Nicaraguan Fair Trade Producer And Activist, César Zeledon, To Visit Muhlenberg
César Zeledon, a Nicaraguan fair trade producer and activist, will visit Muhlenberg College Monday, April 19 to inform concerned citizens about the realities of coffee production and trade, how Fair Trade helps coffee farmers, and how consumers can support this critical alternative.Tuesday, April 13, 2004 01:21 PM
César Zeledon, a Nicaraguan fair trade producer and activist, will visit Muhlenberg College Monday, April 19 to inform concerned citizens about the realities of coffee production and trade, how Fair Trade helps coffee farmers, and how consumers can support this critical alternative. His visit will include a Fair Trade Coffee Tasting and Speak Out from 3-4:30 p.m. in Parents Plaza and a public presentation on "The Ecology and Politics of Fair Trade Coffee," 7:30 p.m., in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall. Both events are free and open to the public. Fair trade coffee will be available for purchase.
Zeledon is a member of the board of directors of the Organization of Northern Coffee Cooperatives (CECOCAFEN), and the managing director of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives Augusto César Sandino, San Ramon (UCA San Ramon), a second level cooperative organization. Zeledon began his lifelong participation in the struggle for rights of the Nicaraguan people during the Sandinista Revolution of 1979. During the last two years of the Revolution, he was a coordinator of the Agrarian Reform, in which the government distributed land to campesinos. After the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, and the new government began reversing many of the Sandinistas' reforms, Zeledon began organizing small producer cooperatives to protect their rights. As a result of this struggle, Zeledon helped found the UCA San Ramon in 1992, bringing together 27 base cooperatives to strengthen access to legal rights, markets, and technical assistance. Zeledon was elected as Manager of the UCA San Ramon in 1999. In 1996, the UCA San Ramon, along with 6 other cooperatives, founded CECOCAFEN.
Zeledon's visit is supported by the Center for Ethics, the Lectures Committee, Environmental Studies, sociology/anthropology, biology, the chaplain's office and Global Exchange.
