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Guayanilla.- It has been 147 years since Luis Roig-Labrós arrived in Barrio Jaguas Pasto in Guayanilla, where he began a farming operation for specialty coffee that has spanned five generations.

There, the crops adorn the landscape steeped in history. It holds a stunning beauty that is interwoven every day with the hard work of a family committed to harvesting the bean, and feeding the hope of a people.

This has continued for almost a century and a half, despite the natural, telluric, political, and social onslaughts on the way. They know the resilience that characterizes farmers who are not daunted by the challenges they face in picking the precious bean.

According to José Luis Roig-Franceschini, who is the fourth generation in charge of this coffee production: “There are coffees that have been lost to history, but this is a coffee that still holds a history, because it’s our legacy.”

“Our family has worked on the same site since April 16, 1876. Don Luis Roig-Labrós, who was my great-grandfather, came from Barcelona and settled in Barrio Jaguas Pasto in Guayanilla, where he got married that same day and became a farmer. Then the farm passed on to my grandfather, José Miguel Ignacio Roig-Coll, and then to my uncle and my father, José Luis Roig-Olivieri,” recalled the 62-year-old agricultural entrepreneur.

“I’m the fourth generation working at the farm. I didn’t inherit anything, but bought it little by little, day by day, with what I had. I don’t believe in luck but in opportunity. So I always prepare myself for tomorrow and for the future...,” he confessed.

His passion for agriculture began as a child, being the youngest of four children.

“I was always hard at work, helping my dad; I’m the youngest of four children. I wanted to be an agronomist (and) as a kid I dreamed of becoming a farmer. I was always on (my dad’s) tail, as they say in the country. I’d constantly work on the farm or handle the shop. I was so focused on that, I stayed and decided not to study,” he said.

Roig-Franceshini started his career in coffee production by buying 40 acres from his father. He said he then acquired other farms, which had operated in the area for decades.

“This was a coffee farm; it wasn’t the biggest. There were seven coffee farms in this barrio. I began by buying 40 acres from my dad; I rented the farm for $1,000 the first year and he told me to buy it out for $60,000. So, on a bread paper bag, we wrote the contract in 1985,” said Zaida Franceschini’s son.

“Then I bought part of the Belgodere hacienda which had 90 acres, and then Hacienda Moriviví. I later won an auction (for land) from the federal government. I was a happy man because I had just acquired the house where I was born and raised, the same piece of land where the little Roig school had been on when my grandfather transferred it over. I studied first and second grade there,” he said.

As it was, José Luis continued to acquire the surrounding land until he gained 540 acres.

“In four years, I grew like foam. I took in all that I could as I worked tirelessly; I bought a lot of coffee from other farmers. (When) I was born, I already had a story to tell. I didn’t write it, but I’m a part of it and, when you’re a part of something, you work for it,” stated Roig-Franceschini, father of two agronomists and a civil engineer.

In addition to coffee, the Roig farm has minor fruit plants such as citrus and bananas.

However, the disaster created by Hurricane María in September 2017 caused the loss of 150 acres of coffee. Due to the crisis, this farmer from Guayanilla changed from sowing his coffee in the sun, to keeping it shaded under four different trees: guava, guama, Spanish elm and moca.

“They’re leguminous plants. It’s how a tree is classified when its leaf falls on the ground and decomposes, creating nitrogen. So, instead of having the soil exposed, it’s covered by a blanket of shadows. It’s arabica coffee, we’re using limani and fronton,” he said.

Speaking about growing coffee, Roig-Franceschini established that “we handle all the stages: from germinating, planting in nurseries, transplanting the seeds for sowing, to producing coffee; we harvest it when it’s 100% mature.”

“Then we prepare it, pulp it, wash it, remove its mucilage, and place it in the drying bed under the sun. Our system works by letting them dry out this way for four days,” he highlighted.

At the farm there are more than 20 sheep which weed out eight acres of crops. According to Roig-Franceschini, this process is part of an ecological system where animals are released at 8:00 in the morning and herded at 12:00 noon.

In the meantime, he explained that when they sent the product to the United States, it was classified as a “specialty coffee.” Thus “Café Roig” was born, giving birth to the fifth generation of coffee producers through his children.

“We launched the brand in October 2016. Now we have 35 acres planted, my son has 10 and I buy coffee from four other farmers. My son is the fifth generation (of coffee producers), with the sixth on the way because of my four grandchildren.”