given her like the spotlight? It's always been about my grandfather because my grandfather founded a town and he was like the the guy, the inspiring guy. And so so yeah, so talking about inspiring women in coffee, I think funny enough, even though I've been to so many farms, I've seen the faces of all these humans for hours editing photos, I think the person that really inspires me in coffee is my grandmother. Because I feel like um her story represents a lot of the stories of women in coffee, not only farmers, of having so many unfulfilled dreams. Not because she couldn't pursue them herself, but because she was not allowed to pursue those dreams. And just being able to myself to pursue whatever I want, speak the way I want, go wherever I want, I feel like we we should be also thankful for our ancestors, women and men, uh, because I think they they've been through a lot of things and we don't realize that I think sometimes we just focus on the bad stuff that is happening in the world. But but I think right now is a good moment to be alive, to be a human, and and that we have way more privilege than a lot of the women that were before us had, and and that they're in our bodies still. And it is our responsibility to honor that, to do what they couldn't do. And and for my grandmother, her her whole dream was to be a teacher. And and I feel like what I do now in coffee is not teaching, but I I feel like I'm educating at a different in a different way. So so I kind of feel like I fulfilled my grandmother's dream. And hopefully she like she's not proud, but I think hopefully she is like looking down and saying that okay, you did what you wanted and you pursue this. And and look at you, you're the only person that works in coffee in a family of 20 children. Uh I think we're more than 500 cousins, and I'm the only one working in coffee. Um yeah, I I now can call myself a coffee coffee coffee farmer too, I think. Even though I was not able to see those farms, pick pick that coffee. Uh I think what I do now is honoring um that tradition in a different way. Um yeah, I I feel like we talk about the the power of women in our industry. But I feel like it's not about the gender, I think. I for me I think it's the power of this industry is the is the human connections, the human experiences, and I think this is what keeps coffee so interesting. There's so many issues, sometimes it seems like everyone is everything is going downhill for coffee. But I think because of the energy of all these humans, that for whatever reason they ended up working in coffee, loving this product so much, we just make it work. And I think that is especially you don't see that in other industries. And and I don't think anyone will be able to define why there is such a passion from this little cherry that for whatever reason, like we all find ways to connect, to grow, transform, pursue our own dreams and endeavors. And yeah, no, I'm I'm grateful, grateful to be here, surrounded by all these women. And and thank you for letting us speak and giving us this like freedom of saying whatever we want. I think like it's not common, right? We're always asked questions. It's always like you have like a guideline of what you need to respond. So it's really nice to be able just to like let the thoughts out. So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Mira, my name is Irene Martínez Pascual. Soy de una comunidad indígena de la ciudad de Oaxaca, but oficial que se llama Sierra Norte. Es una región que es más o menos como esta. It's a zona donde todavía se habla el zapoteco. Ahí la mayoría ofers casi no hablan español, the mayor habla zapoteco. Nosotros llegamos, mi mamá is de esa region, but it's more pequeñas. Primero vivíamos in the city of Oaxaca y migramos para el pueblo de mi mamá debido a distinto problemas. It was como nos acercamos a lo del campo y todo esto. El fuerte de ahí is el café. Then se cultiva lo que es el maíz, el frijol, pero nada más es para un consumo, no como tal para vender oro, solo es consumo. Lo que de cierta manera les genera dinero es el café, pero se paga de una manera muy injusta porque lo venden a muy bajo costo por los ya llamados coyotes. Andas personas no les pagan lo que es el precio de lo que conlleva todo el proceso del café, porque pues ahí todavía lo hacen de una manera como se dice artesanal. And a los cafetales, ninguno es como que te voy a pagar o esto. Ninguno, la mayoría casi no va por paga porque ahí no hay mucho flujo de dinero. Y por lo que ahí hay algo que se, bueno, yo creo que gran parte del país se le llama gozona. Gozona. Y la gozona consiste en que yo voy a trabajar para ti y cuando yo necesite, tú vas a trabajar para mí. Un intercambio, pues. El llamado trueque. True. Y este, pero ahí se le dice gozona. Y ya esto, este, es que la manera en que ahí se intercambia el trabajo. O sea, este, y lo algo muy triste que pasa ahí es que también mandan a los niños a trabajar porque pues muchos no van a la escuela o sienten que no aprenden o todo este tipo de cosas. Por lo que muchos niños dicen, no, pues yo para qué? O me voy a la ciudad o me voy a Estados Unidos. Nada más estoy trabajando aquí un ratito en lo que junto dinero y ya me voy. La mayoría que están ahorita en los cafetales y así, pues son mujeres ahí. Y ahí las pocas personas que llegan a tener dinero para poder pagarle a un pelo, pues a las mujeres les pagan 75 pesos. Una persona que es muy de que adinerada, 100 pesos a una mujer. A los hombres ya se les paga 150 por día. La jornada laboral se les paga 250 pesos. Y pues esto nada más es para comprar una despensa muy muy básica. Ahí en la mayoría todavía hay casitas de casitas de aboble, de lámina, todo es todavía muy rústico, por decirlo así. Y pues nosotras nos tocó ir a los cafetales como tal, no como trabajadoras, gracias a Dios, pero sí como de que íbamos a acompañar a nuestras mamás para que puedan ir a cortar el café. Andas, al notar esposos, aunque sus esposas are in Stato Union, they can have all the process to llevarlockales to their cases. And ahí todavía está lo que es el molino manual