Angela Santiago Pinacho

Angela is a small coffee producer, mother, family leader, community leader, and more – she wears many hats. She is from Santa Cruz Ozolotepec, a community in the cloud-covered mountains of Sierra Sur in Oaxaca. In her community, most people are connected to coffee, and Angela, too, saw an opportunity in this crop. And although she has been in the business for more than 25 years, she began selling her coffee as a specialty through Caravela Coffee a year ago.

At Finca El Encino, Angela works with her husband, Ciro Perez, who helps her with weed control on the farm, harvesting and processing, along with other locals. Angela says that one thing that has changed in the last harvest is processing practices, now with a quality approach, and she hopes to achieve higher productivity gradually. She carries out fermentation (without water) for 15 to 20 hours, depending on the temperature, and dries the coffee for more than five days on a concrete patio. The predominant variety
atthe farm is Typica, with 95% and 5% with the Marsellesa variety.

For the future, Angela plans to do some renovations and grow crops such as bananas to diversify her income. ‘l hope they will continue to buy our coffee at a good price and that they will work with us. May we continue to work in the same way”