Mexico – Don Moisés

In Cacahoatán, meaning “place of cocoa”, a small plantation was established in the early 1900s. Andalusian immigrant Moisés Mugüerza Gutiérrez called the plantation Finca La Rioja. Don Moisés planted coffee, various crops and cocoa there. The cocoa he planted were Criollo cocoa varieties. He had collected these in the south of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and developed them further in his nursery. Unfortunately, for Don Moisés, agricultural reform policies after the Mexican Revolution expropriated much of the plantation and nursery.