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Segundo Díaz was born on October 13, 1884 in the Fresno valley in Tolima, Columbia.
He joined the military and was sent to Panama in 1903 to put down the separatist
uprising in Panama. Panama obtained its independence anyway, and the Columbians
were given a choice of returning to Columbia or settling in Panama.
Segundo Díaz chose to stay in Panama, but interestingly enough never gave up his
Columbian citzenship.
In 1909 Segundo Díaz and two close friends, José Mercedes Miranda and Ambrosio
Castillo established three fincas next to each other in Horqueta (near Boquete).
The three men would spend two days working at each finca in turn. The finca of
Segundo Díaz was named "La Berlina", and was about 80 acres in size.
Also in
1909 Segundo Díaz married Antonia Taylor, a granddaughter of Pedro Ledesma.
Antonia's uncle Nemesio Ledesma was a near neighbor and coffee grower who also
issued tokens. Segundo and Antonia raised a family of six children. Segundo Díaz
died on June 25, 1961.
Segundo Díaz had done well with Finca La Berlina. By the early
1930's La Berlina was producing a well-recognized, quality coffee. However,
during financial hard times the family was forced to sell the coffee plantation.
The sale was conducted by Segundo's eldest son Manuel, so perhaps it occurred
after Segundo's death in 1961. In 1996 the finca was purchased by Plinio Ruiz, and
it is now managed by the Ruiz family. It
produces La Berlina Estate Coffee which has been recognized as the top Panamanian
coffee.
This token is almost identical to several other Boquete finca tokens such
as the Sittón and Castillo token, the Emilio Kant token, the Nemesio Ledesma
token and the Aurelio Rovira token.
It is known that the Ledesma token was manufactured in the United States.
Since Sittón and Castillo did business with United States merchants, perhaps
they found the token manufacturer in the United States and placed orders for
themselves and the other four coffee growers.
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