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Country: Mexico
Region: San Juan de la Libertad, Highlands of Chiapas
COOP: Mut Vitz Cooperative
Altitude: 900 - 1400 meters
Variety: Arabica - Typica, Caturra, and Bourbon
Roast: Medium
Fair Trade, Organic and Shade-Grown
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The Story:
Coffee in Mexico, as in many countries, was
originally cultivated on huge plantations. Beginning of
the 18th century, formal plantations were established in
the southern state of Chiapas to supply a modest internal
market. By the middle of the 19th century, German and Italian
farmers settled in Chiapas and, with the blessing of the
government, expropriated indigenous lands and forced the
local Mayans into lives of indentured servitude. Eventually,
with the help of land redistribution in the 1930's, the
Mayan people were able to grow coffee on their own small-scale
farms and form cooperatives to sell it.
Today, 90% of all coffee growers in Mexico are small-scale
farmers with less than 12 acres of land, and indigenous
farming groups produce 50% of all organic coffee in the
country.
The Mut Vitz cooperative was formed in 1997
and is comprised of some 600 families from 26 communities
in the self-proclaimed autonomous region of San Juan de
La Libertad, located in the Highlands of Chiapas in southern
Mexico. Mut Vitz is named after the mountain, Mut Vitz,
which towers over the local villages and means "Bird
Mountain" in the Tzotzil language.
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