“cafeín rescatará a todo de sueño de ment e liberar el espírit!” **

The cry echoed from the walls of the square facing the temple. The man proclaiming salvation, stood at its squared off base in the rising heat, bags of red and green beans around his feet. He looked good, full of energy and clear eyed. The only really strange thing was His message, salvation, freedom, energy. The Priests were angry and called for the city guard. He had seen them first at their morning meal and spread his message.

He said that he had journeyed to the mountains, far above the pampas and discovered the key to a productive life. With one bowl of the tea, he made from roasting and crushing beans, you would feel the hand Huracan and Itzamna would renew you. You only need call on the power in the morning and each man was called to enhance the blessing as he wished with goat milk, honey or salt. It was not worship and did not challenge the priest’s authority, just a simple ritual of blessing.

By the time the city guards arrived, he had given away all of his beans and directions to the mountain. While he was passing them out, he told of one who would come after him and spread word of this ritual to the world. His words are etched in my mind. “It will be as if he was surrounded by light, walking the paths of the same mountain, as I walked. His sturdy burro next to him. His smile growing and speaking in a strange tongue. Even then, I could understand him, juanvaldes! Wait for him in hope.”

The Herald was beaten and cast from the city. No one saw him again, but many made the pilgrimage to his mountain in search of the beans. The ritual was preserved, nowhere more ardently than with the city guard, and spread. Eventually, even the priests took to the ritual and made it formal.

** coffee will renew you and resurrect the spirit. Translated from an ancient manuscript found in Mayan ruins outside of Villavincenio, believed to be a coffee house.