Hacienda Lealtad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hacienda Lealtad |
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Hacienda Lealtad renovated structures
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 Location in Puerto Rico
La Torre barrio
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| Town/City | La Torre, Lares, Puerto Rico |
| Coordinates | 18°14′00″N 66°53′03″W / 18.2332883°N 66.8840655°W |
| Established | 1830 |
| Owner | Edwin Noel Soto Ruiz |
| Area | 600 cuerdas (582.73 acres) |
| Produces | Coffee |
| Status | Operating as museum, hotel, agrotourism; open to the public, tours by reservation |
Hacienda Lealtad is a historic coffee farm in La Torre, Lares, Puerto Rico. It is also known as Hacienda La Lealtad or Hacienda la Esperanza. A "hacienda" is a large estate, often with a farm. This one was started in 1830 by Juan Bautista Plumey, a French immigrant. He arrived in Puerto Rico with enslaved people.
Hacienda Lealtad became the biggest coffee farm in Lares. It had over thirty enslaved people and hundreds of day laborers working there. For many years, this farm grew and sold a lot of coffee. Day laborers, called jornaleros or braceros, worked in the coffee fields. In 1880, Miguel Marquez Enseñat owned the farm.
Today, Edwin Soto and his family own Hacienda Lealtad. They spent millions of dollars to restore it. Now, it is a hotel, a coffee shop, and a museum. Coffee growing is popular again in Puerto Rico. Hacienda Lealtad sells its own coffee called Café Lealtad. You can start your tour of this old coffee farm at the Café Bistro Hacienda Lealtad.
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A Look Back: Hacienda Lealtad's Story
Lares was founded in 1827. It quickly became an important place for growing coffee in Puerto Rico. In 1830, Juan Bautista Plumey started Hacienda Lealtad. Plumey was from France and came to Lares with 32 enslaved people. On May 20, 1833, he married Petronila Irizarry. They had twelve children together.
After Plumey started it, Hacienda Lealtad became the biggest and most modern farm of its time. It was the first to make its own electricity. This power ran the farm's machines. Water from the mountains flowed through a canal to a large hydraulic wheel. This wheel helped create the electricity.
By 1846, Plumey's farm was called Hacienda La Esperanza. It was the only property officially called a "hacienda." It had 69 cuerdas (about 67 acres) of coffee plants. Thirty-three enslaved people were forced to work there. Plumey did not let his workers work on any other farm.
In 1868, Lares was the site of the Grito de Lares. This was a two-day revolt against the Spanish rulers. Some records say people from Hacienda Lealtad joined the revolt. However, a historian found that only an eight-year-old child of an enslaved person from the farm was there. That child spent six months in prison.
In 1873, slavery was ended in Puerto Rico. A few years later, by the 1880s, coffee became Puerto Rico's main export. It was the biggest source of wealth for the island.
In 1880, the farm was called Hacienda Paraiso. Miguel Marquez Enseñat owned it. He paid workers with special "token money." This money could only be used to buy things at the farm's own store.
Coffee production dropped a lot after Puerto Rico became part of the United States. This happened after the 1898 Treaty of Paris. Eventually, the farm was not used much and fell into disrepair.
Edwin Soto, a Puerto Rican businessman, had special memories of the place. As a child, he picked coffee beans there with his family. Soto became very successful and decided to buy the hacienda. When he bought it in 2007, he first wanted it as a second home. Later, he decided to restore it because of its important history.
Soto spent millions of dollars to fix up the hacienda. Now, Hacienda Lealtad has a hotel, a coffee shop, and offers educational tours. It is open to both local and international visitors. It also hosts meetings and workshops for people in the farming and coffee industries.
In 2014, the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture started a plan to grow agricultural tourism. In 2016, Hacienda Lealtad was approved by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Since its restoration, the company, Café Lealtad, Inc., has bought coffee seeds and equipment from the Department of Agriculture.
Students and farmers visit Hacienda Lealtad for workshops. As Puerto Rico's farming industry grows, thirty farmers completed a course there. The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez even opened an Hacienda Lealtad Café in 2019.
Tours were regular until Hurricane Maria hit on September 20, 2017. A week earlier, Hurricane Irma had not caused much damage. But Hurricane Maria destroyed all 60,000 coffee trees. Cleanup and replanting started quickly. Tours and events at the hacienda soon began again.
What You Can See and Do Today
At Hacienda Lealtad, you can learn about 19th-century coffee farming in Puerto Rico. You will see how workers and enslaved people processed coffee. Educational tours are available by reservation. Here are some of the main things you can see:
- a former post office
- the original landowner's house
- a coffee drying area (glácil) and special drawers (corredoras) to protect beans from rain
- a mill used to process the coffee beans
- a stone cell where enslaved people were imprisoned
- coffee trees
- a museum with furniture from the family of José de Diego, a famous Puerto Rican poet
- Café Lealtad coffee
- a nearby creek
- renovated former slave quarters with a kitchen and a wood-burning stove
Coffee's Comeback in Puerto Rico
Coffee growing is making a comeback in Puerto Rico. This is happening even with challenges like a lack of workers. Hacienda Lealtad in Lares has its own coffee shop, Café Bistro Hacienda Lealtad. Other cool coffee shops have opened in the mountains of Lares and other towns. Lares has seen many people move to the United States mainland. This is due to a tough economic time.
Gallery
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Main door to Hacienda Lealtad, marked with 1830
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Hacienda Lealtad
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Quebrada de Platanos, a stream
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Hacienda Lealtad
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Peacock at the restored hacienda
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Coffee de-pulper
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Hacienda Lealtad
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The hydraulic wheel which generated electricity for the plantation in 1830 is operational.
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This cement cell is where slaves were locked for punishment.
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The estate had its own post office.
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A 190-year-old, hand-made dining room set
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Newly planted coffee trees after Hurricane Maria destroyed all the coffee trees
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Washing machine
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Palm trees
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View from inside one of the structures
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Wood-burning stove in what were the slave quarters' kitchen
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Latrines at the meeting place for tours to Hacienda Lealtad
Images for kids
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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue held a town hall meeting in Hacienda Lealtad with Jenniffer González, farmers and other important people after Hurricane María.
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A Wurlitzer jukebox in a large meeting room at the estate.
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