Coffee co-op percolating

The Arizona Republic

Douglas-area activists rescue Mexican town's industry

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau

SALVADOR URBINA, Mexico - A decade ago, plunging coffee prices sent farmers in this Mexican village fleeing north toward the Arizona border in search of other jobs.

Now a handful of those refugees have set out to rescue their hometown, forming a cooperative to ship Salvador Urbina's coffee beans over the border to Douglas, then sell them throughout the United States.

Their story - and that of Salvador Urbina, the economic disaster that befell it and the Arizona connection that the farmers hope will save it - began in the southernmost corner of Chiapas state.

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