Customer Reviews

A Cafecito Story

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This simple story of a man, a new life, and a family struggling to survive and to be literate was moving to me. The lovely illustrations are woodcuts by Belkis Ramirez, an artist from the Dominican Republic. Also, as a rabid coffee lover, it brought back memories of rich aromatic coffee in cafes in Guatemala and Mexico. I recommend this book for anyone who is trying to live her or his life deliberately, trying to help with sustainable agriculture, and trying to make a difference in small but vital ways to a more balanced global economy.

I picked this book up purley by chance. It was on a featured book table at my local library. I don't normaly real a lot of fiction but something made me check it out. I brought it home and started reading it the next morning while having my morning coffee. Theres something in the author's writing style that just makes you want to read more and more. I will most deffinently be purchasing this book and cherishing it forever. Thank you Julia Alvarez!

A Cafecito Story is written by the well-known author, Julia Alvarez. It is a story about finding yourself and finding what will truly make you happy in life. The story is about a young man named Joe. Joe was born and raised in a small town in Nebraska. The town was a farming town so Joe grew up learning how to be a farmer. Joe's father was his most influential role model. Joe's father taught him the values of life. Joe wanted to be as loving and as good a farmer as his father was one day. As time goes by, the farm's business begins to fall. The farm must be put up for sale. Joe was sad when the farm was sold because it was the place he had grown up in. It was his home. When Joe becomes older he becomes a schoolteacher, meets and falls in love with a woman and gets married to this woman and also moves to Omaha. As time goes by, the marriage begins to fail. Feeling lost and confused, Joe plans a trip to the Dominica Republic at Christmas time. Joe just wanted to get away from his everyday life so that he could think about the way his life was going. After Joe had arrived in the Dominican Republic, one morning he was having a cup of coffee. A random woman told him that she could predict his future by looking at the stains in his coffee cup. The woman tells Joe that he will begin a new life in the mountains with the natives of the land. After hearing this, Joe decides to take a trip to the mountains. While in the mountains he stays with a family that reminds him of his own. This family owns a coffee farm. While staying with this family, Joe learns of the struggles that these people go through everyday of their lives. He soon learns that the family is going to have to sell their beloved coffee farm to a large industry that will make more coffee in less time and in turn make more money. The only way that the farm will be saved is if someone else buys the farm and helps run it. After learning of this option, Joe decides to buy the farm. He stays on the farm and grows coffee. Joe is proud of what he is doing with his life and for once in his life he feels happy. Joe knew that he was doing the right thing.
The book was a wonderful story of finding yourself. It is a short quick read but contained much meaning. Many people today go their whole lives and are never truly happy. Joe knew that he had to change his life. A lot can be learned from this book. It is a heart-warming story filled great lessons for all people. Joe followed his dreams and took a chance. All people need to take chances in life. Some chances pay off and some do not, but that is what life is, one big chance.

I got sucked into this story. As I read Alvarez's description of this coffee I kept thinking, "This stuff sounds amazing! I wish I could have some!" When I got to the end of the book I learned that I can purchase this coffee from the plantation (may not be the right word) Alvarez and her husband are involved in. I felt duped. This book is an ad for the coffee. I can't believe I spent my money and time on an ad. Ugh.

While perusing an independent bookstore in Pasadena, CA, I discovered *A Cafecito Story* in between two giant tomes of little interest; but somehow, this slime volume caught my eye and then my interest as I read the back cover and flipped through the book to see the wonderful woodcuts by Belkis Ramírez.

This is the simple story of Joe, the son of a farmer in Nebraska. Disaffected by the direction of farming as the corporations buy up family farms - including his families when his father is forced to sell a large part of the land to pay the bills - and the ruin this brings to the local economies, Joe decides farming is not for him. He moves to the city, marries a city girl, becomes a teacher, divorces the city girl, and at 40 finds himself near burnout and realizing that he can't even enjoy a cup of coffee. So, he decides to take a vacation.

His travels and budget land him at a resort in the Dominican Republic; but, soon he is bored with sitting by the pool and the sterility of resort protected behind walls and guards from the population of the land. At the recommendation of one of the resort's employees, Joe visits the mountains and the coffee farm of the employee's relative. Here is where Joe's life changes forever.

This semi-autobiographical novella by Julia Alvarez (writer-in-residence at Middlebury College and who was born in the Domincan Republic) is a metaphor for the discovery that the author and her husband made while visiting the place of her birth. It is also the story of how people can change the way things are done for the better and in the course of it all begin to change the world. If you are familiar with the concept of Fair Trade in the world of coffee and chocolate and the like, you will really enjoy this look at some of the movement's roots - if you aren't familiar, this book will open your eyes.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Delightful, charming story, based on a true, organic, working coffee farm in the Dominican Republic. Illustrations are delightful and enhance the story and the imagination!

