60% of the world’s coffee is grown by people with fewer than 12 acres. Many that we have met have far fewer, even, than that.

Pascual Hernandez learned everything he knew about coffee from his father. He, in turn, learned everything he knew from his father before him. And so it goes, back down the generations. Coffee has always been the family legacy. Today, his four sons, two daughters, and their families are all involved to some extent in the coffee production on his land. It is most definitely a family affair.

If, over the last 15 or so years, you have found yourself in an audience listening to Bob give his business group presentation on “What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur,” then you will know that he always leads with the Three D’s.

Desire. Anyone that wants to be in business for themselves has plenty of that. That’s the easy part.

Dedication, as Bob defines it, is an adherent, steadfast commitment to bringing that idea to life, with a large helping of determination to overcome every obstacle, on the side.

But perhaps the hardest D is Dependability. It is, after all, just another word for responsibility: to yourself, to your employees and partners, and to your community. It’s about living up to your word every day, and ALWAYS being there, especially when the going gets tough.

Miguel Angel Cruz is a living example of the Three D’s.

Inspired to pay forward the help he received from La Fortaleza, Salomon started a nursery to produce rust-resistant coffee plants that he gives away, for free, to his neighbors. It’s this scientific and community-based mind that makes Salomon a perfect partner with LaFortaleza and thereby with One BIGG Island in Space. When we first met Salomon, he said, “When I see my son following in my footsteps, that’s when I know I am on the right path.” For Salomon, it has never been about his own trajectory. Salomon does what he does for his family and for his community.

Martha is justifiably proud of her land and her coffee. The setting is beautiful, a lush tropical forest with sounds of birds and water in the distance. And her plants are healthy and thriving. She is the face, and the lead producer for a group of 30 of her neighbors, mostly male, and many significantly older than she is. In a culture in which women are typically constrained to traditional roles, Martha is unequivocally in charge.

In 2005, a 17-year-old Sixto Rodriguez started as a field worker at El Recreo, using his machete to clear the rows between the coffee plants of weeds. He is a neighbor, with his own 2-acre farm just a short walk away. And he applied all that he has learned about regenerative farming practices to his own plot of land. He has been so successful in improving his coffee that in 2023, El Recreo began purchasing the entirety of his crop to be included in our OBIIS partnership.