A Cafecito Story

by Julia Alvarez, Bill Eichner (Afterword), Belkis Ramirez (Illustrator)

A Cafecito Story is a story of love, coffee, birds and hope. It is a beautifully written eco-fable by best-selling author Julia Alvarez. Based on her and her husband's experiences trying to reclaim a small coffee farm in her native Dominican Republic, A Cafecito Story shows how the return to the traditional methods of shade-grown coffee can rehabilitate and rejuvenate the landscape and human culture, while at the same time preserving vital winter habitat for threatened songbirds.
Not a political or environmental polemic, A Cafecito Story is instead a poetic, modern fable about human beings at their best. The challenge of producing coffee is a remarkable test of our ability to live more sustainably, caring for the land, growers, and consumers in an enlightened and just way. Written with Julia Alvarez's deft touch, this is a story that stimulates while it comforts, waking the mind and warming the soul like the first cup of morning coffee. Indeed, this story is best read with a strong cup of organic, shade-grown, fresh-brewed coffee.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Food, Latinx, Spanish Literature, Latin American, Audiobook

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

Photo copyright by Brandon Cruz González
EL VOCERO DE PUERTO RICO

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love coffee and I love Julia Alvarez so I picked up her short A Cafecito Story expecting a history of how she and her husband acquired Altagracia coffee farms in the Dominican Republic. Alvarez’ husband does explain this in the epilogue and I found it fascinating. The Cafecito Story itself is only about twenty short pages, forty if you count the English and Spanish translations. She parables how she learned about the abuses of coffee farmers in her home country and came to purchase the farm, which she now oversees. Alvarez left me wanting more as I have such high expectations for her work so it is probably high time I reread one of my favorites of hers.

3.5 stars

[Antonella Imperiali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il caffè compare in una sola forma: una tazzina come quella delle bambole piena di un delizioso infuso, così scuro che lascia macchie sulla tazza. Joe chiude gli occhi e si concentra su quella ricchezza di sapore.

... la fattoria di Miguel coltiva il caffè nella vecchia maniera, sotto l’ombra degli alberi che offrono una protezione naturale alle piante, filtrando il sole e la pioggia, nutrendo il terreno e impedendo l’erosione. Inoltre attirano gli uccelli, che vi si posano e spargono il loro canto sopra le bacche di caffè. Questo rende il caffè migliore. Un uccello che canta mentre le bacche maturano, è come una madre che canta al bambino nel suo grembo. Il bambino nasce con la felicità nell’anima.

È incredibile quanto cresca meglio il caffè se gli uccelli cantano e se da una finestra aperta arriva il suono di una voce che legge parole scritte sulla carta, carta che ha ancora in sé la memoria dell’albero che è stata un tempo.

Scrittura elementare, senza orpelli, con più di una vena di poesia, che ha il pregio di fare immergere il lettore in un’atmosfera particolare, colorata dal verde e dal rosso delle piantagioni e degli alberi, portatrice di profumi e di sapori che danno alla vita, seppur dura, un caldo senso di appagamento.

È solo un racconto, brevissimo, ma è stata una piacevole scoperta.


🌎 LdM: Repubblica Dominicana 🇩🇴
🌎 America Centrale
📚 Biblioteca

[Kristine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Besides the beautiful woodcuts, there is really nothing to this very, very short story about shade-grown coffee in the Dominican Republic. It's much too short to be a book; it would be better suited as an informative pamphlet on sustainable and responsible coffee farming and buying.

[Chris Linehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a parable about fair trade coffee it reads a bit like environmental propaganda, which isn't necessarily a bad thing per se. It's a very nice little story, but it connects with me because I lived in the mountains of the Dominican Republic for years not far from where Julia Alvarez has her farm. That personal connection makes the story for me as I have met my own Miguel and Carmen and sipped many a fantastic cafecito.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love some things more than others. Among those things: steep green slopes; knock you down strong coffee; community that exists solely to support its members. This had all three, with some solid writing to boot... so of course I loved it.

[4.5 stars for making me want to consider a move, to grow coffee in the sun.]

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Very short, only about 45 pages. I don't even drink coffee but this really made me think. I had no idea how much time, love & attention go into creating a perfect cup of coffee made from organic beans raised on a cooperative farm in the Dominican Republic. The book's artwork is lovely, too.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quaint little parable, which one could easily read in one sitting in less than an hour. It has the tone of a bedtime story to me, if the kids had any appreciation for strong coffee, traditional farming, and fair trade. It felt a little heavy handed with the moral.

