Coffee has become the star product of Monzón. On the occasion of the Peruvian Coffee Day to be celebrated tomorrow, we traveled through this valley that today has a future far from terror.
"They took my daughter from my hands". Yolanda Miraval prefers to forget, but the memory of the Shining Path gang snatching her little girl is indelible. Those were the worst times of Monzón, an area of Tingo María (Huánuco) that until 2005 and more was taken over by drug trafficking and terrorism. Like her, most men and women in this part of the country remember that illegal coca leaf cultivation was a curse, a disguised bonanza that stained their roads with blood.
Yolanda grows coffee and today she can say, with a cautious smile, that life gave her a chance. El Monzon became hell, and it seems incredible that today one can breathe tranquility, and the children of this violence struggle to get ahead thanks to coffee.
Harry Solís proudly comments that his land has changed and that thanks to coffee, opportunities have arrived. The process has not been easy. The coca leaf was 95% of the valley's agricultural activity. Aromas de Monzón is the large specialty coffee shop he owns. With the support of Alianza CAFE, which is a USAID initiative, executed by TechnoServer, with the support of Jacobs Douwe Egberts, and organizations such as DeVida, the population has begun to value its very fine coffee, such as that grown by Clomalda Salvador and Primitivo Nolasco; or Jetman Noreña, 22 years old, and his mother Dalila Godyoy. Jetman and Dalila won first and second place, respectively, in the III Specialty Coffee Competition of the Monzon Valley.
Walking through Primitivo's farm, this apparently rough man looks to the future with hope and in his eyes, the emotion can be touched. The worst is over. The geisha variety he grows yields an exceptional cup that is in the sights of national and international buyers.
"What you see now is beautiful. It took a lot of blood to get here," says Yolanda, who has found in her small farm the only way to restart her life after having lost everything. Monzón is today a place of hope, where connoisseurs of specialty coffee know that they can find a good product. El Monzon is also a place to have a cup of coffee and a quiet conversation.
"It's amazing how much my land has changed". The words are Harry's. His coffee shop is in what used to be the Empresa Nacional Comercializadora de Hoja de Coca (Enaco). Ironies of life. Today in Monzón one breathes coffee, one feels peace. Hopefully, this will not change, sighs Yolanda.
#coffee #monzón #dayoftheperuviancoffee #devida #USAID #peru #huánuco #cocaleaf
Editor: Esther Vargas
Publication date: August 27, 2021
Source: Perú21
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