Reinaldo was born and raised in the village of El Purutal in the municipality of San Agustín, Huila. At that time, the opportunity to study was very limited since there were no teachers available at school and there were no financial resources. For these reasons, he only completed second grade - "I was not interested in studying." For Don Reinaldo, like many rural children in his time, his love and passion for the countryside came from a very young age. At only 9 years old he helped with the sugarcane crops and the production of panela, corn, beans, peas, yucca, and some common variety coffee trees which had been planted as was done before, “scobiado” which consists of going under the coffee tree, looking for seeds that had germinated, pulling out the chapola and with a wooden stake or stake, making a hole and planting it without any preparation of the land or layout.
As time went by and Reinaldo learned from the work on his parents' farm, he was preparing himself physically and mentally to be able to be independent. He began to go out to work at a very young age as a day laborer on neighboring farms, working in the cultivation of sugarcane, in the production of panela and temporary crops, suitable for these lands.
"I was not interested in studying. I was more passionate for the countryside."
When he was 14 years old, his parents gave him 1/4 hectare on the family farm to cultivate, he planted sugarcane and some of the crops he had learned about. He also liked to work “half-time” in which he provided the work and the other people provided the land. It was beneficial for Don Reinaldo because he had the opportunity to gain experience and be able to acquire a plot of land that he owned. One of his bosses noticed how good a worker he was and offered Don Reinaldo the opportunity to buy the plot where he had been working for 600,000 pesos, which he managed to gather with some savings and the national federation of coffee growers granted a subsidy to be able to invest in coffee cultivation. He planted his first 800 Caturra variety coffee trees.
At 22 years old, he met Doña Mariela at a party in the village. They greeted each other, talked and began a relationship. Shortly after, they decided to move in together at Don Reinaldo’s parents’ house. Don Reinaldo continues to work diligently with his partner. A few months later, Mariela's mother offered to sell them a small piece of land to grow some blackberry, corn, cabbage and hoopoe plants, and also to build their own house. A little better organized in their new property and with children about to come into this world, they thought about working hard to move forward. A few seasons later they decided to plant some Caturra coffee trees in the middle of subsistence crops. With the opportunity to buy other neighboring plots of land, they took out loans from banks to be able to buy them, some of which were pastures to raise cattle. For 20 years they decided to dedicate themselves to growing coffee in greater quantities without forgetting their roots of working with some temporary crops and taking advantage of the land when the coffee crops are at an early age.
In 2016 they decided to plant 3,000 pink bourbon trees and 1,500 Catimor trees. His sister-in-law, Mrs. Rovira Muñoz, who had introduced the Bourbon seed in the area, already had productive crops and Mr. Reinaldo observed that they had very good bearing capacity and adapted very well to these lands. They obtained seeds from her, made germinators and planted them in the small plots they had acquired and then they planted more. When they began to hear about the potential that coffee in the cup had, they became enthusiastic about looking for opportunities with its production.