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to be meaningful and symbolic and it doesn't do well. It feels forced, and tries too hard to be a cute story.

[Mike Wigal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a Peace Corps-type story. It DOES make you want a good cup of coffee.

[Marcela Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

El cuento más hermoso que haya leído, la realidad de los cafetales con una mezcla de filosofía y esperanza, bello y completo, simplemente me hizo llorar de emoción al final. Mi favorito, totalmente me encantó!

[Fefs Messina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Alla fine si è rivelato una pubblicità progresso per piantagioni di caffè fatte da contadini.
Speravo anche in illustrazioni migliori.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awwwww...léanlo, está cortito y la verdad es muy para sentirse bien. Además se me antojo un café.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great personal story related to the author's life. About coffee, ritual, the sterility of agro-business and strip-mall culture in general, sustainable farming and following your heart. Short and sweet, with resources to follow up.

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

después de leer algunas reseñas mencionando cierto aire 'político' promoviendo la agricultura tradicional sin pesticidas y blablablá, me ha sorprendido que no lo sentí así.

claro, quién se puede enamorar de algo hecho industrialmente vs procesos que requieren tacto, observación... Tiempo. La historia es un honor a ese proceso y no tiene comentarios negativos continuamente sobre lo industrial así que me he quedado con una historia tierna y breve pa una tarde de invierno. (Sí, hay libros pa verano y los hay para invierno ;))

[Joan]

This short work, is the story of coffee, "a social beverage that bridges nations and unites people in trade, in words, in birds, and in love . . . through the eyes of Joe, a man with farming in his blood but an increasing sense of dislacement from the natural world."

Joe is the son of Nebraska farmers. He loves to farm, the small farms go under, and he winds up teaching, though he still yearns for a connection with nature. Then, he takes a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Escaping the gated resort where he is staying, he goes into the mountains and discovers coffee and the coffee growers. They, too, are threatened by agribusiness, companies that spray the coffee with veneno (poison).

Joe buys a parcel of land, and, with another grower, forms a cooperative. Others join them. But they do more than grow coffee the "old-fashioned" way. They promote literacy, and sustainability.

There is also a love story here, not, they are careful to say, the story of Alvarez and her husband, but I think there is something of them in Joe and "the woman behind the counter".

There is an afterword by Bill Eichner about their coffee farm, as well as a list of resources.

The woodcuts by Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez are wonderful. I especially like the one of "the woman behind the counter", as she sits with the steam from the coffee rising, and her hair, flowing out and upwards, has visions of a coffee farm in its curls.

[Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Cafecito Story was an interesting book. It was about a man named Joe. When he goes on a vacation to the Dominican Republic he meets Miguel and his family, his wife and six kids. they are all coffe bean farmers. Joe stays there for three years and learns how to grow coffe while he teaches the family how to read and write. Over time, Joe decides to live with them. When he goes home one Christmas, he orders coffe and it didn't taste very good so he brought some of the coffe beans that he and Miguel had naturally harvested and grew. He shows the girl working at the couter that his kind tastes better. Then, Joe tells her to drink a second cup and he tells her fortune from the stain. Then you figure out that the lady behind the counter is the author of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story and something you wouldn't expect with factual information mixed in.

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even drink coffee, I just really admire Julia Alvarez and was pleased to come across another thing by her I hadn't read. As a professional woman who often wonders about returning to the farm I'm extra interested of stories by others who have been through a similar process. This is a very short and direct story, kind of parable like, that explores the authors and her husbands experiences with sustainable agriculture in the Dominican Republic. If you pick it up be extra sure to read the afterword by her husband.

One thing I've learned from the life I've lived: The world can only be saved by one man or woman putting a seed in the ground or a story in someone's head or a book in someone's hands.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd little book—simple, and written deliberately simplistically to feel like a fable, the moral of which is . . . buy organic, shade-grown, fair-trade coffee. If the message is a little heavy-handed (or just blatant), the story is also lovely—the theme of the birds resonated with me, especially, and I can't imagine a more compelling advertisement for visiting the Dominican Republic. The physical book is a keepsake, designed with great care and illustrated with gorgeous woodcuts. This has been sitting up on my fiction shelf for years, but now that I've finally read it, I think it belongs next to Pollan.

