José Alexander Salazar Tapiero, poses with the Colombian coffee character, Juan Valdéz.
Photo by Cristina Díaz-Carrera, Smithsonian Institution
José Alexander Salazar Tapiero talks about the machinery used in the coffee-making process.
Photo by Michelle Arbeit, Smithsonian Institution
José Alexander Salazar Tapiero.
Photo courtesy of Embassy of Colombia in Washington, D.C.
José Alexander Salazar comes from a family of coffee farmers. He gained his vast knowledge of how to grow and process coffee under his father’s guidance and later through his studies in agricultural sciences at the University of Quindío. Currently he is a researcher with the Federation of Coffee Growers.
"Coffee becomes part of one’s culture. It is what we have known growing up, and what we have lived with. It is what has fed us and dressed us. What I am, I owe partly to coffee—in particular, to my father, a coffee farmer."
