A Cafecito Story

Delightful, charming story, based on a true, organic, working coffee farm in the Dominican Republic. Illustrations are delightful and enhance the story and the imagination!

This short work, is the story of coffee, "a social beverage that bridges nations and unites people in trade, in words, in birds, and in love . . . through the eyes of Joe, a man with farming in his blood but an increasing sense of dislacement from the natural world." Joe is the son of Nebraska farmers. He loves to farm, the small farms go under, and he winds up teaching, though he still yearns for a connection with nature. Then, he takes a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Escaping the gated resort where he is staying, he goes into the mountains and discovers coffee and the coffee growers. They, too, are threatened by agribusiness, companies that spray the coffee with veneno (poison). Joe buys a parcel of land, and, with another grower, forms a cooperative. Others join them. But they do more than grow coffee the "old-fashioned" way. They promote literacy, and sustainability. There is also a love story here, not, they are careful to say, the story of Alvarez and her husband, but I think there is something of them in Joe and "the woman behind the counter". There is an afterword by Bill Eichner about their coffee farm, as well as a list of resources. The woodcuts by Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez are wonderful. I especially like the one of "the woman behind the counter", as she sits with the steam from the coffee rising, and her hair, flowing out and upwards, has visions of a coffee farm in its curls.

I picked this book up purley by chance. It was on a featured book table at my local library. I don't normaly real a lot of fiction but something made me check it out. I brought it home and started reading it the next morning while having my morning coffee. Theres something in the author's writing style that just makes you want to read more and more. I will most deffinently be purchasing this book and cherishing it forever. Thank you Julia Alvarez!

Julia Alvarez creates a rousing literary work in both Spanish and English with A Cafecito Story, the engrossing story of a Nebraska farmer's boy who becomes a teacher and eventually finds his life changed by a sojourn to the Dominican Republic. A Cafecito Story is highly recommended as being an intriguing blend of sparse writing, specific images, and involving discussions.

This simple story of a man, a new life, and a family struggling to survive and to be literate was moving to me. The lovely illustrations are woodcuts by Belkis Ramirez, an artist from the Dominican Republic. Also, as a rabid coffee lover, it brought back memories of rich aromatic coffee in cafes in Guatemala and Mexico. I recommend this book for anyone who is trying to live her or his life deliberately, trying to help with sustainable agriculture, and trying to make a difference in small but vital ways to a more balanced global economy.