Vicini
The Vicini family is the wealthiest family in the Dominican Republic and is best known for their vast holdings in the sugar industry. The family business was started by Juan Bautista Vicini Canepa, who migrated to the Dominican Republic from Italy in 1860. Juan Bautista Vicini Juan Bautista Vicini Canepa, was born on February 25, 1847, in Zoagli, a coastal village near Genoa to Angelo Vicini and Anna Canepa. Vicini left Italy and went to the Dominican Republic in 1860 at the age of 21 . He was invited to travel to the Dominican Republic as an apprentice to join his countryman Nicole Genevaro who was an exporter of coffee and sugar. After a few years, he purchased the operations belonging to Mr. Genevaro. Juan Bautista, better known as "Baciccia", was very successful in business. Thanks in part to his hard work and his savings, he managed to acquire land for the cultivation of sugar cane. His family residence is located on the Avenida Isabel la Católica No. 158, in the city of Santo Domingo, marked with a placard reading J.B. Vicini. This designation is still preserved on the facades of the building belonging to the family. This residence was his place of work. Locals gave it the name Casa Vicini. Eleven children were born of his marriage to Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaría. Seven of them went to live with her to Genoa, Italy. While being married, he had an affair with María Burgos Brito and begat 3 children, among them, President Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos. Vicini Canepa, patriarch of the Vicini family, returned only once to Italy and died in 1900 at the age of 53. Felipe and Juan Vicini Perdomo Upon his death, Juan and Felipe Vicini Perdomo, suspended their professional studies in Italy to take over the family business in the Dominican Republic. Felipe and Juan Vicini Perdomo increased investment to modernize the factory and field work in the sugar, in real estate both in urban and rural areas of the country. The political and economic pressure of the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo by appropriating all the national wealth, forced the family Vicini Cabral to transfer their residence abroad. Third generation The third generation of the Vicinis was constituted by José María, Juan Bautista (Gianni), Felipe and Laura Vicini Cabral, under the leadership of Gianni; this generation participated actively in the process of overthrowing the dictatorship, the country's economic consolidation and democratic process of the nation. The beginning of democracy with the death of Dominican dictator Trujillo in 1961, he found a country where almost all economic areas had been dominated by the dictator and his closest relatives and collaborators. The active participation as well as the capital of the Vicini family was instrumental in creating private banks, universities, associations, businesses and nonprofit foundations, all promoters of the country's development and new business that channeled the nation towards development. The family Vicini Cabral participated in those efforts, both as advocates, with financial resources and with the