María Mercedes Díaz
Baker
About three kilometers outside of Quilalí, María Mercedes Díaz is stoking the coals of her baker’s oven. Every morning at three a.m., she sets to work in preparing, baking and supplying assorted baked goods, including breads, pastries, and rosquillas. By ten a.m., her goods have been shipped down the dirt road to loyal shops and customers in Quilalí.
María now has two full-time employees, in addition to the work done by her daughters. Her eldest daughter is married and lives across the street. María is passing along her baking and administrative skills, with the intention that she will inherit the business someday.
Through earnings from the bakery, María was able to improve her house, which is now a two-room concrete dwelling, with a corrugated steel roof and extended veranda. On the end of the veranda is her adobe oven, which her husband built by hand as the volume of the bakery grew.
María has taken a succession of three loans from Cooperative April 20th, to which she attributes to the success of her business. Before taking loans, she was only able to stock small amounts of baking materials. “Now I am able to buy what I need,” she says. She purchases her inputs from the Coop’s market. Although María is working to produce as much bread as she can, she still sees unmet demand. She hopes to continue expanding her business and providing baked goods for the community.
Situated on a hillside, with a panoramic view of the Segovian mountains, María concedes that there are disadvantages to living some distance from town. She prefers the quiet of countryside, however, apart from people. “It’s beautiful,” she says, “You can see the river.”
