Several years ago we interviewed Yimara Martinez Agudelo. That was before she joined CQI to run the post-harvest processing program. Her story is a wonderful example of how the Q can have impact in coffee communities, so we are reposting.
My name is Yimara Martinez Agudelo. I am from a small town called Tunía in the state of Cauca, Colombia. I am the daughter of smallholder coffee farmers, and all my life I have been around coffee and the people who produce it. Thanks to my parents who encouraged me to learn to be able to support more producers like them, I have had the opportunity of being trained as a cupper in the FCC- Federación Campesina del Cauca, a beautiful organization of small producers in Cauca. When I was 15 years old and I started working with coffee community organizations. A couple of years later I received my Q Grader certification, and at that moment we had the opportunity to reopen the FCC coffee school in the service of educating sons and daughters of coffee producers promoting the generational change, which I was part of as the quality control leader for about 7 years.
My work in coffee has been focused as a quality analyst (cupper) as well as providing educational training to coffee growers and the new generation of coffee growers in my region. This work was promoting the improvement of agricultural practices, environmental care, quality controls and the impact of quality in coffee. Also working in coffee I met my husband, and that is the reason why I currently live in the United States, Portland Oregon. Living here is how I have it the opportunity to be part of the Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers team, who also is the importer for the Federacion Campesina del Cauca in which I worked for so many years in Colombia.
This is really a beautiful story because I have been able to be part of many steps in the coffee chain, from living on a farm as a producer to working at a cooperative and supporting other coffee farms. Also having the chance to work with exporters and now being able to work with an importer and to receive the coffees as they arrive. My work today is very important and allows me to learn and understand more about the coffee world and give me the chance to continue sharing knowledge, promoting quality, and not just one country but in many coffee-growing countries. This is something I never imagined, of having the opportunity to teach in the United States, in Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Rwanda! That gives me an immense amount of joy because I understand all the challenges that coffee producers have in order to grow coffee and my intention is to be able to give them back a little of how much they give us.
In 2016 I began volunteering with the CQI as the Q processing program began to build on its relationship with Tecnicafe in Cauca. In this step of learning from the best in processing and intense work, I start preparing to become an instructor and I am very proud to have been the first woman certified as a processing instructor for both levels, the general level, and professional level and I am currently working on completing my project of the expert level, thanks to the support of the company for which I work currently and to the support of all who have believed in me, including my mentors.
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Being a coffee processing instructor a field where there are many men full of knowledge and who dominate the area, motivates me to be better, to strive to learn, but also being an instructor in this category teaches me, that I can do it, that is possible. And teach everyone to be humble with what they know, no matter if they know little or know a lot, the important thing is to share it and accept when we don't know because that's how we all learn because we all start in the same place.
My special message is to all these women in the world who do incredible jobs, who strive to be better so that the world recognizes how capable we are. No matter what difficulties or obstacles in life we have gone through, the important thing is not to forget where we came from, do better for others, we have to try, we have to make a difference, we must try, nothing is easy in life but it can be done if we try and persist in our dreams, believe in yourself!