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm back to Julia Alvarez. She wrote this short story to illustrate what she and her husband are doing in her native country -- Dominican Republic -- to help the organic coffee industry battle the unhealthy agri-business way of growing coffee (in the full sun without benefit of natural shade and native birds). At the end, there are resources to put one in touch with fair trade organizations. At the same time Ms. Alvarez was planting her coffee farm, she was teaching her workers and their children to read and write. An admirable woman.

[Kristin]

Anyone who enjoys coffee must read this book prior to the very next sip they plan on taking. It's a true story of how coffee is made and how it should be made; of following one's true path in life; and of the myriad and deep ways in which our individual actions affect the well-being of Everything. It's also written by Julia Alvarez, so is thus lovely to read, essentially prose poetry, with the original Spanish alongside its English translation and pretty woodcuts. Well before you finish these approximately 60 total pages, it's likely you'll be weeping a little with amazement.

[CAG_1337 · Rating 1 out of 5]

As short fiction, this falls completely flat. Basically, it feels like left-wing eco-propaganda molded into a barely passable short story. Granted, the philosophical base beneath all that deeply appeals to me as a socialist, but the writing was so amateurish and utilitarian it fails.

I also felt like the point of the whole book was just to advertise the author's coffee cooperative farm in the Dominican Republic. Again, I love co-ops and am about as anti-corporate as they come, but I feel cheated having bought and read this book. I loved the woodcuts, though.

[Pam Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a short story that resonates with folks who think about what it means to consume sustainably - in a way that does the least harm to the people and the planet. I read it for a discussion group tonight and found it had layers of issues that should feed our conversation. It may be read mostly by those who are already actively making choices with their food purchases but it never hurts to "feed the fires of the heart". Looking forward to the discussion tonight at the Barton Public Library.

[William Trently · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One thing I've learned from the life I've lived: The world can only be saved by one man or woman putting a seed in the ground or a story in someone's head or a book in someone's hands." I love this from the Afterword: "In contrast to the family of my childhood, our poor and frugal Dominican family would never skimp on the 'strength' of their coffee. They simply drink a smaller cup, yet rich enough to leave stains on the bottom and sides. I'm with them. I'll take two ounces of quality over a whole pot of bad coffee any day."

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet little 50 page story about the importance of shade grown coffee. My first reaction was that I wanted to buy a copy to give to our local coffee shop - they serve and promote shade grown coffee. I also liked the resources listed at the end. Two of the organizations are based in Seattle and work with song bird habitat, an important aspect of shade grown coffee - interesting possibility for a program for our local Audubon group.

Story is in both English and Spanish.

[Kerri Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is: a) simply told, but beautifully so;
b) small in size while simultaneously being large in scope;
c) stunning in the way sitting beneath a shaded tree on a sultry day is;
d) exactly what I needed to read the morning I poured it over my eyes and
soon thereafter garnished my cafecito with happy tear water;
e) all of the above.

[fer_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Farming, coffee, and learning to use what nature gives us.. a nice, short story with beautiful art work. The story itself seems to be loosely based on the author's, Julia Alvarez, and her husband's, Bill Eichner, life and their coffee farm in the Dominican Republic. A liesurley read with no big plot, but a nice description of how much work goes into cultivating delicious coffee, the farming fields of the Dominican Republic, its culture and it's people.

[Maeve · Rating 5 out of 5]

After meeting Julia in person and corresponding with her via email about her work in the Dominican Republic, I used this book for a final paper in graduate school. Julia & her husband's efforts to create a library and educate the children of the coffee farmers is an inspiration. Buy fair-trade coffee!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous short story/picture book/social conscious fiction book that tells the story of Fair Trade Coffee. It tells it in a way that draws the reader into how they, the birds, the land and the coffee farmers are all intimately connected. Alvarez and her husband own a Fair Trade Farm in the Dominican Republic, where she is from.

[Leah Feliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring story of how Alvarez and her husband were able to help the Dominican people save their coffee plantations, faced with huge companies taking over their land and resources. This is happening all over the world and it is important to see how the efforts of just a handful of people can have such a significant impact.

[Julianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was supposed to get this book in Spanish, but that's not what I got delivered through inter-library loan. However, after having read it in English, I'm not sure if all the book's nuances would come through in an all-Spanish text--part of its soul is the interplay between English and Spanish, north and south, the world of mechanization and the world of nature.