Alfonso Fanjul Sr.
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30 September 1909
Alfonso Fanjul Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alfonso Fanjul 30 September 1909 Havana, Cuba |
| Died | 16 October 1980 (aged 71) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | sugar baron |
| Spouse | Lillian Rosa Gomez-Mena |
| Children | 5, including Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr. and José "Pepe" Fanjul |
| Relatives | José Gómez-Mena (father-in-law) Norberto Azqueta Sr. (son-in-law) |
Alfonso Fanjul Sr. (30 September 1909 – 16 October 1980) was a Cuban-born American sugar baron.
Alfonso Fanjul was born in Havana, Cuba.[1] He had two brothers.[2] He graduated from Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C.[1]
Career
Alfonso Fanjul's family owned the Czarnikow-Rionda Company, with operations in New York, Havana and London, and the Cuban Trading Company in Cuba.[1][3] His 1936, marriage to Lillian Rosa Gomez-Mena, the daughter of José Gómez-Mena, whose family owned Cuba's New Gomez-Mena Sugar Company,[3] united two of the country's leading sugar fortunes, and created a combined business of ten sugar mills, three distilleries, and Cuban-wide real estate holdings.[1][4] He was also the president of the Havana Country Club.[5]
In 1959, the family moved to the US, after Fidel Castro's communist regime began seizing all of their property.[6] The Castro regime seized the Gomez-Mena mansion, and leaving its art and furnishings intact, renamed it the National Museum of Decorative Arts.[4]
Fanjul purchased 4,000 acres of land near Lake Okeechobee and some Louisiana sugar mills, and expanded from there.[3][6] By the end of his life, he was the chairman of Osceola Farms, New Hope Sugar Co. and Flo-Sun Land Corp.[2] He also served on the boards of directors of the Florida Sugar Marketing and Terminal Association and the Florida Sugar Cane League.[2]
