MADRID, Spain.- The film Two heartsbased on the story of Cuban Jorge Bacardí, has been a success in Netflix since its arrival on the platform this May.
The film, directed by the Mexican Lance Hool, follows the parallel romances of the Cuban exile Bacardí, played by Adan Canto, with the flight attendant Leslie (Radha Mitchell); and college student Christopher Gregory (Jacob Elordi) with his classmate Sam (Tiera Skovbye).
Christopher, 19, dies in college from a brain aneurysm. While Jorge Bacardí, belonging to the family that owns the beverage brand alcoholic Bacardi, suffered from a condition known as primary ciliary dyskinesia. The only solution for him was a lung transplant. As Christofer was an organ donor, fate makes it thanks to him that Jorge Bacardi receives his lung and saves his life, at the age of 64, in 2008.
The moving story, based on real events and which highlights the importance of organ donation, had been captured in the book All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant and Hopetranslated into Spanish: “All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplantation, and Hope,” written by Eric Gregory, Christopher’s father.
Moved and grateful for the donation, Jorge Bacardí created the Gabriel House of Care, a non-profit organization that supports those waiting for transplants.
Jorge and Leslie collaborated in the production of the film, although the Cuban was unable to see it finished, as he died before the premiere, at the age of 76, in 2020.
The Bacardí rum distillery, a brand sold worldwide, was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Its owner, Facundo Bacardí Massó, was originally from Sitges (Barcelona) and the son of a wine merchant in Tarragona. He settled in Santiago de Cuba in 1830 and from 1852 he began to be interested in the rum distillation process.
Already in 1888 Bacardi was considered the favorite rum of celebrities. By the year 1910, Bacardí became the first multinational company in Cuba, with operations in Barcelona (Spain) —where the rum was bottled for the first time outside of Cuba— and in New York, to satisfy the growing demand for the drink in the United States. Joined.
In the 1920s, the prohibition of the dry law came into effect in the United States and the manufacture and sale of alcohol was prohibited, closing the Bacardi bottling plant in New York.
All of Bacardi’s operations and assets in Cuba were illegally seized without compensation by the Cuban regime in October 1960, just two years before the company’s centennial.
The Bacardí family remained strong, though many were forced into exile. Having taken the company’s trademarks and yeast strain out of Cuba, Bacardi continued to operate in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Italy and the Bahamas.
