Cafe El Zapoteco is a loosely organized but deeply connected community of around 180 coffee-producing families across three towns in the Sierra Juárez mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Led by Romulo Chavez, the group centers around the town of Santo Domingo Cacalotepec—its name blending Spanish and Zapotec, with “Cacalotepec” meaning “mountain of the raven,” symbolized on their coffee bags by a raven holding a coffee cherry. The majority of members are of Zapotec heritage and speak Zapoteco as their first language. The cooperative is rooted in strong communal traditions; during harvest, neighbors help each other pick coffee in exchange for a shared meal rather than money, reinforcing tight-knit relationships and shared responsibility.

Romulo has been working tirelessly to establish direct trade connections that offer better prices and more stability to the producers, who typically manage small farms averaging under one hectare. Their washed coffees are fermented in wooden tanks and dried on rooftops or woven mats under the cool, misty mountain sun. Despite the region’s great potential for quality, producers face serious challenges: low yields due to disease like coffee leaf rust, and a lack of financial and technical support. Most coffee is sold to local intermediaries without traceability. Through close collaboration with Raw Material and like-minded roasters, there’s a long-term vision to improve yields, increase quality, and ensure more sustainable livelihoods for the producers of Cafe El Zapoteco.