Outside of the faded blue stucco building and set in the worn concrete sidewalk are three inch long letters made of brass. The name Frener is kept polished by the daily crowds passing by #10 on 5th Avenida Sur in what may be described as downtown Antigua. Inside the 125 year old building, the massive brown wooden beams, like every other old building in town, are eaten through by termites. Within the poorly lit back offices are the remnants of history, some on the walls, the counters and some still in daily use.
The sepia-toned portrait of Juan Bautista Frener decorates a wall in one half-lit office, the Swiss forefather of a Guatemalan family that still prints things the old-fashioned way. The presses are foot-powered and the type sets are lead letters. When the work is going the hum of the massive gears and the thump of the heavy presses create a mood and a sense of time long lost.
Antigua and Guatemala have always had a history of print: the first printing press in the America’s was brought here in 1660 by a priest from Mexico. But there’s more than just an old dusty print shop here: Three generations of printers have worked here, dating back to 1850. It was then that Johann B. Frener immigrated to Guatemala, leaving his native Switzerland to become the designer of Guatemala’s currency.
Guatemala was growing beyond the stage of using a variety of home-made coins by farm owners and using other country’s currencies. A team of government officials went to Europe, searching for someone who had the skills to design the dies for coins and oversee the minting process.
Throughout Europe, Monsieur Frener had won many awards for his sculptures and medals but his talents weren’t appreciated in Bern: the timing for leaving Switzerland was perfect for both parties.
Within a few years he designed several different coins, working in bronze and gold. As the successive Presidents came into power, each wanted their portrait on the newly minted coins, rather than that of Christopher Columbus or one of Frener’s ex-wives. To each he acquiesced over the next 20 years, until in 1871 he was asked to design a wall decoration celebrating a banquet for a general who’d been prominent in a recent coup d’état. General Justo Rufino Barrios liked the design of crossed muskets, laurel branches and a stuffed quetzal bird.
He made a suggestion to the new President and shortly thereafter, it became the national emblem.
A few years later, when General Barrios took over the reins of power in another coup, Frener was appointed to be the Director of the Mint. All was well until he lost the post: perhaps disgruntled by the demotion, he took part in a bombing plot that failed to kill the general and was forced into exile. The quixotic General Barrios, leading his men on a white horse and waving a saber, lost his life shortly thereafter in a border spat with El Salvador.
J.B.Frener soon returned from Panama and became the Director of the Mint, until his death in 1892. His sons have carried on the tradition of the print craft, in the same building where they’ve been for the last 125 years. If the old lead letters could only talk, history would be heard. The proud face of Juan B. Frener looks over the offices of his descendents and his design of the country’s emblem is seen on every flag. What better legacy could any father leave for his family?
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