Start Year:
1989
Sector:
Agriculture
Position:
Primary Production Administrative Assistant.
Julio César Vargas
A connoisseur of Las Marías crops like few others, he started in the Forestry area and then gained experience in different sectors of the Industrial and Agricultural areas, from the sawmill to the plantations. “One day my superiors saw something in me and began to give me more responsibilities. So I became part of the research and development area.”
For 20 years he closely monitored tea plantations, yerba plantations, and collected invaluable data to achieve the vegetative reproduction of the best plants. For Julio “yerba is like a person.” He knows its different qualities, the type of leaf, the color. “It is a job above all of patience and more than anything of being very detailed,” he says proudly. In the case of tea, he tells us that what is sought in a plant is a better quality of cut. That it has good color, good flavor, and it is a little more complex than in yerba mate. Although Julio is currently focused on administrative tasks in the Production area, his knowledge is always present when it comes to recognizing a plant and its characteristics.
“I am proud of Las Marías’ commitment to nature”
Julio highlights the opportunity to be able to live with nature. When it comes to anecdotes, he does not hesitate to tell us about his close encounter with a big cat. “I found myself fifteen meters away from a puma. It was in 2012, at about 6:30 in the morning. I had to take stock of how the production was going, when I saw an animal coming walking and I saw that it was the puma. I stayed, I watched it, I took out my phone and I took pictures. The animal stopped for a while and then continued on its way,” he tells us.
“Son of Las Marías” as he himself recognizes, his father retired from the Establishment in 1978, as a plantation foreman, and his family is made up of eleven siblings, of whom six worked at Las Marías. His childhood was marked by his time at the Victoria School and the fondest memories of his teachers and classmates. Julio has three children, a boy and two girls. One of his daughters inherited his love for the countryside and follows in his footsteps: she graduated from the Agricultural Institute and is a Senior Technician in Agricultural Production. “I am proud of her,” he shares.