Operating as museum, hotel, agrotourism; open to the public, tours by reservation
Hacienda Lealtad also known as Hacienda La Lealtad,[2] and Hacienda la Esperanza (Lealtad Plantation in English) is a historic coffee plantation in barrio La Torre, Lares, Puerto Rico. A large hacienda, it was founded in 1830, by Juan Bautista Plumey, a French immigrant, who arrived in Puerto Rico with enslaved people. (Juan Bautista Plumey was born in France on September 8, 1797, and named Jean Baptiste Henri Plumey.)[3]
It would become the largest coffee plantation in Lares, with over thirty slaves and hundreds of day laborers working the 69 cuerdas of coffee farm. For many years the plantation was a large producer and exporter of coffee. Day laborers, jornaleros or braceros from Lares worked in the coffee fields of the hacienda. In 1880, it was owned by Miguel Marquez Enseñat.
It is now owned by Edwin Soto and his family, who invested millions into its restoration and operate the hacienda as a hotel, coffee shop and a living museum recreating the historical setting of the height of coffee production in Puerto Rico. Coffee growing in Puerto Rico has seen a resurgence and Hacienda Lealtad produces coffee under the brand Café Lealtad. The Café Bistro Hacienda Lealtad on Puerto Rico Highway 128 kilometer 55.8, is where groups meet for the start of their tour of the 19th century coffee plantation.
Brief history
The "Glácil" is the area where 21 female slaves worked, setting the coffee out under the sun to dry.
Lares was founded on April 26, 1827, and became an important location of coffee production in Puerto Rico. In 1830, Juan Bautista Plumey established Hacienda Lealtad, the coffee producing farm. Plumey, a French immigrant[4] had come to Lares with 32 slaves. On May 20, 1833, he married Petronila Irizarry from nearby San Sebastián, Puerto Rico(Pepino) and they had twelve children.[5]José María Marxuach Echavarría, twice mayor of San Juan, married one of Juan Bautista Plumey daughters.
Hacienda Lealtad is in mountainous Lares, Puerto Rico.
After Plumey established Hacienda Lealtad, it became the largest and most modern of its time given it was the first to generate its own electricity to power the hacienda's machinery and mills. A canal and aqueduct guided water from the mountainside to a 17-foot hydraulic wheel to generate power to the plantation.[6][7][8]
The slave quarters at Hacienda Lealtad was renovated.
By 1846, Juan Bautista Plumey's hacienda which at the time was called Hacienda La Esperanza "was the only property labeled as an hacienda in official documents. He had 69 cuerdas planted in coffee worked by 33 slaves."[9] Plumey did not allow his workers to work on any other farm.[10][11]
In 1868, Lares was the site of Grito de Lares, a two-day revolt against the crown of Spain.[12] While some documents state that people from Hacienda Lealtad participated in the revolt, a historian named Joseph Harrison Flores, with the National Archives of Puerto Rico, studied the history of the estate and Grito de Lares[13] stated that only an eight-year-old child of a slave from Hacienda Lealtad was at the revolt, and spent 6 months in prison.
In 1873, slavery was abolished and a few years later, "by the 1880s coffee had replaced sugar as Puerto Rico's leading export staple and principal source of wealth."[9]
In 1880, when it was called Hacienda Paraiso, it was owned by Miguel Marquez Enseñat[14] who paid workers with hacienda token money, which could only be used to purchase goods from a store at the hacienda itself.[15]
Drawing of a coffee farm in Lares depicted in a newspaper article titled "Porto Rican wealth" in June 8, 1901
Coffee production and exportation dropped considerably after Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States- with the 1898 Treaty of Paris, and eventually, the plantation fell into disuse and decline.
The place had sentimental value to Edwin Soto, a Puerto Rican businessman from Lares, who had picked ripe coffee beans there as a child, with his family. Soto who had become a self-made millionaire decided he would buy the hacienda as a second home.[17] While Soto's initial intentions for the property, when he purchased it in 2007, were to keep it as a second home he later decided to conserve it for its historic importance. Soto invested millions of dollars into its restoration and Hacienda Lealtad now it is now a living museum with tours by appointment, a hotel, coffee shop, and educational tours for local and international tourists. It also serves as a place for people in the agriculture and coffee industry to meet and hold workshops.
