Carlos José Sánchez Jaramillo (1935 – December 29, 2018) was a Colombian actor who portrayed

Juan Valdez Juan Valdez is a fictional character who has appeared in advertisements for the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia since 1958, representing a Colombian coffee farmer. The advertisements were designed by the Doyle Dane Bernbach ad ...

for over thirty years, from 1969 to 2006. He was originally a

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

farmer from Antioquia, Colombia. He was an artist in Medellín, Colombia. He was born in Fredonia, Colombia, in 1935 and studied at the University of Antioquia before becoming a painter. He died on December 29, 2018, in Medellín, at the age of 83. Juan Valdez is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

that has appeared in advertisements for the

National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, ( es, link=no, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia), abbreviated as Colombian Coffee Growers Federation or Fedecafé, is a non-profit business organization, popularly known for its ...

since 1959, representing the Colombian

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

. He typically appears alongside his mule Conchita, carrying sacks of harvested coffee beans. He has become an

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

for Colombia as well as coffee in general.

References

2018 deaths Year of birth missing Colombian male television actors {{colombia-bio-stub