Empresarios antioqueños en la historia del café en Guatemala, 1863-1871

This article is a narrative of the two Antioquian families of Vásquez Calle and Ospina Rodríguez, who settled in Guatemala in the 1860’ and 70’ when coffee plantations were spreading out. Thanks to their ability to insert into Guatemalan political and economic network, their capitalist spirit, their previously earned capital funds, their access to international credit, and their solid family alliances, these Colombians were able to distinguish themselves as samples of Latin American business men of a kind to which the literature rarely pays adequate attention. In particular, their experience as the owners of Las Mercedes, one of the most famous coffee plantations of Central America in those times, sheds light on Latin American comparative history on coffee.