Costa Rica after Coffee: The Co-op Era in History and Memory

Abstract

In 1986 the field of Costa Rican history underwent a dramatic shift thanks to Lowell Gudmundson's pathbreaking Costa Rica before Coffee. The title of Gudmundson's most recent publication highlights the connection the author makes between these two monographs. In Costa Rica after Coffee, Gudmundson examines the role coffee cooperatives played in creating conditions that supported the upward mobility of small-scale coffee farmers in the post–1948 Civil War era. Additionally, he considers the political, demographic, and geographical consequences of this triumph. This analysis builds on Gudmundson's work in Costa Rica before Coffee, where he demonstrated how coffee's introduction in the mid-nineteenth century transformed Costa Rica, by ushering in a period of widespread prosperity. Indeed, this crop provided both small and large landowners with the conditions for economic advancement.In just over one hundred pages Gudmundson ambitiously seeks to historically define three processes of considerable importance to contemporary Costa Rican society. First, he explores how small- and medium-scale coffee producers successfully organized cooperatives in the post-1948 period and the broad socioeconomic consequences of their efforts. Second, Gudmundson interrogates the causes and consequences of reduced coffee production in more recent decades. Last, he sets out to uncover what can account for the dramatic political shift from a Social Democratic to a Center-Right political platform on the part of the nation's once dominant National Liberation Party, or PLN.At first, the PLN's transformation may appear unrelated to the issues of cooperative development and declining coffee production, but Gudmundson skillfully makes use of census data, probate records, oral histories, participant observation, and a variety of secondary sources to convincingly argue that these processes are deeply intertwined.The book's introduction and first chapter provide readers with a basic overview of Costa Rica's post-1948 political history. Gudmundson examines the fundamental role small- and medium-scale coffee producers played in securing the PLN's political victories after 1948. The PLN courted farmers’ votes through populist ideals, anti-communist rhetoric, and policies that supported the formation of coffee cooperatives.In chapters 2 and 3, Gudmundson researches the first generation of cooperative farmers. These chapters underscore the social transformation that the cooperatives brought their members, who invested in the dream of a cooperative to process their crops. Gudmundson concludes this analysis by arguing that the coffee boom of the 1970s, which saw production rise alongside coffee prices, affirmed to many observers that the PLN's social democratic model of agrarian-centered, cooperative-based development had succeeded.In 1989, the system would implode with the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement, or ICA. Chapter 4 analyzes how farmers adapted to this dramatic event, which saw global coffee prices plummet. Post-ICA, the emergence of private microbeneficios that process small quantities of beans in situ allowed farmers to create new opportunities based on quality. These microprocessors participate in annual competitions for “best coffee” awards. The consequences of winning are real. Indeed, a 2017 winner was paid $8,000 for each fanega of coffee they sold, while the average producer earned just $140 per fanega. In 2015, microprocessors received over a third of the annual harvest. The microprocessors’ focus on quality and their ability to generate profits have clearly allowed them to chip away at the cooperatives’ once near monopoly on coffee processing.In chapter 5, Gudmundson explains how the first generation of cooperative farmers’ prosperity permitted their children to earn university degrees and contribute to the formation of a new economy ripe with opportunities for educated workers. An unintended consequence is that coffee farmers today are aging without heirs to replace them, leading many, especially in the Central Valley, to sell their farms to developers. Gudmundson argues that as coffee production has steadily declined, aging farmers and their professional children have increasingly come to see free trade, decreased social spending, and other neoliberal policies as favorable to their interests. In this context, the PLN's recent rightist turn might best be understood as a reflection of a broader shift in the economic and political outlook of this party's traditional base.Gudmundson deserves high praise for not only producing a smartly argued monograph but doing so in just over one hundred pages. The book, however, is dense, requiring sustained attentive reading despite the clarity of Gudmundson's prose. Ultimately, Costa Rica after Coffee affirms Gudmundson's prominent position in the field of Costa Rican studies and promises to become required reading for Costa Ricanists. This book additionally will appeal to Latin Americanists interested in the process of cooperative development.