i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

the Matagalpa region. He was a German immigrant who had been living in New York
City prior to learning of the tributary concessions and facilitated rents for those wishing
to cultivate coffee in the Nicaraguan highlands. At that time, the Matagalpa region
encompassed the area of the contemporary departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega. The
three present-day Segovian departments of Estelí, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia were all
considered Nueva Segovia (Robleto Lang 2000:24; Kuhl 1998:44).
In 1872, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro’s government offered 5 cents for every plant on
farms that had more than five thousand coffee plants. In 1890, Wilhelm Jericho migrated
to Matagalpa from Germany with 20 families to cultivate coffee. The government at the
time was offering 500 manzanas (1 manzana equals 1.7 acres) to any farmer who would
sow at least 500 plants. Word had spread of the ideal climate and ecology for coffee
production in Nicaragua. In 1900, 200 persons migrated to the highland region, 60 of
them Germans, to cultivate coffee. Coffee production continued to increase in importance
in the first part of the twentieth century, as reflected by the establishment of the National
Coffee Institute, the National Coffee Bank, and the Coffee Credit Fund. (Robleto Lang
2000:25).
According to Robleto Lang, coffee cultivation expanded gradually as prices
remained consistent during the early twentieth century. In fact, the coffee industry did not
experience a decline in growth relative to the national economy until the insurrection
against the Somoza dictatorship impacted the rural coffee-growing communities. Coffee
cultivation and export remained relatively stable through the 1960s and 1970s, despite the
rising insurrection that was based in the mountain zones of Matagalpa, Jinotega, and Las
Segovias.
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