para desculpa. Ay la fermentación is in cajas de madera, en cajas de madera muy grandes anders. The process de secado and all this. Y pues las personas con tal de ganar un poquito de dinero, pues in su desesperación lo terminan vendiendo. El costo ya la bajo, lo terminan malbaratando mucho más. Así que es una parte algo pues algo fuerte y bastante problemática in eso. Y más in my community, porque hay otras comunidades que ya como que dicen, como que no se dejan, pues, porque ya hablan más español, ya están un poco más civilizados, digamos así, por así decirlo. Pero pues, pero lo que es mi comunidad todavía son bastantes personas que muchas no hablan español. Las abuelitas todavía siguen usando su traje típico, es Messi. Y pues es así como de que con tal de tener algo, pues llévatelo. Y pues abusan mucho de que todavía son pues de una certain maneira ignorante these personas, to defending what is your pages in a manner just and a bit inspired by all the community and all this, a me llamó bastante lo que es el campo and a un punto social and. And when I encontré what is my university, I stopped in the carrier of ingeniero agronomous but specifically in desarrollo rural. And my carrier is in focus tanto in lo social but in the campus. This is my history.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Now I don't think I said this in the beginning, but the conversations that you're hearing today actually all happened back to back to back. And as you're listening through these and hearing these women speak, I hope you understand how lucky I feel that I got to hear all three of them one more to come. Like in that way, because each of their stories was so special and has brought me a lot of joy, but also understanding, and especially the last story, understanding the challenges of not speaking the uh more eloquent language and what that does to a community, and how that has uh changed her life, and how her direction of her life is just on a completely different path. And each one of these women has such an important story to tell. Now the last woman that we're gonna be hearing from today, um this was more conversational back and forth between me and her at a point. And you can hear me asking questions. So it's going to sound a little bit choppy where she'll stop with a sentence and then she'll start again after answering a question for me. So it's a little choppy, but I do think that all of the pieces together definitely make sense, and you'll get it. But on to our last woman of the day.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Hello, my name is Flor Coggy and I'm from Costa Rica. My current role in coffee, um maybe there is not just one word that can describe it, because I work in different parts of the coffee supply chain. But I will say maybe the main one now is I'm a coffee producer. I'm a coffee producer in Costa Rica in a not very well-known region called Orosi. And I have started this farm just um three harvests ago. And I started this uh with my parents. And I started this farm, I transformed it from squash to coffee. It used to be a squash farm, but um I before that I went also to um tell my backstory for understanding why it was transformed into squash. Um I used to live in South Korea for almost 10 years. I did my I studied Korean and also I did my graduate university in Korea. And then I started working in a coffee importing company. And I started with a role more connected to communication with producers and exporters, and then I get interest in coffee quality, and then I was more in charge of the quality control team. I also got the key grader instruction, and I was like more focused on quality control, but I never saw myself living in Korea for my whole life, and at some point I wanted to come back to Costa Rica, so I was like preparing myself. Like, what should I do? What can I do that can sort of connect my experience in Korea and connect that in Costa Rica? So coffee is the is the thing that kind of also connects me to my origin while I was in Korea because when I went to a coffee shop and I said, Oh, coffee from Costa Rica, so I'm like, oh yeah, feels like it's home, like something I can relate to. It's like a very different culture. So coffee was one thing that kind of filled the relationship with my origin. So when I decided to move back, then we have this land that we were like harvesting a squash, and then we decided to transform to coffee. Uh and now my parents are also involved in coffee. Sometimes something funny is that sometimes my dad is like in the couch watching like his phone, and I ask like, What are you watching? and he's like watching YouTube videos of how to process coffee. Or so it's it's like really beautiful to share this project with them after being separated for 10 years. So we are now kind of sharing adulthood in a very different way, and coffee has been that that bridge that connects me with a lot of different people that sometimes it's very hard to relate. Um and yeah, so the squash farm transforming to coffee, it has uh we found it has like two um meanings or two like positive things to mix the squash with the coffee. One is that the squash took kind of a shade. Um it's not trees. I don't know the name in English, but in Spanish it's enredadera, it's like it grows like like a ceiling, and below we have shade, and we have like um some columns that support these like leaves and the squash. So in the bottom there is a space to grow other crops. So in the bottom we grow coffee, and one good thing is that we have the shade for the first years of the coffee, and also we can sell the squash. So for coffee, you need to wait until three to four years to have the first harvest. So we can also sell the squash while the coffee is growing. So we can make revenue and also build the shade for the coffee during the first years, and when the coffee starts to grow, then we remove the shade of the squash. So it's slowly transforming into a coffee farm. Yeah. And I mean I work with coffee, but I never work in a farm. I visited farms at a coffee buyer, but never like doing