I was born in Tlaxcala, Mexico, and grew up in Guatemala City. Like many of us who have grown up in coffee-producing countries, my first coffee was instant coffee with creamer, sugar, and sweet bread souped. At 17, I had the opportunity to go on a cultural exchange in New Zealand. There I had my first espresso and was first exposed to a culture of coffee consumption that did not yet exist in Guatemala. Also, many people would know my home country for its good coffee. It made me feel proud and excited that on the other side of the world, people taught me facts about my own country that I didn't know myself. It was an instant match.
I studied Media and Communication in university, and since 2006 I have worked in different parts of the production chain. In 2016 I felt like I hit a big wall. They had not yet begun to talk about specialty coffee in coffee shops (baristas primarily calibrated espressos with commercial coffee by volume and time), so I decided to move to Mexico City. I had the firm conviction to learn more about specialty coffee and hospitality in a city where this is consumed the most in Latin America.
I was there for five years; during this time, I worked as a head barista and supported the opening of a roastery in CDMX. I led the opening of a coffee shop in Tulum and developed coffee courses in San Cristóbal las Casas. In 2019 I moved to Guadalajara to work with the leading roastery and distributor of roasted Mexican specialty coffee as a brand ambassador, project development, and quality control supporter.
Mexico taught me a lot, but in 2020 due to the pandemic, I had to find new forms of income and a job from home. I moved back to Guatemala City and learned to trade as a broker; I had my first contact commercializing coffees from various LATAM countries remotely. By the end of 2021, I was recruited to work in one of the largest coffee exporters in Guatemala as a coordinator of specialty coffees. I had an approach to supply, quality, processing, and shipments there.
What I love the most about coffee is that each cup is unique and unrepeatable, and if you understand coffee like that, then you realize that each hand manipulating each variable leads to a beautiful game of infinite possibilities of coffee and human relationships.