From seed to cup, Café Juayúa is protecting it within the household—and proprietor Linda Gonzalez is sharing why that’s so essential.
BY EMILY JOY MENESES
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cowl photograph courtesy of Linda Gonzalez
Anybody who lives in Los Angeles is aware of that from one block to a different, town is jam-packed with espresso outlets 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 house owners 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 related 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 loads of speak in El Salvador of, like, “Oh, indigenous individuals now not exist“—you recognize, like we’re all form of blended—however once you have a look at Juayúa and the completely different cities round that space of l. a. Ruta de las Flores, that a part of El Salvador is certainly indigenous. There’s a lot lovely 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 in—and that’s what brings us right here.
What impressed you to start out Café Juayúa and convey espresso from El Salvador to Los Angeles?
It (began) round 2016-2017. My dad has at all times supported our household again (in El Salvador), as a result of that’s a part of the dynamics of being an immigrant household—you recognize, you at all times ship again cash, and also you at all times have this shut connection. Thankfully, for us, we’ve got a very good shut reference to El Salvador, and we have been capable of travel (between right here and there)—I perceive that there are lots of people who’ve dangerous reminiscences in El Salvador, due to the civil struggle 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 must always assist. We must always become involved.“ And that was the preliminary second once we have been like, “OK, there’s espresso again house 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 carry the espresso right here. And so the thought 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 approach, we have been like, “How exhausting can (promoting espresso) be?“ However the way it’s structured over there, in Juayúa and different espresso cities, you’ve gotten loads of growers—however that’s what they do: They simply develop it. After which each harvest, they simply take it to the mill, and the mill is the place they’re capable of 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 methods to develop espresso, you recognize, and for therefore lengthy, we weren’t even certain what sort of espresso we have been rising. Like, are we strictly high-grown? What varieties of types do we’ve got? You recognize, 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 every little thing and exhibiting us round. We received to see the farm, the crops, the mills. Juayúa is simply “espresso city“—I at all times liked, you recognize, using at the back of a pickup truck (there) and the neighbors will cease you and ask, “Hey, how’s your farm?“ That’s simply at all times the subject there: espresso.
Keep tuned for half two of our interview with Linda Gonzalez, the place we’ll study extra about her household and work via Café Juayúa.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Pleasure Meneses (she/they) is a author and musician based mostly in Los Angeles. Her hobbies embrace foraging, cortados, classic synths, and connecting along with her Filipino roots via music, artwork, meals, and beverage.
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