Karol and her husband Diego Leguiazmo are two young growers whom we couldn’t be prouder to represent. In fact, Diego and Karol were two of the original members of the Monkaaba initiative when it started in 2021, pitching in financially to allow for the start-up of the farm-based roasting and cupping lab where all these lots are selected through. Daughter-in-law of Arnulfo Leguizamo, past Cup of Excellence winner in Colombia and a veritable local legend in San Agustin, Karol manages her small 0.5 hectare plot of Sidra within the broader Leguizamo family farm and it is consistently an amazing lot.
Beyond Karol and Diego’s financial implications from the beginning in Monkaaba, Karol has also been a formative member of the Monkaaba team who has jumped at the opportunity to learn as much as she can about the coffee production system past the farm level. Her engagement in the lab has set an example for other young women smallholders to get involved in the bodega. This progression shows the realization of the focus of forwarding peripheral smallholders on the supply chain. Going from producers with coffee and no steady buyer, to assessing their own coffees, roasting them, and managing the export and sale of them leads them to a place of increased autonomy and agency, and of course, to an improved accrued value.
