José Arechabala Aldama established a distillery with the name "La Vizcaya" in 1878 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba leveraging the molasses residue from sugar refining to produce rum and other liquors, on top of providing logistic services in the port of Cárdenas (warehouses and sea transport). Its swift development allowed it to cope with the losses due to the Faquineto hurricane in 1888, which amounted up to 50.000 pesos of the time (around $US 2 million today). Its expansión continued despite the Cuban Independence war (where Cárdenas was the first location bombed by the US Navy), the Cuban independence from Spain and the crisis that hit the island those years.