Background
Juan Serrallés Colón, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, was the son of Sebastian Serrallés, a wealthy Spaniard who settled in Ponce in the early 19th century.
Juan Serrallés Colón, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, was the son of Sebastian Serrallés, a wealthy Spaniard who settled in Ponce in the early 19th century.
He was the owner of Hacienda Mercedita and went into the sugarcane business. Juan Serrallés was raised in Ponce and educated in Spain. When Juan Serrallés returned to the island, he returned to lead the work in his "hacienda" (plantation).
In 1865, Juan imported a still which he purchased in France and produced his first few casks of rum.
He named the rum Don Q in honor of the legendary Spanish fictional character Don Quixote. Soon after, the "Don Q" brand of rum became very popular in Puerto Rico and the family business began to grow.
In 1903 the Serrallés family, under the leadership of Juan Serrallés, installed the first continuous still in Puerto Rico. Juan Serrallés died in 1921 just as the production of rum was being halted because of the United States Prohibition Acting of the 1920s.
Juan"s family continued to run the sugar side of the business but for the destillery side started to produce medical alcohol instead of the outlawed rum.
lieutenant was called Alcoholado Superior 70. The sugarcane business ceased to operate in 1994, with only the rum destillery that Juan had spearheaded decades before still operating. Today, Juan Serrallés Colón"s great-grandson, Felix Juan Serrallés, Junior., presides over Destileria Serralles, Incorporated.
The Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has honored the memory of Juan Serrallés Colon by naming both a grade school and a high school in Ponce after him.