Location: Ponce
Date Established: 1895
Date Ceased Operations: 1994
Annual Production Graph
Average Annual Production: 39,317 Tons
Best Production Year: 1950/89,379 Tons
Family Ownership: Serrallés

The origins of Central Mercedita can be traced back to  Sebastián Serrallés Marqués (1809-1874), a Spanish immigrant from Begur, Catalonia who according to the Don Q webpage arrived in Puerto Rico ca. 1820 and got involved in the sugar growing and manufacturing business.  The first hacienda owned by Sebastián was Hacienda Teresa, named in honor of his mother Theresa Marqués Pibernus. 

It has ben reported that Sebastián came to Puerto Rico with his wife Teresa Pont Puig which is unlikely as he arrived on the island when he was around eleven years old or at the most a teen ager.  Genealogy records in familysearch.org show that Sebastian married Teresa Pont Puig in Spain on September 22,1853 and from that marriage was born Pedro Sebastian Serrallés Pont in 1859 also in Spain.  It is unclear at this time if Sebastián was permanently retired in Spain when he married in 1853.  

Although the 1872 Puerto Rico Slave Register show Sebastian Serrallés owning 29 slaves, he was most likely residing in Barcelona where he died just two years later.  It is possible that the owner was Sebastian Marcial Serrallés Colón or he could have been an absentee owner.  The England & Wales National Index of Wills and Administrations reports that probate was processed in England on May 3, 1875 for Sebatian Serralllés Marqués who died on September 8, 1874.  Beneficiary was Teresa Pont Serrallés.

While in Ponce, Sebastian fathered two children with Juana Colón, Juan Eugenio (1836-1897) and Sebastian Marcial (1840-1906) Serrallés Colón. Although a farmer, Sebastián Marcial was not involved in the sugar business developed by Juan Eugenio that evolved into Central Mercedita.  The court case Serralles v. Sucesión of Serralles decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit on January 18, 1927 provides some insight regarding the relationship between the two brothers.

According to the HAER Report of Hacienda Mercedita Foundry, starting in the 1830s Sebastián engaged in the acquisition of arable land.  Juan Eugenio Serrallés Colón continued in the same line of business his father had started on the island and is the trunk of the Serrallés family of Central Mercedita and the Serrallés Distillery.  In 1861 Juan Eugenio acquired Hacienda Mercedita which was adjacent to Hacienda Teresa and named it after his wife Mercedes Pérez (1845-1922).  It is the year 1865 that has always been used by the Serrallés family as the year the business was formally established.  That was the year the first casks of rum were produced and the Serrallés rum making tradition began.

Hacienda Teresa's original oxen driven mill was upgraded in 1869 with a steam mill acquired from Mirrlees, Tait, Watson & Co. of Scotland.  In 1879 a railway system was established that eventually ran through all the different haciendas and in 1890 two vacuum pans and eight centrifugals were installed.  Juan Eugenio's strategy was to lease and acquire plots of land adjacent to his existing holdings and consolidating them.  According to historian Andrés Ramos Mattei, by 1880 total land holdings of Juan Eugenio Serrallés Colón consisted of some 859 cuerdas which included several adjacent haciendas including; Teresa, Mercedita, Coto Laurel, Fé, Ursula, Cintrona and Destierro.  In 1877 he acquired the 632 cuerdas Hacienda El Bronce.  Reportedly, by 1990 land holdings had grown to 3,000 cuerdas including leased properties.

Upon Juan Eugenio's death, the family businesses were grouped into one legal entity called Sucesión J. Serrallés, Inc. (Sucn. J Serrallés) in order to perpetuate its existence.  The Sucn. J Serrallés, which still exists to this day, was comprised by the children of Juan Eugenio Serrallés Colón and Mercedes Pérez, their children and successive generations.  The children of Juan Eugenio and Mercedes were:

• Pedro Juan Serrallés Pérez (1871-1926) married Casilda Galiano Texidor and had one son; Pedro Juan “Pigüan” Serrallés Galiano (1900-1985)

• Juan Eugenio Serrallés Pérez (1876-1956) married Rosa Maria Sanchez Montalvo (1881- ) and had three children; Juan Eugenio “Geño” (1906- ), Rosa Maria “Rosita” (1907- ) and Felix Juan “Fao” (1911-1985) Serrallés Sanchez. The Castillo Serrallés was commissioned in 1926 and built in 1930 by Juan Eugenio Serrallés Perez

• Julia Serrallés Pérez (1878-1952) married German immigrant Herman Wirshing Pottharst and had six children; Mercedes Lina (1905- ), Juan Alberto "Tito" (1907-1969), Margarita Carlota (1909-1997), Herman (1911- ), Armando (1912-1983) and Julia Maria "Julita"  (1914- )

• Jorge Juan Serrallés Pérez (1879-1951) married Albertina Porrata Doria Veve and had five children; Albertina (1905-1990), Ligia Marcela (1909- ), Jorge Juan (1910- ), Hector Juan (1911- ) and Iván (1917- ) Serrallés Porrata Doria

• María Mercedes (Mercedita) Serrallés Pérez (1881- ) who never married

• Felix Juan Serrallés Pérez (1882-1901) who died at an early age and never married

 In 1926, then under the leadership of the third generation, the Serrallés family started the Porto Rican American Sugar Refinery, Inc. to produce Snow White brand sugar.  Just after the end of the prohibition years (1920-1933), they established Destileria Serrallés, Inc. to produce Don Q Rum which to this day is the rum of choice for most Puerto Ricans and is sold world wide.  

The mill had its own land for growing sugarcane which today are still owned by the Sucn. J Serrallés.  It also had a number of independent land growers or colonos that grew sugar along the southern coast of the island.  It had its own railroad system, one of the locomotives which is pictured below.  It was one of the longest running sugar mills on the island, operating for almost 100 years, and was the largest family owned sugar mill on the island. 

During the last quarter of the 19th Century, in addition to Central Mercedita, Juan Eugenio Serrallés Colón also owned and operated a sugar mill named Ingenio Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic.  This sugar mill closed down in 1913 and its land use converted to a cattle farm known as Las Cabuyas.  One of Juan Eugenio's son, Jorge Juan Serrallés Pérez, remained in the Dominican Republic in charge of the operations there.  Jorge Juan later received Las Cabuyas in inheritance as his participation in the estate of his father.

We uderstand that sometime during the 1980's after the sugar mill had been acquired by the government of Puerto Rico, the Serrallés family businesses in Puerto Rico were split.  One faction of the family retaining control of the distillery and another faction retaining control of Sucn. J Serrallés which owned vast extension of lands just east of Ponce in Barrios Capitanejo, Coto Laurel, Vayas and Sabanetas.  Throughout the years, the Sucn. Serrallés which is still a going concern in 2024, has been involved in other agricultural businesses like the growing of  fruits and vegetables, ornamental plants, palms and bananas.  They have also diversified into commercial and residential real estate development, ready mix concrete, asphalt, aggregates and a retail business for the sale of agricultural and heavy equipment, herbicides and insecticides. 

Although the sugar mill and the refinery are not in operation any longer, Destileria Serrallés continues to produce several brands of rum under the leadership of the sixth family generation.  During a visit to the premisses in 2014, we were told that there was a project to produce molasses for their rum distilling operation.  The plan included the planting of sugarcane and the installation of modern machinery in part of the existing structures pictured herein.  However, to the best of our knowledge, as of  2024 this plan never came to fruition.

The pictures below were taken in 2014, the last nine were taken in February 2014.  The effect of time and natural disasters as well as the removal of machinery during those ten years is notable.