Martina's Story
"Waj weya tzok cheyana’ naya."
I want you to see me.
These are the words with which Martina introduced herself on her college applications. At 5 years old, she started picking coffee in her father's small plot located at 6,000 feet in the mountains of Las Sierras de los Cuchumantantes, 2-1/2 hours from their town of Todos Santos Cuchumatán.
In the relative isolation of mountain life, Martina's Mam community found limited shelter from the 1980s Mayan genocide under President Efrain Rios Montt. Despite the danger from racism, outside forces, and rural poverty, Martina was nurtured by the rich indigenous traditions of cultural heritage, deep spirituality, and care for the land. Today Martina's parents and their neighbors struggle to make ends meet as subsistence farmers, lacking access to fair trade markets. Forced to sell their coffee for a pittance, they know that Guatemalan middlemen and markets make significant profits from their precious beans. One goal of Martina's Mayan Coffee is to show her community that people from the world outside of Todos Santos will buy their coffee at fair trade prices.
Thanks to the temperate, moist climate of the los Cuchumantantes mountains, Mayan Mam farmers plant crops year-round. Martina's father, Modesto, grows coffee and corn on his little plot in the mountains. Martina's mother, Manuela, maintains a garden at home growing carrots, radishes, peppers, cilantro, avocado, apples, and flowers. Manuela also raises chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Her garden and animals provide sustenance to the family, occasional trade in the local barter economy, and a little cash from the weekend farmers market. Though money, education, and opportunity are scarce, there is always something to eat for Martina and her siblings Porfirio, Dominga, Zoila, and David.
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This is Martina's story.
The baby/toddler years: Ages 1-4
Martina’s family would join dozens of others leaving their villages to harvest coffee from their mountain plots. Martina’s mother would take her to the farm, placing her on a blanket with other children as the older children and their parents harvested the beans.
Martina, (age 13 months)
with her mother, Manuela
A family friend, Manuela Martina (18 months), Modesto (top row)
Porfirio, Dominga (bottom row)
Early Public School: Ages 5-12
Martina, age 5
Throughout primary school, Martina would rise at 5am to work with her father on the farm and then run to town for school, which began at 8am. There Martina experienced the harsh reality of "Ladino" (white) discrimination towards indigenous dress and culture. She often arrived sweating and red from sunburn. The Ladinos would call her "stinky," "ugly," and "trash" and make fun of her, laughing at her indigenous clothes and shoes, which were normally hand-me-downs from her older sister. At lunchtime the Ladino children paid for their lunches while she and other indigenous students brought their own.
As she became aware of her family's poverty, Martina often wished she could be more like the white children. But she held onto the idea that her world could change and that school would open a path to a better life, and from an early age she dreamed of becoming a nurse for her indigenous community.
Private Middle School: Ages 13-16
As graduation from primary school approached, Martina learned she had met the GPA criteria for being the class valedictorian. Unfortunately, her teacher revealed that she could not receive the award because an indigenous person "could not represent the school." Disappointed but undeterred, she decided to apply to the private secondary school for Ladino children. When her father said he could not pay for it, she explained that she had applied for a scholarship. He agreed to let her go if she won it but said she would still have to work on the farm in the morning and get to school on her own. She concurred and won a 3-year scholarship, which paid for school but not the uniform. The school supplied an old uniform and the family helped around the edges with notebooks and pens. As always, following the 5am shift on the farm, Martina would run home, grab her backpack and supplies, and sprint to the school.
Top: Porfirio, Modesto, Manuela, Martina (age 13), Dominga
Bottom: David, Zoila
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Freshman year went well. Martina worked hard and got outstanding grades. At the beginning of her sophomore year, however, she was chased by some Ladino boys who grabbed her and assaulted her. She fought and screamed so loud that neighbors came to help. The police dismissed the complaint from Martina's father -- a common occurrence for Mam women -- as Martina's mother stood by, unable to communicate in Spanish. In the weeks that followed, the journey up and down the mountain felt fraught with danger. Then came the final blow. School administrators announced that her "promised" scholarship would be terminated due to lack of funds. At home her father told her, "School is not for people like us." Filled with anger and disappointment, she was assigned to traditional female duties on the farm. Martina says that as she worked at the farm, she would hold back tears and felt like her "heart was being strangled." She began thinking about migrating in order to escape sexual violence, continue her education, and seek opportunity. One year later she left the farm.
Coming to the United States: Ages 17-18
Yeshue (Dominga's son), Dominga, Manuela, Martina (age 17).
This picture is taken the day before Martina left Guatemala. She turned 17 during her dangerous journey to the United States, where she hoped to work and resume school. An indigenous "coyote" from her village arranged for her to travel on bus with a woman who pretended to be her mother. In Juarez, Mexico the woman told Martina, "I cannot travel the last mile with you. Be careful of men who will try to kidnap and rob you. They are dangerous." Martina prayed quietly as she marched toward the bridge connecting Mexico's Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, where she planned to claim asylum at the U.S. border. She remembers clearly, telling herself, “This is going to be painful, but I’d rather face the pain here than suffer at home.”
In El Paso, U.S. border agents sent her to a detention center in Texas where she remained for two months along with traumatized children separated from their parents. Finally, she was released to her brother Porfirio who told the agents she could live with him in Oakland, California. During her first week in Oakland, she registered for Oakland's "newcomer high school." Soon she was learning English and attending high school from 8am to 2pm. Following a quick trip home, she would clean hotels in a Bay Area suburb (Walnut Creek) from 4pm to midnight. Then she would return home and do her homework, She completed her freshman year with all A's and B's.
Finding a Home in the United States: Age 19-20
Toward the end of her freshman year, Martina's older sister Dominga arrived, and Porfirio got married and moved out. Unable to sustain the rent, Martina and her sister were accepted into the Oakland Catholic Worker (OCW) family services program where they lived in transitional housing for six months. At the OCW, board member Bob Lassalle-Klein introduced Martina to Connie Hubbard, president of Holy Names High School (HNHS) in Oakland. HNHS offered Martina a full scholarship for grades 10-12. After a transitional stay with a family in Oakland, Martina found a permanent home in Alameda, California with the Lassalle-Klein family. In Alameda, everyone on their street now knows Martina. When she graduated from Holy Names, many friends, teachers, and family came to celebrate her graduation -- along with her acceptance at Cornell University. Martina talks with her parents regularly and people back home continue to follow her journey on social media.
Martina's "American Family"
Peter, Rose, Bob, Arthur (top)
Kate, Martina (age 19), Lynn (bottom)
Attending Cornell University
Martina was awarded a full scholarship to the Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration at the SC Johnson School of Business starting in August 2021.
Just four years earlier, she was cleaning hotel rooms after school. Today she attends one of the top-ranked Ivy League schools in the United States, on par with Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. Her dream is that the indigenous farmers back home have the economic opportunity they deserve. Martina's Mayan Coffee is one way to show her community what is possible.