Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

The history of rum is, in so many ways, the history of Cuba. Bacardi shows this about as good as any book I’ve seen. I’m a first-generation Cuban-American (my parents left Cuba in the early ‘60s as teens and resettled to Miami).

So, it was particularly moving to follow the generational story of the Bacardis, the family from Santiago de Cuba who not only created what became the world’s best-known rum but whose patriarchs participated in or funded every coup, uprising, or political lurch in Cuba stretching back to the Spanish-American War.

I loved how Gjelten shepherds the reader from… show more.

I love how Gjelten made me reconsider the ways histories of alcohol and nations were intertwined.

With his study of a rum company that survived the transition from capitalism to communism, the journalist Tom Gjelten observes that Bacardi rum executives advanced legislation designed to undermine their competitors and ultimately forged a brand that shaped Cubans’ and foreigners’ perceptions of the island.

This political and cultural history of Bacardi reveals alcohol’s integral role in forging newly independent nations. More specifically, Gjelten demonstrates how alcohol companies shaped nations.

This study made me think about how types of alcohol—like rum in Cuba,… show more.

Foreign ventures, typically U.S.-owned, dominated Cuba’s pre-1959 economy. They often gouged Cuban consumers, mistreated Cuban employees, meddled in politics, and supported dictators. The  Bacardí Company, by contrast, was an innovative, well-run, and homegrown success story that relied on Cuban capital and expertise. The company also looked after its workers, offering retirement and sick pay, and an eight-hour workday before being legally obliged. In addition, Bacardí provided housing loans and profit-sharing options. Bacardí executives were noted for their honesty and competence. For this reason, Bacardí Chairman Pepín Bosch was recruited by President Carlos Prío to serve as his treasury minister.