A soft drink, a beer, an energy drink, a brandy and even a rum.
These are some of the products made from coca leaf that have left Cauca, a Colombian region inhabited by the indigenous Nasa , who have faced the historical stigmatization of that plant.
Breaking with prejudices, largely generated by cocaine, has not been easy, neither for the Nasa nor for other Inca and Amazonian peoples of South America. In fact, it is a struggle that began in colonial times and continues to this day.
But it is an indigenous company that has wanted to take this battle to an unusual terrain: commercial.
“It is impossible at this point to continue to ignore her. So, what we have done is touch that cultural sensitivity, blood, because we carry the coca leaf in our blood “, says Fabiola Piñacué, the founder of Coca Nasa, the first community company to offer coca leaf-based products at a wholesale level in Colombia.
“As they have always said that coca is cocaine, then we have started disseminate that ‘coca is not cocaine’ ”, the also member of the Nasa people points out to BBC Mundo.
The coca leaf has multiple traditional uses in the cultures of the Andes, oblivious to cocaine. The plant has analgesic properties and chewing its leaves gives energy and suppresses hunger, thirst and pain.
But Coca Nasa now also faces a new legal challenge from Coca Cola , the multinational that through its legal representatives in Colombia has demanded that the word “coca ” not be used in the products they sell.
“They have asked us to stop using the brands related to the coca leaf that bear the name ‘coca’. This request is very difficult to meet, because the coca leaf is the heritage of the indigenous peoples, ”says David Curtidor, the company’s legal representative.
“It is a dispute not only spiritually, but also economically. First it was with the Spanish empire that banned it, and now with the Coca Cola empire ”, he says.
How did eron Coca Pola and the other drinks?
The idea of coca leaf-based drinks arose when Piñacué was at the university in Bogotá, at the end of the decade of 1990.
“I thought it was interesting to make a soda from the coca leaf,” he says.
His initiative germinated a few years later, when in 2005 first was born Coca Sek , an energy drink: “It was very important to make a more exquisite drink in front of the eyes and to the palate of non-indigenous people. ”
Then came the Wallinde brandy, Coca Libre (a mixture de Sek and Wallinde), the liquor Coca Ron and finally the beer Coca Pola .
“We like to drink beer And so we saw the potential of the drink, that we should start making a type of beer. We did the rehearsals and we have been working on that until we achieve it and that is where Coca Pola comes out “, explains Piñacué.
” We have been working for 25 years of sophistication in presentation, taste and quality. Also the display of our products, because they are very beautiful, because they are striking, because we started to play with all the culture and colors ”, he adds.
The Coca Pola beer has not yet been it sells massively, like its other products, as it is still a product “100% handmade ”. Coca Nasa has 15 workers.
But even the controversy with Coca Cola has given it a new boost in Colombia, says its creator.
“Apparently that has bothered the owners of Coca Cola, because they say that we are kidnapping, but we consider that we are not kidnapping anyone, because the coca leaf, we the peoples, have inherited it “, he maintains.
” We had not launched as such, but Coca Cola does it by indicating that we do not use the name. ”
The battle with Coca Cola
Coca Cola and Coca Pola have only the common name.
The famous soft drink has that name because of the coca leaf extracts that its creator, the chemist from Atlanta (USA). .UU.) John Pemberton, mixed with sugar syrup at first.
At that time -at the end of the 19th century- the coca leaf extract mixed with wine was a common tonic , and Pemberton’s sweet brew allowed him to ignore local laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol.
Earlier this month, a Bogota law firm representing Coca Cola raised a legal challenge against the products sold by the local company.
In a letter, published by Piñacué on Twitter, they ask that the indigenous company “permanently cease and desist from using the name Coca Pola or any similar term that may be confused with the trademarks ”owned by the beverage giant.
Your use “could violate the trademark law in Colombia” and “the law of unfair competition,” warned the law firm Brigard Castro in the docu date dated 26 of November.
Gave a deadline of 10 business days to respond.
BBC Mundo requested an interview with Brigard Castro, but there was no immediate confirmation.
Curtidor explains that it is Coca Cola’s second lawsuit against Coca Nasa, since already in 2007, after the launch of Coca Sek, they received a lawsuit that final was rejected by the authorities.
“Yesterday [14 de diciembre] the term. They threaten us with legal action and we are waiting for them to initiate a trial, because we are not going to accept their threatening request “, he tells BBC Mundo .
“Several groups of lawyers, universities, etc., have offered us their legal support to defend us in case they sue us.”
In Coca Nasa they trust that they cannot be forced to remove the name “Coca” from their products because a resolution of the Colombian Constitutional Court granted protection for the use of the term to indigenous peoples .
“The indigenous must also be worth their political and economic proposals. So, from that perspective, it seems very important to us that we are the owners of the knowledge, from sowing until it is transformed and put into a product, ”says Piñacué.
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