At the turn of the century, (1880s) Mr Bressani moved from Parma, Italy to the US in search of work and a better life. When he arrived to the United States he met with the only banker who provided loans to immigrants. This man was the future founder of Bank of America. Whilst he couldn’t help Mr Bressani, he found him work building the tunnels for the railroad in Guatemala, which is how Mr Bressani moved to Guatemala. In the 1940s, Mr Bressani began to manage a farm, called San Jerónimo Miramar, which was located between Patulul and San Lucas Tolimán. At the time, the farm was owned by a German Jewish man. Shortly after, Guatemala declared war on Germany. Guatemala expropriated land away from all Germans and began to send them either back to Germany or to internment camps in Texas. The owner of the SJM approached Giorgio’s great-grandfather to see if he would buy the land from him. He replied that he couldn’t afford it. Once the neighbour’s farm was expropriated, the owner of SJM approached the grandfather again and said “I’m going to give you an offer you can’t refuse.” “Give me the profits from the coffee for the next 5 years, and the farm is yours.” Mr Bressani accepted. With all the earnings from the coffee going to pay off the farm, Mr Bressani bought a few cows, and sold milk locally. However, in the 1950’s, the US government donated powdered milk to Guatemala, and all dairy farmers went out of business over night. Fortunately, due to Mr Bressani’s Italian origins, his cousin knew how to make cheese. Whilst at times the dairy operation has subsidised the coffee activities, the coffee provides work for 500 families. It is with this job creation in mind that SJM desires to make coffee a profitable activity, to support the local families. There are so many layers to the San Jerónimo Miramar (SJM) story. Behind this beautiful family and coffee lie the creators of the up-cycled denim bag that Coffee Bird adopted. They have a passion for nature, the farm, and a priority to preserve the integrity of the soil.