“Coffee Trails” Project on the Go
The Coffee Trails Collaboration Project, developed by the Office of Santiago de Cuba’s Curator, European Union and France’s Malongo Foundation, has brought about interesting results due to the archaeological researches carried out at the ruins of Fraternidad coffee plantation.
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During a visit to the place, Olivier Perpoint, Coordinator of the project on the French side, expressed the interest of his foundation in revaluing the World Heritage site.
"This project has a world scope, since it is going to take the interest in this site to a new high. If we want it to be live heritage (one of the project’s visions), we must have people in love with this place since they arrive in. It’s very important to France because it’s also part of our history, linked to the history of coffee and its development", Perpoint said.
The project also aims at getting Cuban coffee revalued in both the French and European markets. Malongo Company and its Foundation are betting on Coffee Trails, and they are working on collaboration agreements with the Ministry of Agriculture. The goal is obtaining high-quality coffee beans, taking into account that six percent of the coffee that is presently consumed in France is imported from Cuba.
The work undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of specialists, including archaeologists, architects, historians and engineers, has allowed them discover new aspects on the place’s structure. "For a long time we thought that the second floor of the property had been devoted to domestic use, nevertheless, we have now found that we were wrong.
By means of the architectural and photographic work, we can now say that the second level had industrial purposes, whether as a warehouse or accounting and finances are", DrC. Yaumara López Segrera, Head of the Archaeology Division of the Curator’s Office, commented.
The specialist pointed out that they came to that conclusion by keeping in mind that it was a coffee-cacao-plantation, and the productive life was constant, "that’s the reason why the industrial areas were so roomy within the property".
After the archaeological research, we can now visualize some material and structural evidences of the former ranch. Fermentation tanks, shelling mills, drying rooms, drainpipes, barracks and rooms show the splendor and complexity of the coffee process in Cuba during the 19th century.
