NI: Global Issues for Learners > The Issues > Coffee > Gregorio Gomez

Meet Gregorio Gomez

Gregorio has a small coffee farm on the slopes of the Tambopata Valley in the eastern foothills of the Andes in Peru. Gregorio was born up in the mountains, but in 1959, when he was about one year old, his parents moved to the Tambopata Valley because life in the mountains was very hard and there wasn't enough land for all the people.

"Here in the valley, in those days, there were few people but plenty of land and things to produce, especially coffee.

My education was, I'm afraid, pretty inadequate. I went to primary school and finished that, but I was unable to continue my secondary school studies. For eight years I received no education at all, and worked on my parents' farm.

When a secondary college was started near my parents' farm, I joined it, but I still worked on the farm at the same time. Unfortunately, the quality of the teaching was very poor, as the teachers were not professionals.

So I decided to educate myself - what we call "auto-education". Many people here have to get an education in this way.

I went to colleges in Juliaca and Puno (cities by Lake Titicaca), doing whatever jobs I could find in order to live and pay my college fees. I did all kinds of jobs; for 6 months I was a clerk to a magistrate. But I always kept in touch with my parents. And I built my own farm, just a little apart from their farm."

Gregorio has a daughter, but she is at school in Juliaca; her mother had an argument with Gregorio's parents several years ago, and left. However, Gregorio's 12 year-old nephew lives with them. His mother, Gregorio's sister, died when she was only 20. A painful illness started in her feet and spread all through her body, until it killed her. Nobody knew what it was. There are no doctors anywhere near Gregorio's farm.

INADEQUATE: not good enough

SECONDARY SCHOOL: from age 11

MAGISTRATE: a low-level judge

Gregorio is a member of a small coffee-producers' co-operative and, in 1995, he was elected to be the vice-president of CECOVASA, the central organization for all the coffee-producers' co-operatives in this area of Peru.

For information about the co-operatives:
On the Road: by mule
On the Road: by truck

The article from which this was taken, appeared in the September 1995 issue of the New Internationalist.

NI: Global Issues for Learners > The Issues > Coffee > Gregorio Gomez

Last Modified: 17 March 2000

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