The San Lorenzo de Barichara Foundation was established in April 2001 to give legal form to a process that began with a workshop given by Juan Manuel de la Rosa, a Mexican artist and paper maker. The purpose of the workshop was learning how to make paper from natural fibers, and thanks to this, paper with fique fiber began to be made. The Paper Workshop continues to work and operates in the facilities of the former warehouses of the Colombian Tobacco Company – a company that since 2001 gave these warehouses on loan for the operation of the Foundation, headed by former president Belisario Betancur.