Celebrating Honduran Catracha Coffee Company and its 2020 Harvest

Mayra Orellana-Powell was born and raised in the coffee growing region of Santa Elena, La Paz Department of Honduras. Growing up, she saw first hand what it meant to work collectively and empower the community through her grandmother, Adelina--a coffee producer, teacher, and a community leader. Wanting to follow her grandmother’s footsteps, Mayra founded the Catracha Coffee Company in 2010 to help family farmers improve their livelihoods through their profit sharing model. Farmers are paid more for their coffee, and are also given tools and resources so that they can make informed decisions on how to manage their farm and process their coffee.

Maria Adela and Liseth sorting depulped cherries at the wet mill at her home. Lowell jumped inside the loading chamber to make sure all cherries make it to the depulper

Sorting cherries with Maria Adela and her family, Mayra and Lowell

Our relationship with Catracha Coffee Company  is one of our longest standing relationships at Andytown, and in 2019, we made our first visit to Santa Elena to learn more and meet the farmers who produce our coffee. We fell in love with **Maria Adela Nolasco’s Coffee** when we began our partnership with Catracha Coffee Company, and have since then been purchasing her coffee every year. We had the opportunity to pick and sort cherry alongside Maria Adela, and see her recently installed, motorized coffee pulper at work. She used to have to crank it by hand!

Portrait of Maria Adela Nolasco. Photo by Nahún Rodríguez

Corazon and Xander with Maria and her daughters Fatima (far left) and Listeth (far right)

Mayra is a firm believer that real change at origin comes from small producers that make an impact in their community. She and her husband Lowell moved back to Santa Elena in 2017 to work more closely together with farmers and to focus on Catracha Community--a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to creating long term opportunities for community members. Every year, Catracha Community hosts a conference for youth living in Santa Elena and nearby communities. Conference classes are designed to teach youth about entrepreneurship and are lead by Honduran youth leaders. 

A mural on the side of Mayra’s home

A mural on a house in Santa Elena, painted by Demmys, the resident artist during our visit

Catracha Community also offers other creative opportunities for youth and women, including cooking, art, and craft classes. Honduran and international artists stay at the Catracha residence and art studio and teach art to youth on a weekly basis. The artists also paint murals in schools and people’s homes. There are well over a dozen murals (and counting!) spread throughout the streets of Santa Elena.

At the crafts classes, participants learn how to make crafts using local and recycled materials. Regular crafters have created their own group and are known as Catracha Collectivo, and they sell their crafts to locals and roasters abroad.

Jiny, Azarael, and their mother Gladys are a part of Catracha Collectivo. Some of the materials they use include coffee parchment and traditional cloth by Lenca people—the largest indigenous group remaining in Honduras. They like using traditional cloth because it is a way for them to reclaim their heritage and bridge their old and new cultures together. Jiny and Azarael hope that they can one day build a business for their crafts.

Mayra has accomplished so much over the years, and it’s impossible to ignore the positive impact she has made in Santa Elena. She is a force for good, and inspires us to continue to serve our Sunset community. Stay tuned for a future blog post on Catracha Coffee, where we dig into their efforts in improving coffee quality.

Corazon, Xander, Lowell, and Mayra at the Tegucigalpa Airport

To learn more about Catracha Coffee, you can visit their website: https://www.catrachacoffee.com/

You can also watch “Way back to Yarasquin,” a 2013 documentary about Mayra and Catracha Coffee on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/waybacktoyarasquin

Watch a recording of Mayra speaking at the 2015 Re:Co Symposium: https://youtu.be/O9alAQBTMLw