Here are photos of the coffee harvest in finca Pampojilà prior to its devastation May 29th, 2010 at the hands of Tropical Storm Agatha mixed with photos taken the day after the disaster and some a week or so later. Mud-flows buried two people alive in Pampojilà. I have set the photos in a slide show to Charlie Chaplin´s tune Smile, written for his classic movie Modern Times. The bittersweet lyric speaks to the lives of the workers in the cafetal.

My photos of the coffee-picking in Pampojilà can never be reproduced. Not only did Agatha scar Pampojilà´s face for the long-term, but morose from his losses, especially the destruction of his great-grandfather`s home, 4th generation owner Oscar Dìaz recently sold the finca to the owners of Pantaleòn, a huge sugar processing corporation. Small children may no longer accompany their mothers to the harvest, and the inter-personal relationships which united the workers from San Lucas Tolimán and their shared descendancy from San Andrès Semetabaj, from whence the first owner came, may have been lost forever.