Early every morning, a bus leaves the mountainous community of Loma Linda for the costal trading town and comes back again mid-afternoon. In the 1970s, sick of seeing his parishioners treated as slave labor on coffee plantations, a priest bought a plot of land in the Guatemalan highlands and gave it to his congregation. After escaping the oppressive labor demands of the plantation owners, the...
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Early every morning, a bus leaves the mountainous community of Loma Linda for the costal trading town and comes back again mid-afternoon. In the 1970s, sick of seeing his parishioners treated as slave labor on coffee plantations, a priest bought a plot of land in the Guatemalan highlands and gave it to his congregation. After escaping the oppressive labor demands of the plantation owners, the community came under the strict watch of the Guatemalan army. They were caught between the guerrillas, whom they sided with in their hearts, and the army, whom they sided with in word to save their town from the slaughter that befell many other villages. "The army couldn't divide us," Don Claudio proudly recalls. "They would send us on patrol and if we saw the guerrillas, we would let them pass. If the army asked, we didn't see anything. They never caught on." Loma Linda didn't loose anyone during the 36-year conflict. Today, the community is a quiet coffee cooperative with catholic services four times a week.
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