José A. Roca Rodríguez was born in 1931 in the Naranjo neighborhood of Yauco, Puerto Rico. Today, at 94, he carries a life story of work, vision, and faith. Since childhood, his life unfolded among mountains and coffee groves. His mother took him to pick coffee, and through that early contact with the land his love for agriculture was born, though he did not yet know it.

On February 28, 1953, during the Korean War, he was drafted into the United States Army. There he was sent to study artillery. Of a class of twelve young men, ten were sent to Korea, one to Germany, and he was sent to California. He didn’t understand it then, but over the years he recognized that God was watching over him. It was one of many moments when he realized his life was being guided with purpose.

He spent six months in California and was later transferred to Washington, where he completed his two years of service and was discharged. He then moved to New York, where he began to venture into business. He was 27 when he opened his first business: a women’s clothing factory. Together with a partner, he saw what others did not—the potential of a market led by a man who understood women. He sold the factory for $5,000 and used that capital to keep developing new ventures.

He became a father for the first time at 17, and at 27 he had his second child. Later he met Juana Rivera Candelaria who, after they married, took the name Jenny Roca, as everyone has always called her. They married in 1960. It was at his most stable business—a driving school—where they met. That business not only provided for him but also marked the start of a new family chapter: together with Jenny, he had four more children.

He learned quickly and knew how to move ideas until they became livelihood. In addition to the driving school, he also owned a record store. For many years he lived in New York but traveled constantly to Puerto Rico. Jenny managed the offices while he came and went.

In 1988 he decided to return fully to his roots. He bought a coffee farm in Yauco called Hacienda María Antonia. Although he had been around farms since youth through family inheritance, it was then that he began to develop the coffee business with intention and know-how.

He learned much: that coffee requires care, that harvests depend on the weather, and that from planting to the first harvest can take up to three years. In 2006 he harvested 672 quintals of coffee on that farm. But in time came the challenges—hurricanes, storms, tremors, earthquakes, the pandemic. The losses discouraged him, especially at an advanced age, but they did not erase what he had achieved.

In 2004 he decided to retire formally and move back permanently to Puerto Rico. His children began helping with the farm’s management. Among them, Samuel A. Roca—the youngest—had the vision to create a coffee brand in honor of his father. That is how Café Don Roca was born.

When José learned that his name would be on a bag of coffee, he was deeply moved. To him it meant that his effort was not in vain, that his story lives on, and that his descendants will remember him as a man who labored to support his family with honest work and love for the land.

His message for those who enjoy a cup of Café Don Roca:

“I hope what my son Sammy has undertaken will be a success. May God bless everyone who buys the coffee. And as John 3:16 says:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.’

Just as I have eternal life in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!”