myself, and it's completely a different experience. So the first time I we got the cherries and we got it into the dryer, and it's like, okay, we have the cherries now. What? We have to dry them into look all the drying process, and has been like an incredible like learning curve these last two years. Um yeah, that's basically kind of my my story with coffee. And besides that, I'm also part of the Bimboyage team. I work in the initiative of Women Power Coffee Collective, and that is um that initiative is about making connections for producers that have been working with Bimboyage with the market. So we source from different producers and we make the connection with buyers in Europe, in the States, South Korea, uh, Arab Emirates, and Taiwan. And I mostly related in receiving the sample from the producers, copying, give them feedback, um, decide which samples have the quality that the importers need or rosters need for import their coffees. Um, and also make all the arrangements for sample shipments and overview some of the logistics of the exporting process. So I have been along different parts of the supply coffee supply chain, and it's something I really enjoy because I feel it's, as I told you, like a bridge of connecting a lot of different. parts through coffee. So yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Do you feel like now that you have the entire coffee it helps you connect and ask more questions about it?

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yes, of course I think the deepness of knowledge that you can get on quality and also not only on quality but on maybe all the hard work that it represents to um process and to do coffee. So it's maybe before when I was in South Korea and I reflect like between my first experience in coffee and my current experience is that when you buy sometimes you can only focus sometimes you only focus on quality, price, but you forget the part of okay there's a lot of labor here. Once you do it and you know how hard it is and what it means and how many challenges they have like uncertainty with whether price up and downs like all the resilience that they really need to have to keep working in this industry is really huge. So maybe that experience of producing coffee myself kind of humbles me a lot and makes me be more aware of how many effort it requires. Actually before going to Korea I didn't like coffee. I kind of learned to love it because it was um I decided I mean I was so far from from my country and my family and I think working in coffee gave me the strength to keep being like that far. So I start to learn a lot and I really learned to love coffee and I think that love has been like imported again to Costa Rica and extended with my family and I think always through coffee I find a lot of love and also it's part of why I have been so interested in keep learning and yeah I think it's it's part of a way of transforming a lot of difficult emotions and experience in in Korea. It kind of helped me to transform it into something beautiful so I think that was what has kept me motivated through my years in Kafi. Yeah. Yes actually I'm really like personally I really love nature so that experience of being in Korea in Seoul where it's a very high density and high like it's really like um a city with everything moves really fast. Coming back to Costa Rica where the nature is so impressive like reconnecting again with nature is something like really calm myself and I can like rebuild my relationship with nature I think that brings a lot of like happiness and like well-being to myself so that's also something that I'm really enjoying. The part of learning about the soil like looking at the plants how they behave every different every plant is different. So I'm getting more interested now in genetics like even if we have like the same variety of coffee we notice there are some plants that behave better. So we we study these plants and we take for example the every harvest we are improving the seeds. So to make it more uniform to be easier to pick the coffees or to have like a more regular like density of beans to increase the quality from the soil but we can only do that by being there and observing like how each plant behaves different. So now I'm focusing more I think the quality of the coffee is that from the soil and the all the continuing steps in the supply chain just either continue or make it worse but you cannot improve something if it's already like coming back from from the from the main route or the very beginning. So I think if you do a like a super nice work on um soil taking care of the plants then it's more easier to process it's more easier to dry the coffee and all the remaining processes keep being like more smooth. So it's a way to kind of start from a very like nice point of quality then to keep it. So that's what I'm learning now about coffee. Yeah I would like to share this knowledge about how to like kind of make more standard way to how to take care of the plants or process the coffee to for the farmers to have better access to produce better quality coffee and to bring more technology to the agro side of coffee because there's a lot of technology and extraction and roasting but you need more technology in the product in the producing part of coffee where everything begins. So also part of the connections in Korea is letting me bring some of technology in Korea to the coffee. So now I'm working on more like for example to measure the when we dry the coffee is to have measures of temperature or relative humidity so I wanted to put more um technology available for producers to have access to better prices and climate adaptability.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Well that about wraps up today's episode and I truly hope that these stories and these voices inspire you as much as they continue to inspire me every single day. It's just such a beautiful gift that I even get to be a part of sharing these with you. So I really hope that they're resonating in the way that I feel like they're meant to I have other exciting