While that austere classic of 1940s car design, the Willys Jeep, is rarely seen anymore in the U.S. outside of museums and monuments commemorating the Second World War, thousands of these tin boxes on wheels, a symbol of the Allied victory over the Nazis, still carry out a heroic mission in the mountains of the coffee-growing regions of Colombia, using the same engines which helped the Leclerc Division liberate Paris in 1944.
The first of these Jeeps to enter Paris transported Captain Dronne of the Ninth Armored Division, and received a hero’s welcome from the people gathered on the streets. The applause is equally strong for the column of Willys Jeeps which take part each June in the annual contest devoted to these warhorses of the coffee groves in the town of Calarcá, Quindío.
Covered by canvas hoods made by local farmers who use them as “mechanical mules,” for the past 60 years these vehicles, known as Yipaos, have been indispensable to the Colombian economy as haulers of coffee sacks, animal feed, fertilizers and passengers along rough mountain roads which few other vehicles can transit.
More than just a celebration, the annual Jeep parade clearly demonstrates the impressive capacity of these antique vehicles.
The small farmers of the coffee zone worship these freight carriers, many of which only became available to them after serving in the mechanized units of the Colombian Army. So attached are they to the Willys Jeep that they often repair them in the same centenary forges which make horseshoes, and where they also fabricate some of the spare parts.
The Jeep’s simple technology allows its owner to take it apart at home, fix it at night and have it ready by morning to meet the needs of rural neighbors. Often decorated with pictures of saints and virgins, these vehicles can carry an astonishing variety of baggage: chickens, beds, mattresses, chests of clothes, saddles, bicycles, harnesses, groceries and tools, along with passengers squeezed into any free space or clinging to the sides and back.
When it comes to moving a large load, there is a basic fixed price so long as the cargo doesn’t surpass a measure of weight also known as the Yipao. Thus, a Yipao of plantains amounts to between 40 and 45 enormous bunches piled on the Jeep, between 35 and 50 bunches of bananas, about 25 sacks of oranges, 12 sacks of cassava root or 30 sacks of coal.
The price for a funeral procession is the same as that for a Jeep-load of plantains, except that the coffin rests on a bed of flowers and the Jeep also carries the mourners who don’t have the strength to walk to the cemetery. Every such Jeep keeps a roll of thick black tape in the glove compartment which, when stretched over the front of the engine hood from window to window, serves as a signal to cars and traffic cops that it has the right of way on the road.
The most widely believed version of the origin of its name is that U.S. bureaucrats referred to it as a GP, short for “General Purpose” or “Government Purpose” vehicle and this was later phonetically slurred into “Jeep.” What we do know for certain is that the Army ordered the first Jeeps during WWII to close the lead in battlefield transport and communication given to the Germans by the versatility of the latter’s motorbikes.
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The specifications of the U.S. government were that the GP be a small but rugged and powerful vehicle, with double traction, an off-road capability, a maximum weight of 1,310 pounds and a load capacity of 605 pounds. The first 16,000 units were delivered to the Army in July 1941, a number that rose to 610,675 by the end of the war, though it is worth noting that Willys was only one of three manufacturers, the others being Ford and Bantam.
The vehicle was so sturdy and versatile that it continued to be used in the Korean War and modified versions of the original design were built up until 1968. The first Jeeps in Colombia, some 40,000, were imported in the 1940s by the Leonidas Lara e Hijos Company, and since the vehicle was mostly for military use, it became known as the “MinGuerra,” a contraction of the Spanish for “Ministry of War.”
Within a number of years, both war surplus and new Jeeps wound up in the coffee zones, since their tough military build coincidentally made them an ideal replacement for the mules which had been traditionally employed for carrying agricultural produce and implements along roads few cars could handle.
Despite the advent of better roads and sophisticated land cruisers, like the Toyota, the original 40s-style Jeeps are still going strong because of their unique combination of versatility, strength, simplicity and cheapness. Depending on the state they are in, such vehicles now sell for between $2,500 and $30,000 USD.
Their enduring popularity may be judged from the fact that there isn’t a single part of the Yipao which can’t be bought in the coffee zone, and most parts are fabricated there as well, including things like the tin horses that adorn their fronts, which would be hard to find elsewhere.
Jeep fanatics in the coffee regions only need to see the license plate to recall the whole history of any vehicle. They can tell you whether the original owner got it directly shipped from a factory in the U.S. through the port of Buenaventura or bought it as a castoff from the Colombian Army and rebuilt it piece by piece.
In fact, with the annual procession and its place in tourist brochures, we might say that the Willys Jeep has now become part of the region’s cultural heritage without having turned into a museum piece, since you will continue to see it on call in the main plaza of any coffee town, waiting to haul anything from a load of bananas to a coffin to a family of ten.
