The land where the finca is located has belonged to Altamirano’s family for generations. As long as I remember, they were property of Mr. Leandro Altamirano, son of Marcelino Altamirano who inherited to Miss. Filomena Altamirano that never got married and who sold them to his nephew Samuel Altamirano Garcia on july 7th, 1930. On that time the land extension was of 40 hectares and in this area, the house where my mother Josefa Dominguez Zavaleta, was constructed. At the beginning there were two Fincas: “Unidad nepopoalco” was one and it means “place of counting” and “Texala” that means “sand” in nahuatl. In the finca “Unidad Nepopoalco”, my family built an old house where I live nowadays. Over time, my father, Samuel, became the most important coffee trader of Zongolica’s coffee. The house was originally used as a buying point of cherry coffee which on that time was moved on donkeys and horses. The family business was buoyant, until 1961 where the coffee prices fell down and my father borrowed a lot of money and wasn’t able to pay his debts. Then he decided to pay with the house, the beneficio and all his belongings. He was ruined and fell into a great sadness, he begun to sell his finca Texala and some portions of Unidad Nepopoalco. Since I was adolescent I had to work. In order to survive I worked as finca laborer, arriero (muleteer), mason, I was staff of paludismo’s prevention campaign in Papantla Veracruz, I worked as person in charge of nursery at Instituto Mexicano del Café. I also worked in constructing the road Zongolica-Zomajapa for the vehicles had access to nepopoalco town. I finally worked at the Mexican Salubrity Institute and after 28 years I got retired. I have never abandoned the finca, but I always sold the coffee in cherry. In 1992, when the prices rose, I built a small beneficio, bought a pulping machine and an engine for it, all the equipment I can afford, was of second hand. My oldest son, Samuel, migrated to United States for helping the family with some money but once i got retired, he came back and begun to work on the finca with me. After a lot of effort, in 2009 we were able to have some savings for buying a small drying machine for working better considering the changing climate of Zongolica. Samuel calibrated the pulping machine, adjusted the engine and constructed washing stations. We got in touch with CAFECOL (Centro Agroecológico del Café) and Sustainable Harvest, who were special support and guidance on developing the profile of our coffees towards specialty coffee and micro-lots. With a lot of effort, but above all, we sent our first micro lot to Japan. In 2012-2013 we were able to do all the process by our own effort and we did another export almost by ourselves. We learnt to prepare zero defects lots. Having this good experience with our buyers from Japan, we decided to participate in cup of excellence, because we trust in our work and in our coffee.  We are a living example for all the growers of Zongolica we demonstrate that coffee is still a good, noble activity and is profitable. We encourage them not to give up in the coffee growing and to improve their cultivation and processing techniques, because for us the coffee is a jewel that we already have, it is like a diamond that has to be polished to get its forms and shine. This result makes me feel proud of my activity and my origins. Over time we decided to change the finca name, because Nepopoalco is the name of the town where we live. We decided to change the name to “El Estribo” the stirrup, the piece needed for get on the horse, an animal that gives triumphs but for so, it is needed to mount it. With all the work, we put our feet on the stirrups to move and go further guiding with the reins of hard work, collaboration, trust and quality.

It is a pride to belong to a very marginal area but above that having obtained such a high score. We feel a great happiness and emotion, there is no words to express our feeling. We are going to promote Cup of Excellence and the results, what participating means and the benefits that can bring to our land, we hope that other growers become more aware of the meaning of quality.