A short drive north of Bolivia’s capital La Paz, deep in the lush green valleys of the Yungas, Alicia Calle, a middle-aged Indigenous cocalero (coca farmer), plucked the leaves off the shrubs on her immaculately clean patch, letting them fall in the pouch of the apron tied around her waist. When she’s not tending to her plot, Alicia lends a hand to the other farms in her community; they, in turn, help her when it's harvest season.
Now that I was here, she asked the gringo to assist.
“If you look after the land well and take care of it, it lasts,” she explained, pointing to one of the shrubs. “We planted this bush specifically in 1999. I remember it very well because my mother was between 40 and 50-years-old at the time. My father was a cocalero, and I’ve been a cocalero since I was ten-years-old. We’ve been doing this for centuries.”
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