From seed to cup, Café Juayúa is preserving it within the household—and proprietor Linda Gonzalez is sharing why that’s so necessary.
BY EMILY JOY MENESES
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cowl picture courtesy of Linda Gonzalez
Anybody who lives in Los Angeles is aware of that from one block to a different, the town is jam-packed with espresso retailers and roasteries. However there’s one thing that units Café Juayúa other than the remainder: their private connection to the land. This can be a bond that homeowners Linda and Juan Gonzalez can hint again for generations.
Linda’s father’s facet of the household has been rising espresso in Juayúa, a small mountain city in El Salvador, for 3 generations—and residing there for for much longer. We sat down with Linda to listen to her ideas on El Salvador, her household’s historical past, and the way, right here within the diaspora, she has stayed deeply linked to her roots and the fruits that spring from them.
Barista Journal: So first issues first, the place does the title “Café Juayúa“ come from?
Linda Gonzalez: We’re known as Café Juayúa as a result of Juayúa is definitely the title of the city in El Salvador the place the (espresso) farms are, and the place my household has been generationally. There’s numerous discuss in El Salvador of, like, “Oh, indigenous folks now not exist“—you realize, like we’re all sort of blended—however whenever you have a look at Juayúa and the completely different cities round that space of los angeles Ruta de las Flores, that a part of El Salvador is unquestionably indigenous. There’s a lot stunning historical past of the land even earlier than espresso kicks in … tales of my great-grandparents rising corn and sharing the land with the remainder of the neighborhood. However espresso does are available—and that’s what brings us right here.
What impressed you to start out Café Juayúa and produce espresso from El Salvador to Los Angeles?
It (began) round 2016-2017. My dad has all the time supported our household again (in El Salvador), as a result of that’s a part of the dynamics of being an immigrant household—you realize, you all the time ship again cash, and also you all the time have this shut connection. Thankfully, for us, we’ve an excellent shut reference to El Salvador, and we have been in a position to trip (between right here and there)—I perceive that there are lots of people who’ve dangerous recollections in El Salvador, due to the civil battle there—however my household nonetheless had their household and the farms.
And so in 2016 (my husband and I) noticed my mother and father struggling financially to help the farms and we thought, “We should always assist. We should always get entangled.“ And that was the preliminary second after we have been like, “OK, there’s espresso again dwelling in El Salvador. What’s it, and what can we do with it?“ We understood that the easiest way to get the return on our funding and to construct one thing sustainable can be to deliver the espresso right here. And so the concept got here to our minds: Let’s promote espresso.
What was it like getting concerned with your loved ones’s farms from abroad? Had been there any challenges you bumped into? And what have been your favourite components of the expertise?
In a really naive method, we have been like, “How laborious can (promoting espresso) be?“ However the way it’s structured over there, in Juayúa and different espresso cities, you could have numerous growers—however that’s what they do: They only develop it. After which each harvest, they only take it to the mill, and the mill is the place they’re in a position to course of (the espresso), the place they’ve the connections, and that’s the place the massive exporters go.
My household—the small farmers—they solely knew the right way to develop espresso, you realize, and for therefore lengthy, we weren’t even positive what sort of espresso we have been rising. Like, are we strictly high-grown? What sorts of sorts do we’ve? , I grew up right here, in Los Angeles, and my husband after he got here from Guatemala, he studied right here, too, so we actually didn’t know a lot about espresso. So from there, it was this thrilling journey of going again to the household.
My uncle was the one administrating the farm on the time, and he nonetheless is. He was the one catching us up on all the things and displaying us round. We acquired to see the farm, the crops, the mills. Juayúa is simply “espresso city“—I all the time cherished, you realize, driving at the back of a pickup truck (there) and the neighbors will cease you and ask, “Hey, how’s your farm?“ That’s simply all the time the subject there: espresso.
Keep tuned for half two of our interview with Linda Gonzalez, the place we’ll be taught extra about her household and work by Café Juayúa.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Pleasure Meneses (she/they) is a author and musician primarily based in Los Angeles. Her hobbies embrace foraging, cortados, classic synths, and connecting together with her Filipino roots by music, artwork, meals, and beverage.
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