In 2014, the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture began an initiative to develop agricultural tourism and in 2016, Hacienda Lealtad was endorsed by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (Compañia de Turismo de Puerto Rico). Since the start of its restoration Café Lealtad, Inc., as the company is called, has purchased coffee seeds and other equipment and services from the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture.[18][19]
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue held a town hall meeting in Hacienda Lealtad with Jenniffer González, farmers and other stakeholders after Hurricane María.
Students of agriculture and members of agricultural associations visit Hacienda Lealtad in groups for workshops[20] and as Puerto Rico continues to strengthen its agricultural industry, thirty Puerto Rican farmers completed an intensive, eight-week course on the business side of agriculture, at the hacienda.[21] The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez opened an Hacienda Lealtad Café in early 2019.[22]
Tours were underway regularly until Hurricane Maria hit on September 20, 2017. A week after a relieved Soto reported that Hurricane Irma had not done much damage to the coffee trees on the estate, Hurricane Maria destroyed all the coffee trees, around 60,000. Clean-up, restoration and planting began anew soon afterwards and tours and functions at the hacienda resumed.
A few months after Hurricane Maria struck, a meeting was held by the Secretary of Agriculture, farmers and stakeholders at Hacienda Lealtad.
Attractions
Corredoras were used to protect coffee beans from rain.
The 19th century, coffee farming culture of Puerto Rico where jornaleros[2] and slaves processed coffee for its distribution to Europe, is on display at Hacienda Lealtad. Educational tours where people can learn about coffee cultivation are available, by reservation, and the main attractions are:[23][24][25]
a former post office
the landowner's house
a coffee drying field (glácil)[26] and drawers (corredoras) for protecting coffee beans from rain
a mill to process the beans
a cell made of stone which was used for imprisoning slaves
coffee trees
a museum with furniture belonging to family of José de Diego, a Puerto Rican poet
There's been a resurgence in coffee growing in Puerto Rico, despite the lack of manpower and other challenges facing coffee farm landowners.[27] Hacienda Lealtad in Lares has a coffee shop called Café Bistro Hacienda Lealtad. Café Lareño Coffee Shop is nearby and other such chic coffee shops have opened up along the mountainous hilltops of Lares and other municipalities in Puerto Rico.[28] Lares has been the Puerto Rican municipality with the largest emigration to the mainland United States, since being hit by a severe economic recession.[12]
In media and popular culture
The dress worn by Keysi Vargas, Puerto Rican contestant in the 2015 Miss World Beauty pageant, represented Hacienda Lealtad coffee.[29][30]
Lares is a mountain town and municipality of Puerto Rico's central-western area. Lares is located north of Maricao and Yauco; south of Camuy, east of San Sebastián and Las Marias; and west of Hatillo, Utuado and Adjuntas. Lares is spread over 10 barrios and Lares Pueblo. It is part of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area.
A hacienda is an estate, similar to a Roman latifundium, in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, haciendas were variously plantations, mines or factories, with many haciendas combining these activities. The word is derived from Spanish hacer and haciendo (making), referring to productive business enterprises.
Adjuntas is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; and northwest of Ponce. Adjuntas is spread over 16 barrios and Adjuntas Pueblo. Adjuntas is about two hours by car westward from the capital, San Juan.
Las Marías is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located north of Maricao; southeast of Añasco; south of San Sebastián; east of Mayagüez; and west of Lares. Las Marías is spread over 13 barrios and Las Marías Pueblo.
Maricao is a town and the second-least populous municipality of Puerto Rico; it is located at the western edge of the Cordillera Central. It is a small town set around a small square in hilly terrain, north of San Germán, Sabana Grande and Yauco; south of Las Marías and Lares, southeast of Mayagüez, and west of Adjuntas. Maricao is spread over 6 barrios and Maricao Pueblo.
