Café Diego: The Cost of a Dream

Filmmakers Mike Elzinga and Casey Stormes’s documentary raises hope that innovative, entrepreneurial thinking can have a positive impact on poor countries when progressive thinkers from wealthy countries get involved. Café Diego centers on a Nicaraguan coffee farmer named Diego Chavarria, who saw his industry bottom out during the Sandinista era. As with hundreds of other coffee farmers, Chavarria turned to his local banks for help, and soon maxxed out his credit line. Desperate, broke, heavily in debt, and with a family to feed, Chavarria prayed and vowed to follow God’s guidance. An American Christian minister befriended Chavarria, coming up with a complex but do-able solution that later involved an experienced and sympathetic American importer to help take things to the next level. Café Diego is a film that will appeal to a wide range of audiences: business people, Christians, and viewers who follow the connections between an economy and social aspirations. And Chavarria is a wonderful central figure in this inspiring personal story. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)