This short work, is the story of coffee, "a social beverage that bridges nations and unites people in trade, in words, in birds, and in love . . . through the eyes of Joe, a man with farming in his blood but an increasing sense of dislacement from the natural world."

Joe is the son of Nebraska farmers. He loves to farm, the small farms go under, and he winds up teaching, though he still yearns for a connection with nature. Then, he takes a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Escaping the gated resort where he is staying, he goes into the mountains and discovers coffee and the coffee growers. They, too, are threatened by agribusiness, companies that spray the coffee with veneno (poison).

Joe buys a parcel of land, and, with another grower, forms a cooperative. Others join them. But they do more than grow coffee the "old-fashioned" way. They promote literacy, and sustainability.

There is also a love story here, not, they are careful to say, the story of Alvarez and her husband, but I think there is something of them in Joe and "the woman behind the counter".

There is an afterword by Bill Eichner about their coffee farm, as well as a list of resources.

The woodcuts by Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez are wonderful. I especially like the one of "the woman behind the counter", as she sits with the steam from the coffee rising, and her hair, flowing out and upwards, has visions of a coffee farm in its curls.

The book A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez is about a journey of a man named Joe. Joe worked with his father on their farm in Nebraska for most of his life early life before his father had to sell it. After his father sold the farm he found work as a schoolteacher where he was very unhappy. Joe thought that he needed some change so he decided to take a trip to the Dominican Republic. While on his trip he went to a café where he met a women who tells Joe about his life and future. She says that she sees him having a new life in the mountains. After hearing this Joe takes a trip to the mountains where the excellent coffee beans are made. There he meets Miguel and his family who farms coffee beans the old way. Joe learns about the family and all their struggles they have to go through everyday to make a living and to stay alive. Miguel is having trouble producing coffee fast enough because all the larger companies can produce more of it and do in less time. Miguel is forced to sell some land. Joe not only buys some land and learns how to farm coffee, but he also teaches the family to read so they can pass on there legacy of how to produce the coffee bean. Joe learns how much work goes into making a good cup of coffee. Joe is also happy because like his father he is working on a farm making his own living. As time goes on many other small time farmers join the pact of the little farmers which allows all the little farmers to keep their farms running. Joe takes a chance and lives out his dream of doing what his father once did. I think that this book shows how even though you may be the little guy you can accomplish anything. I also think that this book teaches people that they can do anything if they are dedicated and put their minds to it. I liked the book because not only did it teach some important lessons, but also I could imagine myself in the situation very easily. It was not a hard read and was rather enjoyable.

A Cafecito Story is a well written novel by Julia Alvarez. The main character is Joe. While on a trip in the Dominican Republic, he meets a lady who can tell the future. There she tells him that he should be in the mountains. So the mountains is where he goes. He meets Miguel there. Him and his family struggle growing coffee beans the old fashioned way. Joe learns that the family can not read or write. Joe was a teacher before, so he teaches them to read and write. He ends up buying a part of their land when he finds out how much they need the money. Joe, like his father once was, becomes a famer himself. Instead he is growing coffee beans. He learns the difficulties and struggles that come along with being a small time farmer. The book was an easy read. It was a very short book. It showed a good perspective of a farmer and the ups and downs that they face in everyday life.

In the midst of large-scale corporate agriculture, there are many independent small farmers that hope to stay that way, growing crops in an environmentally natural manner. One such group is the coffee farmers that grow what is known as free-trade coffee. This story is about one such group in the Dominican Republic.
The title character is a Nebraska farm boy named Joe that is watching the world around him change. Where he used to see fields of grain, his senses are now bombarded with the sight of buildings and he is filled with regrets. He travels to the Dominican Republic on an organized vacation but while there he breaks out of the tourist routine and makes friends with a family that own and operate a small coffee farm. They are illiterate and struggling to survive as they grow coffee trees the way it should be grown, shaded by other trees. Joe decides to stay and live with them, teaching the family how to read and write while working on their farm.
With his help the local farmers band together to form a cooperative to grow coffee naturally and become part of the free trade movement. This is a movement where the farmers agree to raise their crops in an environmentally natural way and their produce is then marketed at a price that will allow them to make a profit and stay in business.
This is a nice short tale about one simple way that people can make an environmental impact. The free trade movement is one with enormous potential for environmental and economic change in the developing world. It allows farmers to make a profit while sustaining the soil and preserving the environment. I do not drink coffee, but after reading this book I decided to give bags of free trade coffee to a few people as Christmas presents.