Latin America produces roughly 60% of the world’s espresso—however the results of colonization nonetheless weigh heavy on modern-day espresso farmers.
BY ELLIE PEÑA
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured picture by Ellie Peña
“The extra a product is desired by the world market, the higher the distress it brings to the Latin American peoples whose sacrifice creates it.” -Eduardo Galeano, creator of Open Veins of Latin America.
Eduardo Galeano mentioned it finest: In Latin America, revenue hardly ever stays with the individuals who produce the world’s most coveted items. As an alternative, the price is paid in labor, land, and lives.
Espresso isn’t any exception; the cultivation and commerce of espresso has formed Latin America’s buying and selling networks, connections, funding, and worldwide relations. Right now, Latin America produces roughly 60% of the world’s espresso. Colombia’s fame for high quality is known, Brazil has been on the high of the charts for the reason that 1700s, and, throughout the area, social constructions and Latine tradition has been constructed round cafecito. In Colombia, you would possibly sip a tintico within the afternoon, or in Cuba, a cortadito with your mates—and in Peru, a small cup with dessert. These are the moments once we pause, join, and, in fact, argue who has the very best espresso.
However like Eduardo Galeano warns, the story in our cups comes with a value. Espresso’s historical past in Latin America is steeped in exploitation and rooted in colonial programs designed to extract wealth for the World North—all whereas leaving Indigenous peoples of coffee-producing nations impoverished. Even at the moment, espresso is likely one of the most traded commodities on this planet, and but, the farmers who develop it hardly ever see income loved by the exporters, roasters, and retailers.
The Colonial Roots of Latin American Espresso Manufacturing
Although many people sip on our day by day espresso with out enthusiastic about the way it obtained to us, espresso’s unique arrival in Latin America is inseparable from the European colonization of the area. Violent seizures of land, pressured enslavement, and illnesses that decimated Indigenous populations made up this time period.
The guide Unusual Grounds by Mark Pendergrast recounts how the Dutch gifted a espresso plant to the French authorities in the course of the early 18th century. In 1720, coffee-loving French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu would introduce espresso cultivation to a colony in Martinique. By the tip of the 18th century, espresso would be a part of sugarcane, tea, and cocoa as some of the coveted colonial items—grown in colonies to be despatched to European markets for revenue.
The espresso increase was additional fueled by the transatlantic commerce, with enslaved Africans pressured to work espresso fields in brutal situations. Unusual Grounds shares that in Brazil, for instance, the variety of enslaved folks jumped from 26,254 in 1825 to 43,555 in 1828, to fulfill manufacturing calls for.
Haiti: The Unique Espresso Powerhouse
Within the 1700s, French-occupied Haiti equipped almost half the world’s espresso—however income stayed within the arms of the colonists. The Haitian Revolution, which happened between 1791 and 1804, would shatter these programs and ship a large shock to the worldwide espresso market. Like Haiti, espresso was launched to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic within the 1700s. Puerto Rico grew to become pivotal in espresso manufacturing, however as soon as america took Spain’s place in colonizing Puerto Rico, the U.S. started pivoting away from espresso manufacturing.
Espresso arrived in South America across the similar time it did within the Caribbean. Brazil’s espresso empire started with slightly scandal: In 1721, Sergeant Fransico de Mela Palheta traveled to French Guiana to resolve land disputes, however allegedly had the “hots” for the governor’s spouse, who gifted him the espresso seeds that may develop into Brazil’s basis of an economic system nonetheless dominated by espresso at the moment.
The primary plantation was in Rio de Janeiro, and by the 1800s, manufacturing exploded. Plantations fully relied on enslaved African and Indigenous folks and labored them to exhaustion in inhumane situations. For the fazenda (farm) house owners, espresso beans have been sadly value way over the human lives that cultivated it.
Central America
Within the guide Espresso and Energy: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America, Jeffery M. Paige shares that in Central America, espresso was a household fortune maker. In Costa Rica, descendants of Spanish colonial elites—the Montealegre Household—expanded espresso exports and consolidated political affect. Throughout Central America, Indigenous lands have been confiscated and communities have been pressured into sharecropping or debt peonage.
By the late 1800s, German settlers in Guatemala managed round 40% of espresso estates in Alta Verapaz. With capital and “modernization,” they introduced inequality. Espresso wealth propped up authoritarian governments and deep racial and financial divides—a sample repeated in Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
Whether or not it was from Europe or america, greed and exploitation added to rising civil unrest all throughout Latin America. A Colombian espresso grower quoted in Unusual Grounds mentioned, “Once we aren’t in a revolution, we’re ready for it.”
The Legacy in Right now’s Cup
Sadly, the colonial blueprint of rich land house owners on the high with exploited labor on the backside hasn’t gone away. Espresso stays one of many world’s most consumed drinks, however the individuals who develop it nonetheless bear the brunt of an unequal system. The identical forces that formed espresso’s previous—client demand, land inequality, and racialized labor exploitation—nonetheless exist.
Although espresso in Latin America is rooted in a darkish historical past, it’s additionally an emblem of the ability and resistance of Indigenous communities—a beacon of hope that Latin America’s espresso producers will be capable of personal the fruits of their labor, and construct one thing extra.
Within the coming weeks, we’ll launch a continuation of this text, the place we’ll take a more in-depth take a look at how the colonial historical past of Latin America espresso manufacturing is impacting producers at the moment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ellie Peña (she/her) is a Peruvian-American espresso artistic based mostly in Queens, N.Y., and the founding father of Pilas Café: a cell mission rooted in all issues cafecito & moral sourcing. When she’s not slinging espresso, she’s studying Latine fiction, training Muay Thai, or internet hosting cozy craft occasions.
Subscribe and Extra!
As at all times, you possibly can learn Barista Journal in paper by subscribing or ordering a difficulty.
Learn the August + September 2025 Concern without spending a dime with our digital version.
At no cost entry to greater than 5 years’ value of points, go to our digital version archives right here.
