Don Facundo Bacardí Masó (, ; 13 October 1813 – 9 May 1886) was a Spanish businessman who, in 1862, founded the eponymous

Bacardi Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facund ...

rum distillery.

Biography

Bacardí was born in

Sitges ; , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, renowned worldwide for Sitges Film Festival, its film festival, Carnival, and LGBTQ culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is know ...

(

Garraf Garraf (), is a comarca (county) in the Penedès region in Catalonia, Spain. It is named after the Garraf Massif. The capital is the city of Vilanova i la Geltrú. The GR 92 long-distance footpath, which roughly follows the length of the Me ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), son of a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

. In 1828, he followed his older brothers to Cuba, finding employment in their general store in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

. In 1843 he established his own mercantile shop in Santiago, three months after marrying Lucia 'Amalia' Victoria Moreau, a woman from a very prosperous family of Franco-Haitian descent. Amalia and her family would come to the financial aid of Facundo repeatedly throughout the course of their business ventures. Facundo and Amalia had a number of children, many of whom would play important parts in building the rum business for which the family became famous: Emilio was born in 1844, Juan in 1846, Facundo Jr. in 1848, María in 1851, José in 1857, and Amalia Jr. in 1861. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a cholera epidemic devastated Santiago in 1852, claiming the lives of Juan and María. In efforts to safeguard the lives of their children, Facundo and Amalia decided to take the family to Catalonia to stay with Facundo's parents for a number of months. Upon his return to Santiago later that year, Facundo found his store looted and business conditions poor in the wake of the disaster and amid a global slump in sugar, the mainstay of the economy. Facundo's business Facundo Bacardí y Compañía wasn't able to recover, and it was bankrupt in 1855. Soon after, Facundo, who noticed a gap in the spirits market for a premium Cuban rum, began to experiment with the process of distilling

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

. Previously, rum was a crude, low quality beverage. Facundo, with the help of a French Cuban named José León Boutellier, a tenant of a building in Santiago owned by Doña Amalia's godmother Clara Astie, began to experiment with methods of distillation. A combination of revolutionary rum making methods utilizing a proprietary single yeast strain, a parallel distillation process, charcoal filtration, and white oak barrel aging resulted in a much more refined, tamer drink (now known as BACARDÍ rum) which they successfully sold through Facundo's brother's general store. On February 4, 1862, the partners purchased a

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

on the outskirts of Santiago and constituted the firm "Bacardí, Boutellier, and Company", using capital supplied by Facundo's younger brother José. After owning a general retail business in Cuba for many years, Facundo Bacardí understood how to sell things, and realized that his innovative rum would benefit from good branding. He began to sign each shipment of rum with a bold "Bacardí M" (for Bacardi Massó); in addition, his wife Amalia suggested the adoption of the bat as a logo after spotting a colony of fruit bats hanging in the distillery rafters, a sign of family unity, good fortune and health to the Spanish and Cuban Taíno people. In 1874, the firm was reorganized into "Bacardi and Company". Facundo's younger brother José chose to sell his shares, and his sons contributed some of their own capital and bought out most of Boutellier's stake as he declined in health. Bacardí rum grew in popularity as it was sold throughout Cuba and even the wider world after winning prizes in international exhibitions. In 1877, Facundo retired, turning management of the company over to his sons Emilio (president), Facundo Jr. (master blender), and José (sales). The ensuing period of Cuban history was politically tumultuous, as a strong nationalist movement took shape, causing three wars of independence and dividing Cuban society. While Facundo was staunchly pro-Spanish, having been a member of a Volunteer Battalion in Santiago de Cuba in the 1850s, his sons were in favour of Cuban independence, a cause they openly defended after their father's death. However, Emilio became highly involved in politics and the fight for Cuban Independence while running the business and became suspected by the authorities. During one of many sweeps by the loyalist security services, Facundo himself and his son Emilio were arrested. Facundo was released but Emilio was eventually imprisoned for four years, during which the business was operated by the remaining brothers with Emilio providing strategic advice from afar. Facundo lived to see Emilio released and the business to grow in fame, although not yet in financial strength. In March 1886, Don Facundo died at the age of 72. Despite creating a rum legacy passed down through generations of the Bacardí family, he left behind only a small house in Santiago de Cuba, a small family farm, and a company surviving on the verge of bankruptcy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacardi, Facundo 1813 births 1886 deaths Bacardi people Businesspeople from Catalonia People from Sitges 19th-century Cuban businesspeople