WHERE WE WORK

san gaspar chajul, el quiche, guatemala

San Gaspar Chajul, located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, is one of the poorest coffee-growing regions in the world. It joins Santa Maria Nebaj and San Juan Cotzal to make up the Ixil region, an area decimated by the 36-year-long Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996).

Predominately made up of Ixil peoples (an indigenous Maya people), the area was formerly a subsistence farming community. However, the allure of cash seduced the farmers away from their ancient agricultural practices to growing cash crops. Currently, coffee is the largest food commodity in the world.

With the majority of farmers switching to growing coffee, the lands in the area were devastated by the unsustainable cropping methods. To this day, Chajul continues to recover from the war, with coffee as its main export.