The town of Salazar de Las Palmas, founded in 1583, is home to a people known for its courageous Indian and Spanish ancestors.
Salazar claims to have been the first coffee-growing town in Colombia, a claim that is not put in doubt. According to historians, the person who almost single-handedly introduced coffee, the product which would become so closely identified with the country, was the Jesuit priest Francisco Romero.
His method was direct and simple: upon hearing confession he would tell his flock to plant coffee beans as penance. Thus it was that coffee planting sprang up in all the towns of Colombia's province of North Santander, on the border with Venezuela.
The Colombian Architect and painter Fernando Turk Rubiano has painted a beautiful watercolor of this town. You can see his entire art collection at www.colarte.arts.co.
Yours truly,
Mariano Ospina
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