Reserva San Francisco is the product of 242 indigenous smallholder families tied to Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca. Under this umbrella, they have spent the last half-century advocating for land rights, cultural preservation, and self-governance of the indigenous populations of the region. Additionally, there has been a community led initiative that just in this region has reforested over 2.000 hectares of land. The banding together of these families for processing and selling coffees is the financial backbone for most of the members of this organization, and integral to maintaining independence. Sometimes writing about coffees like this can feel like trying to thread the needle between communicating information and avoiding soap-boxing. In reality, we’re just out here buying coffee we like from people we like, but it’s also important sometimes to remind ourselves of the impact of choosing where we spend our money. We’re not making coffee political- coffee is and has been political since it was spread as a cash crop of colonialism; that’s why it’s important that we not gloss over its use as a tool for independence of the same communities. <3