Fanjul family
The Fanjul brothers -- Alfonso "Alfy", José "Pepe", Alexander, and Andres -- are owners of Flo-Sun, Inc., a vast sugar and real estate conglomerate in the United States and Dominican Republic, comprising the subsidiaries Domino Sugar, Florida Crystals, as well as the airport and resorts surrounding La Romana in the Dominican Republic.
The Fanjul brothers' ancestry is Cuban and they are descendants of the Spaniard Andres Gomez-Mena who immigrated to Cuba in the 19th century and built up an empire of sugar mills and property by the time he died in 1910. In 1936 his descendant Lillian Gomez-Mena married Alfonso Fanjul, Sr, the heir of the New York-based sugar companies the Czarnikow Rionda Company and the Cuban Trading Company. The couple's holdings were then combined to create a large business of sugar mills, refineries, distilleries, and significant amounts of real estate. With Fidel Castro's 1959 Marxist Cuban Revolution, the family moved to Florida along with other wealthy, dispossed Cuban families. In 1960 Alfonso Sr., the father of the current CEO of FLO-SUN Alfonso Jr., bought 400 acres (1.6 km2) of property near Lake Okeechobee along with some sugar mills from Louisiana and started over. Alfonso Sr. and his son Alfy got the firm off its feet and Pepe, Alexander and Andres joined in the late 1960s and 1970s.[1] As of 2007 the company owned 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of property.
The economic benefits United States sugar producers receive from protective tariffs and price floors have been estimated to be worth approximately $65 million annually to the Fanjul Brothers and their companies.[2]. The brothers were alone responsible for nearly $1 million in soft money donations during the 2000 election cycle. By including the donations of their family members, Political action committees, closest advisors and senior executives, this forms one of the largest block of contributors of soft and hard money to both the Democratic and Republican parties. [3] [4] [5]
External links
- FLO-SUN
- The Politics of Sugar
- Harvesting Poverty: America's Sugar Daddies
- The Castro Collection
- A Sweet Deal for Big Sugar Daddies
Footnotes
- ^ Florida Crystals / Okeelanta Corporation jobs in Broward, Florida from Jobing.com
- ^ Mother Jones, May 1, 1997, http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/boller.html
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/29/opinion/29SAT1.html?ex=1385442000&en=6c3b44e5d7b72a09&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
- ^ The Politics of Sugar
- ^ Mother Jones, May 1, 1997, http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/boller.html
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