Nightly Tears
Life on a Guatemalan Coffee Plantation

The rocks are encrusted
with their nightly tears
of pain and discouragement.
Back behind, the River weeps and rages
Wanting to carry away in its currents
the suffering of the humiliated. . .

Night spreads over the mountain. . .
An immense scream of pain,
let loose from the soul of the serfs,
is quenched against the slopes of the gorges
and spirals up to the sky
begging bread and justice.

These verses are excerpted from "Finca San Francisco", a poem written by human rights lawyer David Francisco Valle after visiting a coffee plantation last fall with MCC Guatemala country co-representative Nathan Zook Barge. Some workers are legally bound to stay on the plantation; others are bound by economics--their pay ($4.40 a day) is immediately taken to cover debts at local stores, and they must rent extra land in order to grow food; they live in shacks and have no access to medical care. The wealthy landowner lives in the capital city; 50 years ago, the workers owned the land, but it was taken from them because they could not prove title. When they complain, they are told that the Guatemalan constitution does not apply on the plantation.

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