Yaxchemel. Un petit village d'une cinquantaine de cahutes posées dans un paysage de montagne verte à deux heures de mauvaises routes de San Cristobal de las Casas. C'est ici que la famille Lopez cultive un café "biologique" vendu dans le commerce équitable.
Sur la route qui mène à Yaxchemel. Il y a un chronomètre sur le changement de vitesse, nous croisons des villages zapatistes, d'autres qui n'en sont pas, et de nombreux campements militaires.
DEO0017720x © Olivier Dekeyser
Monday, just before midday. Around thirty families (approximately 500 people) live in Yaxchemel. The wooden shacks are arrayed between fields and are scattered around the church opposite the school. A few concrete houses have sprung up.
DEO0017722x © Olivier Dekeyser
Hugo is eight years old. He speaks Spanish and he is the one who tells me about the village quarrels, from his child's perspective, while everyone else pretends to ignore them. The disputes are between government partisans, Zapatistas, Protestants and Catholics...
DEO0023972x © Olivier Dekeyser
In the TV room, which is also the grain storage room. It's Sunday and the men watch a DVD while the women work. Later, they'll be the ones to rest on stools in front of a soap opera.
DEO0017768x © Olivier Dekeyser
Tuesday. Jesùs' wife heats some water for a cup of Nescafé. On the roof of the house, a carefully cultivated arabica coffee plant dries in the early morning sun. I point out the paradox to Jesùs but he just smiles, as people are inclined to do here when they want to avoid a question.
DEO0023974x © Olivier Dekeyser
In the kitchen, the grandmother grinds the corn for the tortillas. Her two eldest daughters have gone to look for wood. The children are at school. The men are in the fields, with the corn, the coffee and the beans. Nature is an integral part of the family's survival.
DEO0017767x © Olivier Dekeyser
The return to organic agriculture has curbed the decline in soil quality that was caused by pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The local biotope has been preserved and diversified with fruits, medicinal plants, woods, vegetables and so on.
DEO0017723x © Olivier Dekeyser
In the garden. After the seeds' pulp has been removed, the coffee is left to ferment in sacks for 24 hours. Later, the grains will be cleaned and dried in the sun.
DEO0017724x © Olivier Dekeyser
In the living room...
DEO0017764x © Olivier Dekeyser
DEO0017765x © Olivier Dekeyser
The village prays and thanks the gods for the harvest. A ceremony took place in the fields - with prayers, bangers and a brass band. This was followed by a mass, whispered in Tzotzil, held in the church.
DEO0023975x © Olivier Dekeyser
We danced, drank and ate together, between persons of the same political persuasion. Then we drank some more...
DEO0017766x © Olivier Dekeyser
Wednesday morning. Each family places its coffee sacks in the village square. The cooperative who has come to buy this harvest is there, with two enormous all-terrain trucks.
DEO0017725x © Olivier Dekeyser
It is a sunny morning. The men of the families are gathered around the fruits of their labour. The atmosphere is jovial with regard to this solid year of work, while the buyers examine the goods with care.
DEO0023973x © Olivier Dekeyser
The coffee, examined and weighed with care by the buyers from the cooperative, is loaded into its two big all-terrain trucks and taken to a warehouse.
DEO0017726x © Olivier Dekeyser
In the cooperative's warehouse. The coffee will be cleaned and redistributed to the port of Veracruz.
DEO0017727x © Olivier Dekeyser