Salavandra: A Coffee Tale: Recent Episodes
Theodore Isaac Erski
Salavandra is an isolated Caribbean island. Its products-coffee, lumber and flowers-are controlled by Penkava Inc., a New York based multinational commodity corporation. After discovering that Penkava is responsible for his father's death, as well as the abysmal working conditions on the island, coffee farmer Antonio Richards ignites a revolution in the midst of a harvest season. Branding his infant insurgency The United Front for the Liberation of Salavandra (UFLS), he begins fighting the unbridled capitalistic forces controlling his country.
The UFLS is on the run while Phillip works with Salavandra’s government to reign in the insurgents. Antonio and Phillip meet one last time.
Salavandra’s government cracks down on suspected UFLS members and tries to eliminate the growing social unrest. The UFLS strikes out against Penkava Incorporated.
The United Front for the Liberation of Salavandra (UFLS) is formed. The UFLS appeals for better wages, a democratic and transparent government, and a competitive free market on Salavandra.
Phillip appeals to Antonio to give up his struggle to improve the wages of his fellow coffee farmers. Marco and others break Antonio out of jail.
Mary secretly meets Phillip. Coffee farmers rally to Antonio and demand a livable wage from Penkava Incorporated. Antonio is arrested for disturbing the peace.
Federal soldiers search for Knox and his fellow loggers. Antonio and other coffee farmers ask for higher payment in exchange for their coffee beans.
Antonio picks coffee with a hired hand and describes the extent of Penkava Incorporated’s influence over Salavandra, as well as the company’s controlled pricing of coffee and other commodities. Antonio meets Christopher Knox while working, and later shares the Link’s information with him.
Mary, working in a greenhouse preparing flowers for export, meets Phillip. Antonio begins using a small, mobile device called a Link, which allows him unfettered access to the internet. He uses it to investigate Penkava Incorporated.
Twenty years later Phillip travels to the island of Salavandra to check on the family’s business interests. He has an ill-fated meeting with Christopher Knox, an unemployed logger. Antonio talks with his lifelong love, Mary Gonzales.
Antonio Richards (as a young boy) is picking coffee with his father when tragedy strikes. Antonio meets Phillip Penkava (also a young boy), who is heir to the Penkava family fortune.