THE FOUNDER: DON FACUNDO BACARDI MASSO

Bacardi is founded on February 4 by Don Facundo Bacardí Massó in Santiago de Cuba, when he buys a small distillery and revolutionizes the rum-making process to create a smooth, light-bodied spirit – what the world now knows as Bacardi rum. Facundo’s wife, Doña Amalia notices a colony of fruit bats hanging in the rafters of the distillery and recognizes their importance to the Spanish and Cuban Taíno indigenous people as symbols of good health, family unity, and good fortune. She suggests adopting the bat as the symbol of Bacardi rum and soon locals began to ask for “el ron del murcielago” – the rum of the bat. Facundo Bacardí Moreau (son of Don Facundo) plants a coconut palm at the front of the new distillery. Affectionately known as El Coco, the palm became a symbol to the Bacardí family and company. Withstanding a distillery fire, five earthquakes, and countless hurricanes, El Coco symbolized strength and resilience of the Bacardi company.