Inspirational Women in Mexico Creating Organic Food Company
Posted by Kath Delaney, Founder and Chief Executive Officer on December 5, 2006
Last week over Thanksgiving, my family and I flew from Oakland to Guadalajara and drove to Tapalpa, Jalisco, the next day. Tapalpa, in Western Central Mexico in the Sierra Madre Occidental region, has stunning views of the mountain range. An active volcano spurts white puffs of steam into the crisp blue sky.
Upon arriving, I asked my dear friend, photographer and entrepreneur Manuel Cervantes about local efforts on behalf of environmental and micro-enterprise issues. Manuel responded quickly about the ecological and entrepreneurial work of Cuca Flores.
Cuca works with a core group of 15 people, all members of the collective Esperanza De Vida (Life’s Hope). While running Esperanza De Vida, an organic whole wheat pasta company, they generate recycling incentives for the county, and harvest and process medicinal herbs in the countryside. Cuca is 51, has six children, and is in her third age of life, as she calls it. With clear brown eyes and a very wide smile, her inner beauty shines through. Her warmth is contagious and you can understand the ease of those that work alongside her.
I asked Cuca what influenced her 30 years ago, when she began to address the economic and environmental issues facing Tapalpa. Cuca said, “I heard a calling that came deep from within me while attending church.” She said that she was no longer satisfied with listening to the teachings of the church and wanted to begin to take action in her own community on behalf of the environment, civic participation, and social justice concerns. “I realized that my relationship with God was vertical, but I wanted a more horizontal relationship, so I began to work with other people and the earth on behalf of the community and the commons.”
In their production facility (a small work room on loan from another collective), workers are using ancient hand crank pasta machines familiar to me from watching my Italian grandmother, Maria Grazia Squilliacioti, work in her kitchen. The Mexican government recently loaned the collective basic kitchen equipment and refrigeration to support the growing demand of their pasta-making venture. In the last few weeks, a friend in the community facilitated the purchase of industrial pasta machines for the collective.
Most of the women’s families working with Cuca have lived in Tapalpa for generations and have limited access to resources outside of their homes. After listening to Cuca’s stories, I began to understand how challenging her work is every day. She has very few resources to draw from. In the U.S., I have the great fortune of working with several microcredit organizations: in the Bay Area, with Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment http://www.womensinitiative.org, and nationally, with Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence http://www.count-me-in.org/. Cuca had never heard of these organizations, nor of Muhammad Yunus, the economist from Bangladesh who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on microcredit. It is my hope that by telling Cuca’s story, she will connect with some of these leaders in the microenterprise field and will inspire the individuals and foundations that support the type of work she does.
Through a humble pasta shop in the heart of Tapalpa, Cuca generates collective prosperity and deeper awareness for the fragile status of the environment in Mexico. I feel blessed to have met her and am pleased to have this opportunity to introduce the collective to you.
To support Esperanza de Vida’s work, please email Cuca at cucaflores@prodigy.net.mx or call 011-343-432-1173.
