Topsfield teen plays key role helping Guatemalan farm

By Mike Stucka
Staff Writer

TOPSFIELD — Whether he's trying to renegotiate a loan with a foreign government or bring dozens of former guerrilla soldiers up to economic self-sufficiency, Mike Niconchuk's life is turning out to be, well, a bit revolutionary.

Niconchuk, a 19-year-old Topsfield native, has found himself in some unusual positions.

He and another Tufts University student created a sustainable development program in Guatemala that is now focused exclusively on a coffee farm run by former guerrillas. Though they're the same sort of people who kidnapped his grandfather and killed two of his mother's friends decades ago, Niconchuk thinks the future of the country may lie in getting such farmers to be successful.

Guatemala suffered a 36-year civil war fought over land rights, and Niconchuk said he has to bring the farmers at the Santa Anita La Unión farm more education, training, technical aid and other help for them to profit.

"Without good administration, it's not going to be a profitable farm," Niconchuk said.

The Tufts students don't know beans about growing coffee. "We recognize each of us brings some cards to the table," he said. "It's not a position I expected to be in at this age, but it's a position I'm happy to be in."

The former guerrillas have spotty access to telephones, never mind the Internet, so Niconchuk sometimes has to make decisions for adults thousands of miles away. He's lined up help from a university, a coffee growers association and other groups, but coordination is tough.

Despite Niconchuk's efforts to arrange an armed escort, a Jan. 2 trip planned for a group of other Tufts students was scuttled because of drug cartel violence. Now only Niconchuk and one other student will go to Guatemala to further the project, paying their own way during their school vacations.

Blame on both sides

Niconchuk is a product of disparate lives in Guatemala. His missionary father fell in love with Guatemalan medical student Marta. Now Marta's son is crossing social and class lines to help mediate between the government and the former guerrillas.

"It scares me. From my background, it scares me," she said. "I was raised to stay away from those things."

Her son pondered that briefly. "I would be worried if she wasn't worried," he said. "It's not my job to do things that scare her, but anything where the risk is above zero, that's going to worry a mother."

Niconchuk sees blame and fault on both sides of Guatemala's lengthy civil war, in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed.

"It's completely ridiculous and myopic on the part of the government to not secure the wellbeing and financial independence" of the guerrillas, he said. "If someone took a gun to your head in the past, you want to make them happy."

Sometimes there's culture shock. Niconchuk was helping a former guerrilla carry firewood. As they walked through the farm, the man pointed and said his friend had been shot over there.

One of Santa Anita's leaders is called Don Sergio, who helped found the guerilla group Organización Revolucionario del Pueblo en Armas.

"It was crazy to have the opportunity to speak with him. I'm not going to sit there and think he's the liberator of the oppressed, because there's always another way," Niconchuk said. "Taking up a gun is the last resort."

Guatemala's complicated.

"They tortured people, they murdered two of Mom's friends, so I wouldn't call myself a complete believer for one side or another," he said.

Long-term solutions

Niconchuk says only long-term economic stability and productive lands will settle disputes. Santa Anita's guerrillas got a repressive 12 percent loan with a short grace period, while neighboring coffee planations got 5 percent loans on better terms. One of his projects is renegotiating the loan through Fondo de Tierras, a government-based bank formed to settle land disputes — the kind that fueled decades of civil war.

On each project, he's worked closely with fellow sophomore Kathryn Taylor of Houston; other Tufts students dubbed them the "Adam and Eve" of the Guatemalan efforts. Both had applied to work in Tufts' sustainable development program in Honduras, but were rejected. They wanted to help anyway. Somehow last summer, between their freshman and sophomore years, the duo created, planned and completed the university's study service trip to Guatemala.

But far more work remains. The typical wage at Santa Anita La Unión is about $1,500 a year; some residents make half that.

The group's 10-year loan is nearly due, and the plantation has paid only interest — nothing of the principal. Coffee production was wrecked by Hurricane Stan. No workers have administrative

training, and the sole tenuous connection to the outside world is the phone of a single person, who doesn't answer often. Niconchuk wants to coordinate help, but he wonders how many volunteer organizations gave up when their e-mails went unanswered for three or more weeks.

There's hope, though. Niconchuk's working with Anacafé, the national coffee grower's association, to find an appropriate greenhouse. With more young plants growing, the farm can boost production when the coffee plants mature in three years.

Niconchuk says he knows better than to build an American-style greenhouse with plastic piping and plastic sheets. The Guatemalan variant will have a palm roof and bamboo structure, which can be easily repaired.

Searching for answers

In May, Niconchuk met with a congressman, Oliverio Garcà a Rodas. Niconchuk took careful notes, quoting Garcà a: "Guatemala is a country of many contrasts, where you are seated amongst hotels, cell phones, globalization ... but there are two worlds (here). There is a society of survival." Later, Niconchuk's notes again quoted Garcà a: "I am 61 and I am still getting to know my country."

Niconchuk will leave tomorrow to work on the loan and the greenhouse, meeting up with another Tufts student of Guatemalan descent, Sasha deBeausset. The canceled trip for more students may be moved to spring break, if the country is safe enough for the American youths.

Niconchuk knows the stakes are high.

A few days after he talked to the congressman, he was at Santa Anita La Unión, where he found a mural on the wall of the main house. The mural shows a helicopter and a tank, bodies on the ground, soldiers, a person inside a burning home. He interviewed women from the guerrilla families.

"Our fight has not ended," his notes quote Gloria Gomez. Moments later, he transcribed a comment from Fabiana Ordoñez.

"Maybe those who haven't fought yet would join, but we've already fought," Ordoñez told the Topsfield teen. "If the government doesn't listen, it will happen again."