After an exceptional year when we worked tirelessly and overcame all sorts of obstacles, we were able to share, as the family that we are, of a Christmas gathering in an atmosphere of brotherhood, peace, and harmony

   There are reasons to believe that long before the Spanish conquest the use by indigenous shamans in the American continent, of tobacco for healing purposes, was very common, therefore CHIMÓ seems to be the result of long processes of Amerindian experimentation. In the colonizers of the old continent chronicles it is noted that, before their arrival, the indigenous people of Venezuelan lands, specifically in the Andes Region used to bath in URAO LAGOON, a natural tectonic origin salt water reservoir, located in what is now the city of Lagunillas in State of Mérida`s west, where they collected salt rocks which they pulverized, mixed under fire with tobacco leaves several times, added ashes of dried banana peels; and when the mixture was ready, they kept it in tobacco leaves thus making CHIMO which they chewed when hungry.

  CHIMÓ was one of the gifts given by the indigenous peoples to Columbus and his crew, as a sign of acceptance and welcoming in 1492. Pedro Berástegui a European chemist and botanist, after discovering some of tobacco`s healing properties, perfected the growing tobacco and CHIMÓ manufacturing. methods, after touring western Venezuela in 1781. To locate the adequate land to develop this crop with optimal yield and benefit, he toured Aragua, Orituco, Barinas, Guanare, Mérida and La Grita, observed the use of CURANEGRA tobacco in the preparation of MOO and CHIMÓ, and made recommendations on planting for internal trade. The MOO is obtained from the leaves of green tobacco, ground, mixed with water and cooked in pails until its characteristic clarification and thickness are obtained; The CHIMÓ is later prepared with cured tobacco and becomes thicker. Agustín Codazzi an Italo-Venezuelan soldier, scientist, geographer, cartographer, and governor of Barinas (1846-1847) recognized Pedro Berástegui, as having perfected the elaboration of these products and described them as follows: … from the juice of tobacco they obtain the moo and the CHIMÓ, whose use is very common in the provinces of Mérida, Trujillo and some parts of Barinas (Venezuela).