Nieves cooks for the people
Around 6 a.m. the farmers make their way to the coffee plantation and Nieves hears steps and murmurs, the sounds of dawn. Then she gets up and starts boiling water to bathe and make coffee.
Nieves Mojena arrived in Arroyo Llano in 1984, to visit her sister. She got married and stayed. She worked for the local television station, then as custodian of the school. After taking some culinary courses, 12 years ago, she took upon herself the tiring task of cooking for the Cooperativa de Créditos y Servicios Romárico Cordero (Romárico Cordero Cooperative of Credits and Services), which does the catering for almost every occasion in the village. In her 50s, redheaded, anxious, Nieves brews coffee, trying to estimate how many people went to the coffee plantation so that she could prepare the exact amount of food. Today, for example, she cooked eight pounds of rice (a large cauldron), three pounds of peas (two pots), boiled bananas, and a piece of chicken for each, thighs or drumsticks. Sometimes she cooks goat chilindrón [a type of stew], pork, or mortadella in sauce.
At 11:30 a.m. the harvesters weigh the collected grain and rest. It's Nieves’ time: she clocks in. She likes to do it on time because, she says, “this is how production goes forward. I like to pick coffee beans, too, to avoid a surplus in the supply.” She can receive extra money for each can. Her salary as a cook is 500 pesos per month.
“We are thinking about building a house on the coffee plantations to cook there. It would be easier, because I set the pot and go with the basket, pick for a short time, then go back to check the pot … So they could eat a hot meal.”
On busy days, Nieves returns from the field at about 3 p.m. On slow days, when it gets dark. “When I arrived this afternoon I made congri [a dish of black beans and rice], and with the chicken I cooked for the house, I already have the meal prepared.” In the evening, she prepares a snack and watches TV. At 10 p.m., the electric power generator is turned off, the town gets dark, Nieves goes to sleep; then listens once more for the farmers on their way to the coffee plantation.