The Women of Pueblo Nuevo

My research here in Pueblo Nuevo is strictly biology related, and earthworms are the most complex animals that I study… but it’s hard not to be a bit of an anthropologist while living in a place that is so socioeconomically and culturally different from my past experience.  One aspect of life here that is fascinating to me is the role of women.  I’ve gotten to know several women in the pueblo, and have been very interested to find out about their lives.  

Most of the women in Pueblo Nuevo marry very young, as young as fifteen (actually, many of them are not legally married to their partners, which I think has to do with the expense of a marriage license.  They still refer to each other as “my husband” and “my wife,” though, and at least in the case of the cacao farm where I do my research, even women who are not legally married to workers are covered under the health insurance policy that all employers are required under Costa Rican law to provide for employees and their families).  They have children very young as well, and the vast majority are homemakers.  They wake up before sunrise to prepare breakfast and lunch for their husbands, most of whom work in cacao, banana or pineapple plantations nearby.  The rest of the day is spent getting children ready for school, preparing lunch, doing laundry (my host mom probably does laundry three or four times a week), cleaning the house, preparing some coffee and snacks for their husband’s cafecito when he gets home from work, making dinner, and putting children to bed.  

Machismo is much more obvious here in Pueblo Nuevo than in San José; in San José I’ve met many women who are professionals, and men who cook dinner… my host father here can’t fry an egg or even make a pot of coffee to save his life!  Still, it seems like that attitude is slowly changing.  Many women are sick of having to ask their husbands for money every time they want to buy something, and they have come up with ways to earn a little money of their own.  My host mother Liliana, for example, sells products from catalogs to women in the town, and sews handbags to sell as well.  She also has a few months of beauty school experience (she dropped out after giving birth to her first child, because the hour-long weekly commute wasn’t realistic), so she paints nails or gives hair cuts for 1,000 colones ($2) each.  This way, she has a little money of her own to buy perfumes and shampoos for her and her daughters, or to get herself an occasional treat at the pulpería when she’s out for a walk.  Her dream is to go back and finish school, so that she can run a small beauty salon out of her house.  My host father has a really hard time understanding his wife’s desire to earn her own money.  He feels like he makes enough money at his job for his family to live comfortably, and he can give Liliana money when she asks for it, so there’s no reason for her to work.  He’s not intentionally sexist; that’s just the example he was given by his own parents.  

There is a small group of women in Pueblo Nuevo who are pushing the envelope even further to break free from their machista society.  The Mujeres de Amazilia, who I mentioned in an earlier post as the women who cooked us a delicious lunch when the ACM group visited Finmac in February, are really a wonderful success story.  They are a cooperative of women who buy bulk organic chocolate from Finmac (the organic chocolate farm where I’ve been doing my research), and work long hours in the kitchen of a converted house on the farm to make delicious chocolate bars.  This system is really fascinating to me, because not only is it helping the women of Pueblo Nuevo to achieve financial independence, but the production and sale of chocolate bars here in Costa Rica keeps the profits within the local economy.  A good bar of organic chocolate is expensive to buy in a grocery store, yet most countries where cacao is grown (in Central and South America, and Africa) are impoverished, and many cacao farmers struggle to make a living.  Why?  Because the cacao beans themselves are a commodity crop that is bought very cheaply and processed in Europe or the United States.  The people who make the money aren’t the farmers, they are the processors.  Hugo, the owner of Finmac has an economic advantage because he has the machinery to process the cacao beans into bulk chocolate.  In this way, he adds value to his product and is able to make a greater profit margin when he sells it.  The Mujeres de Amazilia take the chocolate one step further, actually making a finished product.  

And the product is really good: they make bars of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, with add-ins like dried ginger, almonds, peanuts, and coffee.  They’ve perfected their technique over the years, even receiving lessons from Madison chocolatier Gail Ambrosius, who has visited Finmac several times to work with the Amazilias!  The chocolate bars are gaining popularity in the country, and tourist destinations like the Tirimbina Biological Reserve have begun selling them in their gift shops.  This is really good news, because at the moment there are only about twelve Amazilias, and they don’t really have room for anymore.  However, with their increasing success, they’ve been able to raise enough funds and secure a government loan to build a chocolate factory on the property!  With more space, they’ll have more production capacity, and will hopefully be able to provide work for even more Pueblo Nuevo women.  It’s really cool to see such a success story in such a small town!

So, that’s the story of the women in Pueblo Nuevo.  A traditional machista culture with some strong women determined to exert their independence and change their role in society.