New Juan Valdez hawks Colombian coffee
A 39-year-old coffee farmer will replace the existing icon, 71-year-old actor Carlos Sánchez, to travel the world praising Colombian coffee.
June 30 2006: 8:37 AM EDT

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (Reuters) -- A new Colombian coffee farmer has been chosen to play Juan Valdez, the mustachioed, poncho-clad icon who, with his mule Conchita, has promoted one of this country's biggest exports for decades.

The National Federation of Coffee Growers said Thursday that 39-year-old Carlos Castañeda, a father of three accustomed to getting up before dawn to work on his family's coffee farm in a small town south of Medellín, will serve as its ambassador.



Carlos Castaneda, 39, beat out more than 400 other candidates to become the new face of Juan Valdez.

Like Carlos Sánchez, the 71-year-old actor who has appeared as the avuncular Valdez for 37 years and is now retiring, Castañeda will travel the world extolling the virtues of handpicked Colombian coffee.

The Federation interviewed more than 400 candidates as part of a painstaking two-year selection process aimed at preserving one of the positive symbols of this Andean country, which, in the grip of a four-decade-old guerrilla war, has long been associated with cocaine smuggling and kidnapping.

The U.S. advertising industry named Juan Valdez its favorite advertising icon last year.