Juan Bautista Vicini

Juan Bautista Vicini Canepa (1847-1900) arrived in Santo Domingo from Zoagli, Italy in 1859 at the age of twelve as an apprentice in the coffee and sugar exporting business of his fellowman Nicola Genavaro, which he later bought.  He had two children born out of wedlock with Maria Burgos Brito; Leopoldina Vicini Burgos (1872- ) and Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos (1871-1935) who was the 4th Provisional President of the Republic from 1922 to 1924 under the US military occupation.  In 1872 he married Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaria and had thirteen children.

After Vicini Canepa’s death, two of his children from the marriage to Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaria; Juan (1881-1949) and Felipe Vicini Perdomo (1883-1936) ran the family business which was transferred to the General Industrial Co., a corporation organized under the laws of New Jersey.  Felipe married Amelia Maria Cabral Bermudez, daughter of a former President of the Republic and related to the founder of the Bermudez Rum Co. The third Vicini generation was led by Juan Bautista Vicini Cabral (1924-2015) who took over the reins of the family business upon the death of his father Felipe Vicini Perdomo in 1936.  Juan Bautista Vicini Cabral married Alma Stella Altagracia Lluberes Henriquez and had three children; Amelia (1974- ), Juan Bautista (1975- ) and Felipe (1960- ) who is the fourth generation family business leader.

Vicini's first sugar factory was Ingenio Angelina, located at at El Higo, some 10 km from San Pedro de Macorís.  This factory was imported from Cuba in 1876 by Cuban engineers from Matanzas Juan Amechazurra and Lorenzo Guridi.  Its first grinding season of 1879 made it the first central sugar mill in the country.  Vicini became part owner of Ingenio Angelina when in the 1880s he bought a loan made by Miguel Canto Silva to Guridi and then foreclosed on it.  Ingenio Angelina operated continuously under the Vicini ownership until its last grinding season in 1983.

The only sugar mill started from scratch by Vicini was Ingenio Italia in 1882.  It was located in a place called Caoba Corcovada near the Nizao River and the town of Yaguate in the San Cristobal Province.  In 1927 its name was changed to Ingenio CAEI which is the acronym for Consorcio Azucarero de Empresas Industriales.  Its last milling season was 2007, all the cane it used to process is now processed at Ingenio Cristobal Colón. Throughout the years, the Vicini group owned four other sugar mills, none of which is in operation:

  • Azuano - established ca.1920 reportedly by the Vicini interests in Azua.

  • Ocoa - established in 1882 at Palmar de Ocoa in Azua by J. Heredia & Cia. and acquired in 1885 by E. Zanetti & Cia.  In 1907 it was owned by the General Industrial Corporation

  • Santa Elena - established in 1878 in Monte Grande about ½ mile from the Ozama River in the Capital City by Dominican businessmen Juan Pablo and Juan Nepomuceno Sánchez.  Approximately ten years later, already under the ownership of Juan Bautista Vicini, was merged into Ingenio La Constancia

  • La Constancia - established in 1878 by Dr. Joaquín Heredia in the Pajarito (Villa Duarte) area of Santo Domingo on the west bank of the Ozama River, its first milling season was 1879, went bankrupt and by 1888 had been acquired by Juan Bautista Vicini

The only sugar mill owned by the group in operation today is Ingenio Cristobal Colón.  It was established in 1883 by the firm Castro, Mola & Co. whose principals were Emilio Loret Mola and Cuban immigrant Juan Fernandez de Castro, also owner of Ingenio Quisqueya.  Ingenio Cristobal Colón is located on the west bank of the Higuamo River, 1 km from San Pedro de Macorís.  It was acquired by the Vicini family in 1921 under the corporate name Cristobal Colón C x A from sisters Mercedes Nariño Fernandez de Castro and Maria Nariño vda. Mola, successors of the firm the firm Castro, Mola & Co. since 1892.  Today it operates under the corporate umbrella of CAEI.

Since 1976 there has been a vast program to modernize the facilities of Ingenio Cristobal Colón at a cost exceeding RD$ 25 billion making it one of the most efficient sugar mills in the Caribbean area with capacity to mill eight thousand tons of cane per twenty four hours.  Molasses produced are sold mainly to Bacardi Corp. in Puerto Rico.  Today it is the second largest producer in the country with a daily grinding capacity of twelve thousand tons of sugarcane, an annual production of some 140,000 m.t. of raw sugar and 65,000 m.t. of molasses.