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Colombia's new Juan Valdez is an authentic coffee grower
BOGOTA, Colombia -- After a two-year search among more than 300,000 candidates nationwide, Colombia unveiled the new Juan Valdez, the country's iconic coffee ambassador to the world.
His real name is Carlos Castaneda.
Like his two predecessors, the 39-year-old sports the leather bag, bushy mustache and straw hat typical of rural Colombia where the world-famous arabica coffee is grown.
But unlike those other Valdezes -- who were played by a Cuban-born actor and a silk-screen artisan -- Castaneda knows a thing or two about growing coffee. The oldest of 10 children born on a coffee farm, he picked his first bean at age 6.
Like most of the nation's 566,000 coffee growers, Castaneda has lived a modest life, with his family's 10-acre plot earning $200 a month.
That changed last week at a ceremony in the capital of Bogota, when Castaneda literally took over the reins of Conchita the mule from the previous Valdez -- Carlos Sanchez, who is retiring after 37 years.
Dressed in the trademark Juan Valdez poncho, Castaneda said he's nervous about his new job. "But I'm going to put all my heart and will into making sure things go well."
The Juan Valdez trademark has become one of the most recognizable in the world, the fictional figure one of the most famous Colombians of all time. Juan Valdez even made it to Hollywood, sharing a scene with Jim Carrey in the film "Bruce Almighty."
The Colombian coffee producers' federation would not say how much Castaneda will earn in the high-profile gig, other than to say it will be considerably more than his current income.
Before he was invited to the capital in May as a finalist, Castaneda had never boarded a plane. Now, he'll move from his house in the mountains of Antioquia province to live near Bogota's international airport.
"He'll spend half the year traveling, sitting in a plane and far away from his family, in order to stand for hours at events posing for photos and signing autographs," said Gabriel Silva, the general manager of the coffee federation.
Sanchez, the former Juan Valdez, has promoted Colombian coffee since 1969 with a leather bag, bushy mustache and straw hat typical of rural Colombia.
Sanchez, 71, said his advancing years made it hard to keep up a strenuous schedule traveling the globe promoting coffee. Coffee is the national product of this South American nation and was crucial in its early economic development.
The new Juan Valdez has a lot of selling to do: Colombia's coffee industry, the nation's third-largest legal export, has taken a beating during the global glut of the past decade.
Colombia exported about $1.4 billion worth of coffee last year, down some $100 million from a decade ago.
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on the photo: The new Juan Valdez, Carlos Castaneda (right), takes the reins of his trusty mule from Carlos Sanchez, the face of Colombian coffee since 1969.
The Associated Press
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