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 Sunday,
May 18, 2008 at CHICLE, 5:00 pm, Talk, History of the Nueva Alianza Community
in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Javier Jimenez
The recent history of Comunidad
Nueva Alianza is representative of the lives of so many agricultural workers
throughout Guatemala. It is peppered with themes of oppression, exploitation, and
struggles for workers rights and lands. However, it ends with a magnificent example
of self-organization and self-determination that has resulted in a collectively
owned and run plantation.
For generations Finca Alianza was owned and managed by an individual land owner.
The forty  families
who now own the land were the employees of that individual and worked faithfully
to raise profits for him. In the 1990s, due to the global fall of coffee prices and
bad management by the plantation owner, the families were not paid wages for 18 months
and causing a crisis in the community when the workers didn't even have enough money
to eat. Recognizing the need to do something to force the land owner to pay them,
the workers peacefully occupied the plantation on 14 May 2002. The land owning family
fled to Guatemala City, and declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter, causing the plantation
ownership to default to a Panamanian financial group. Facing the possibility of losing
everything, the workers united into an independent workers union and instigated a
long legal process to become the rightful owners of their own land. With the assistance
from the Fondo de Tierras (a Guatemalan quasi-governmental body set up as part of
the 1996 Peace Accords and dedicated to returning land to workers, ex-guerrillas
and repatriated refugees), the collective finally got legal title to the plantation
on 18 December 2004. They promptly renamed the plantation "Comunidad Nueva Alianza" and
implemented a number of innovate new projects to generate revenue to pay back their
loan for the land.
The Nueva Alianza story
is incredibly interesting and unique in Central America. Since the workers union
has taken legal possession of the land they have operated completely democratically,
with all decisions made by asamblea and comité. Nueva Alianza
is now one of only two communities in Guatemala that is truly cooperatively run by
field workers themselves, and, in addition to such social responsibility, they also
have a number of interesting environmental projects. These include: an organic, fair
trade coffee and macadamia plantation; ecotourism; a micro hydroelectric plant and
biodiesel project; the Agua Pura Alianza; and avocado, milk cow and pig projects.
Javier Jimenez will be accompanied by Chapel Hill native, Matt Rudolf, who has
been working with this community. This session will be in Spanish with Matt interpreting
for Javier.
Please call us at (919) 933-0398 if you want more information. You can also e-mail
us. |
