October 5th, 2005, 166 families living on the Coffee Plantation Pampojila suffered heavily when Hurricane Stan brought a massive landslide after 5 days of heavy rains. Water and mud from the mountain-side washed down through the housing area of the plantation - virtually destroying many of the small houses. Though the people were able to evacuate, the tumbling boulders and rushing water and mud caused substantial damage.

For more than four generations, the San Andres community had been living on a coffee plantation – a diminishing, though common situation in which many Maya communities find themselves.

Having lost their homes and livelihoods, the majority of the community then lived in a common hall and makeshift temporary housing facility in San Lucas. Immediately following the disaster, the owner of the plantation was approached about rebuilding the destroyed housing.

Agreeing to take responsibility for rebuilding the houses of those considered full-time ‘colonos’, or plantation-workers, the rest of the families – mostly retirees and elderly – would be forced to leave the plantation.

Of the 136 families living on the plantation, thirty families were considered ‘colonos’, and would be allowed to remain on the plantation.

Having nowhere to turn, and unacquainted with life off of the plantation, the community turned to the San Lucas Mission Land Distribution Program, a program which has distributed 3-acre plots of land to over 4,000 families throughout the past three decades.

The New Community of San Andres
Attempting to respond to the desperation and urgency of the community, the San Lucas Mission was able to raise the necessary funds to purchase land in a low-risk area with nearby access to San Lucas. With the purchase of the land taken care of, the national government then committed to providing infrastructure and partial housing through its national housing program, though the construction phase would not begin for 6-7 months.

For the meantime, the community decided to move off of the plantation and up to the new land, opting to live without access to water and electricity rather than to stay on the plantation. Through USAID, the development branch of the US government, the community was able to acquire temporary housing (15 x 20 tarp housing with tin roof), living in that until the permanent housing was built.

In late July, 2006  the new community of San Andres inaugurated the opening of the construction of their own community. Off of a coffee plantation for the first time in their known history, the community divided plots of land equally among the 166 families. Men and women wept as they drew a random number from a basket representing their new plot of land, the first lawfully acquired land titles the Maya families had in their history as a people.

By December, 2005 the majority of infrastructure and housing had been constructed in the community. Little by little, families transitioned from the temporary housing they had been living in to the permanent block housing, each house with two water spouts – compared with the single communal spout shared by 7-10 families on the plantation.

And so has begun the newest chapter of the future to be written by 166 families, for the first time out from under the oppressive conditions of plantation life, and on to a more dignified future.