Juan Sebastián laughs when he recounts how, when he was a young boy, his teeth loosened and fell while cutting leathers. He and his brothers, Saulo and Santiago, used to constantly run around the house of grandfather Darío Agudelo, one of Jericó’s oldest master satchel makers. Whilst they were there, still young children, they learned the art of satchel-making. To calm them down when they were childishly playing around, Darío would give special tasks to all of them. These included, for instance, hammering small holes on leather strips to make the eyelets of some suspenders he would later rivet.

Every one of these grandchildren has the smells of leather and camphor engraved in their memories. They remember how they stored the satchels in the house’s storage room and how they distinguished them according to their different paints and classes. They worked in the workshop with Saulo, their father, since they were teenagers. When Juan Sebastián graduated high school, he decided to study leatherworking and shoemaking at the Sena institute of Itagüí. When he finished his studies and returned to Jericó, he did so with an idea that was difficult to implement, especially when considering who his family members were: improving certain satchel-making processes with die-cutting and trimming machines. He was ultimately successful with his efforts and never forgot that his work had the responsibility of preserving intact the traditional craftsmanship that depended on the artisans’ hands and strength.

All of this has prompted a new era in the production of this Jericoan ware. It has also inspired every one of the Agudelo brothers to take the next step and innovate themselves. All of them went to Law School. They followed their mother’s teachings, who insisted that they should learn about disciplines other than the trade of satchel-making in case the latter stopped being profitable. So, they all became lawyers and found a way of applying their degrees to the preservation of the craft. Juan Sebastián’s graduation thesis was about the industrial protection of the satchel. Moreover, Saulo and Santiago proposed a bill that has already been passed. It declares Antioquia’s satchel as part of the cultural heritage of Colombia and establishes August 15th as Día Nacional del Carriel (National Satchel Day).

They also asked the Ministry of Finance for a special budget allocation with regards to the conservation of this wonderful ware as an asset of cultural interest. The ultimate goal of this request is founding a workshop school to amplify and guarantee the preservation of the craft, keeping in mind the future possibility of making a museum of the satchel in Jericó. As if all of this were not enough, these artisans have asked the National Bank to dedicate a coin to Antioquia’s satchel in the next issuance of currency. This lineage does not lack modesty, but they have the right to demand everything they fancy.