Born in 1929 in Jacaltenango, six hours by road from Guatemala City, López spent his early years as a subsistence farmer. At age 32 he started working for the Maryknoll Brothers, a Catholic missionary group, providing them with a "horse taxi" on trips to mountain villages. The missionaries taught him to read, and soon he was taking agriculture courses.

Eventually López bought land, planted coffee, joined a growers' cooperative and began showing a gift for leadership. He was named president of Guatemala's Federation of Coffee Growing Cooperatives and was sent to the United States to study Native American agricultural cooperatives. Later he was elected director of Guatemala's National Coffee Growers' Association. He served as mayor of Jacaltenango from 1968 to 1970.

Like all Guatemalans, López often found himself in the crossfire of his country's long civil war. Some times he was harassed by left-wing guerrillas and other times by the Army. Through it all, he worked doggedly at what matters to him most: helping small farmers make the transition from subsistence to prosperity.

Today López is recognized as one of Guatemala's foremost authorities on small-scale agriculture and cooperative farming. Last year, when the government launched its ambitious Community Development for Peace Program (DECOPAZ), López was named to serve on the program's executive board, along with six other leaders from government, indigenous communities and the private sector.

López is enthusiastic about decopaz, which will finance grass-roots infrastructure and production projects with support from $50 million in IDB financing. He likes the fact that the project puts financing directly in the hands of qualified local communities, which are free to choose projects based on their own priorities.

"The villagers are the real experts when it comes to their own development," López says. "This project finally gives them the wherewithal to do something about it."