Juan Serrallés Colón

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Juan Serrallés Colón (1836–1921) was a Puerto Rican businessman who founded Hacienda Mercedita in Ponce and started Destilería Serrallés, makers of Don Q rum. He was born in Ponce to Sebastián Serrallés, a wealthy Catalan Spaniard who moved to Puerto Rico to grow sugar, and Juana Colón. He owned Hacienda Mercedita and nearby haciendas Fe and Laurel. Raised in Ponce and educated in Spain, he returned to manage the family’s plantation. In 1865 he bought a still from France and began making rum, naming it Don Q after Don Quixote. The Don Q brand soon became very popular and helped the family business grow. In 1903 the Serrallés company installed the first continuous still in Puerto Rico. He died in 1921 as Prohibition began, which stopped rum production for a while. The distillery paused, and the family shifted to producing medical alcohol instead, called Alcoholado Superior 70, while the sugar side continued. He married Mercedes Perez; they had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Juan Eugenio Serrallés, led the business after his father’s death. Juan Eugenio’s children—Rosa Maria, Juan Eugenio, and Felix Juan—continued the family’s work, and Juan Eugenio built Serralles Castle in Ponce for his children about ten years after his father’s death. Felix Juan led the sugar and rum business later, until his death in 1985. The sugar operation stopped in 1994, but the rum distillery remained. Today, Juan Serrallés Colón’s great-grandson, Felix Juan Serrallés, Jr., runs Destilería Serrallés, Inc. Puerto Rico honors him with a grade school and a high school named after him, and an elementary school is named for his wife Mercedes.