Eduardo trained as a bartender in the hardest years of the Special Period, but it was in Miami where he reached the next level.
MIAMI.- At 18 years old Eduardo Perez I didn’t have many certainties but I was clear that in Cuba a university degree did not guarantee anything. “My brothers have one, two and even three university degrees, and even then it didn’t work for them,” he says. That reality pushed him to look for another path.
It was then that tourism began to grow and opportunities arose in schools such as the Seville Hotel and the Commodore. Eduardo decided to try his luck. “There I fell in love with this profession,” he says. “I love serving, caring for people. It’s something I inherited from my mother.”
Eduardo trained as a bartender in the hardest years of the Special Period, when creativity and improvisation were more valuable than any recipe. “We had to do magic. Imagine: sometimes we didn’t even have glasses; sometimes there wasn’t a drink, and we had to invent another.”
But from these shortcomings emerged his first entrepreneurial lessons: adapt, solve quickly and not give up when resources are lacking.
His life changed at the Miramar House of Music, where he worked during the golden age of salsa in Havana. “We were 53 people and we were doing very well, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen from there. I wanted more.” Between escape plans and foreign friends, he always had a clear idea: “I had to go. I didn’t know where, but I knew it wasn’t in Cuba.” Life took him first to Mexico and then, thanks to the visa lottery, to Miami in 2004.
Here he started from scratch. He worked again as a bartender in South Beach, but his wife at the time did not welcome long nights. Eduardo tried it: he drove trucks, worked in restaurants, was a ship electrician. “As an immigrant you do everything,” he says, “but something inside me knew that I didn’t want to stay there.”
After a divorce, he decided to get back on track. He returned to the bar, this time at the iconic Aché nightclub, where he felt he worked “in the best place in Miami.” But in parallel he decided to bet on himself: he enrolled in a film and television school and became a producer, cameraman and editor. It was another reinvention.
His new project was also born from those years: Don Bartender, a rum designed so that anyone can prepare cocktails without technical knowledge or professional tools. “I realized that when I was away, people only drank beer or straight rum. But with me they ordered mojitos, pina coladas, daiquiris. So I thought: why not create something that allows them to be their own bartender?”
The bottle is shaped like a cocktail shaker, has a built-in measuring cup and a QR code that leads to simple tutorials recorded by himself. The rum, 40 proof, white and docile, was chosen after several tests. “I don’t drink anything,” he says, laughing, “so it had to be a rum that even I could pass.” Its goal: a noble product to mix, easy to use and with a clean flavor.
Among his tips for entrepreneursYes, Eduardo is direct:
—“Don’t wait until you have everything figured out to start. Start with what you have.”
—“Surround yourself with people who know more than you; that shortens your path.”
—“And the most important thing: if an idea doesn’t let you sleep, it’s because you have to pursue it.”
Today, Eduardo works in film and television, but his rum project is making steady progress. When he looks back, he sees a path full of obstacles, but also of lessons. “Cuba taught me how to solve things,” he says. “Miami taught me how to grow. And being a bartender taught me how to treat people. If you put all that together, something good always comes out.”
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