The New Freedom: How a Refugee Return Became a Thriving Multi-Cultural Community, Cooperative & Education Centre

Welcome back to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, as we continue a special series from Guatemala, Central America. 

I wish I’d recorded how I came to find today’s guest. In returning to this place that was home for a few years back at the turn of the century, I didn’t know who’d still be around, alive even. 

I figured that my old friends Cándido Reyes and his wife Maricela, if they were still around, would be in the returned refugee community they helped set up 30 years prior, called la Nueva Libertad (the New Freedom), just a few kilometres out of town. But after so many years, I had no chance of remembering which house was theirs, an old email address didn’t work, and an old office of theirs in town was now a restaurant.

So I asked around, and eventually got the tip I’d find them in the current facility of the legendary non-profit they continue to work for called Adelina Caal Maquín (ACM) – working with women, youth, food sovereignty, agro-ecology and, more recently, a residential secondary school in sustainable community development.

Anyway, next day, unannounced and with some timidity, I went to find them. Catching up was so wonderful and compelling, later Cándido and I pressed record on a walk around La Nueva. 

We start at ACM, wander around the gardens, the community, its schools, its innovative cooperative set up, and delve into the extraordinary stories of their lives and this place. Emerging from the horrors of war, we explore Cándido's time as a young resistance organizer, and how he later returned as a leader in the formation of the coop and community. 

We talk about the coop’s enormous successes and challenges, reconnecting with ancestors, the changing face of Fray and Guatemala, the exciting food processing venture, reflections on a life so far, and his unflinching belief in what’s possible.

Cándido is sharp, resilient and very funny. And out here, they’re lighting a beacon for Guate, and in many ways, for us all. 

Thanks again to Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott for generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English. 

Let’s head to la Nueva Libertad.

Recorded 14 January 2025.

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Music:

ONE PLACE HAS OPENED UP - Apply now to join us for Confluence 2026, a canoe journey on the spectacular Murray River, Australia. 

Pre-roll music: Heartland Rebel, by Steven Beddall (from Artlist). 

Chapters

• 0:00 Return To Fray And Reunion
• 3:23 ACM’s Mission And School Tour
• 7:38 Student Governance And Agroecology
• 12:08 Founding La Nueva Libertad
• 17:08 War, Exile, And Organized Return
• 23:38 Rebuilding Community And Identity
• 31:08 Cooperative Model And Town Design
• 38:08 Growth, Ownership, And Migration
• 44:38 Palm Oil Frontiers At The Doorstep
• 51:38 Power, Elites, And Local Democracy
• 58:38 Water, Drought, And Resilience
• 1:04:08 The Food Processing Venture
• 1:08:38 Hopes, Lessons, And Thanks