San Sebastián is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the northwestern region of the island, south of Isabela, Quebradillas and Camuy; north of Las Marías; east of Moca and Añasco; and west of Lares. San Sebastián is spread over twenty-four barrios and San Sebastián Pueblo. It is a principal city of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Utuado is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central mountainous region of the island known as the Cordillera Central. It is located north of Adjuntas and Ponce; south of Hatillo and Arecibo; east of Lares; and west of Ciales and Jayuya. It is the third-largest municipality in land area in Puerto Rico. According to the 2020 US Census, the municipality has a population of 28,287 spread over 24 barrios and Utuado pueblo.
Yauco is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande and Guánica; and west of Guayanilla. The municipality consists of 20 barrios and Yauco Pueblo. It is both a principal town of the Yauco Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.
El Grito de Lares, also referred to as the Lares uprising, the Lares revolt, the Lares rebellion, or the Lares revolution, was the first of two revolts against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. The revolt was planned by Ramón Emeterio Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis. It began on September 23, 1868 in the town of Lares, for which it is named. It spread rapidly to various revolutionary cells throughout the island. The revolutionary flag of El Grito de Lares is recognized as the first flag of Puerto Rico.
Mariana Bracetti Cuevas was a patriot and leader of the Puerto Rico independence movement in the 1860s. She is attributed with having knitted the flag that was intended to be used as the national emblem of Puerto Rico in its attempt to overthrow the Spanish government on the island, and to establish the island as a sovereign republic. The attempted overthrow was El Grito de Lares, and Bracetti's creation became known as "The Flag of Lares." The flag's design was later adopted as the official flag of the municipality of Lares, Puerto Rico.
Manuel Rojas Luzardo was a Puerto Rican-Venezuelan commander of the Puerto Rican Liberation Army and one of the main leaders of the Grito de Lares uprising against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico resulted in the 19th century from widespread economic and political changes in Europe that made life difficult for the peasant and agricultural classes in Corsica and other territories. The Second Industrial Revolution drew more people into urban areas for work, widespread crop failure resulted from long periods of drought, and crop diseases, and political discontent rose. In the early nineteenth century, Spain lost most of its possessions in the so-called "New World" as its colonies won independence. It feared rebellion in its last two Caribbean colonies: Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish Crown had issued the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which fostered and encouraged the immigration of European Catholics, even if not of Spanish origin, to its Caribbean colonies.
Jíbaro is a word used in Puerto Rico to refer to the countryside people who farm the land in a traditional way. The jíbaro is a self-subsistence farmer, and an iconic reflection of the Puerto Rican people. Traditional jíbaros were also farmer-salesmen who would grow enough crops to sell in the towns near their farms to purchase the bare necessities for their families, such as clothing.
French immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of the economic and political situations which occurred in various places such as Louisiana, Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and in Europe.
Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives, was a coffee plantation located in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico. The original plantation dates from the 19th century. The plantation was started by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833.
Hacienda Juanita is a coffee plantation hacienda in the town of Maricao, Puerto Rico. The design is based on typical Puerto Rican culture, and was commissioned by the wife of a Spanish official. Coffee production at the hacienda declined from the 1960s.
The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the Ortoiroid people between 430 BC and AD 1000. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1493, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taíno people's numbers went dangerously low during the later half of the 16th century because of new infectious diseases carried by Europeans, exploitation by Spanish settlers, and warfare.
José Gualberto Padilla, also known as El Caribe, was a physician, poet, journalist, politician, and advocate for Puerto Rico's independence. He suffered imprisonment and constant persecution by the Spanish Crown in Puerto Rico because his patriotic verses, social criticism and political ideals were considered a threat to Spanish Colonial rule of the island.
Museo Hacienda Buena Vista is a historic coffee plantation farm museum in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico. The museum opened in 1987, and receives some 40,000 visitors a year. The museum has been described as "Puerto Rico's first living museum of art and science."
↑ Camuñas Madera, Ricardo R. (25 May 1989). "Los franceses en el oeste de Puerto Rico". Caravelle (in Spanish). 53 (53): 25–36. doi:10.3406/carav.1989.2405. JSTOR40851824.
↑ "Porto Rican wealth". Holbrook argus. (Holbrook, Ariz.). 8 June 1901. ISSN2375-172X. Retrieved 21 December 2022– via Chronicling America «Library of Congress.
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